[Mageia-dev] [RFC] Removing .la files

Fri Jun 10 18:26:56 CEST 2011

'Twas brillig, and Christiaan Welvaart at 10/06/11 16:34 did gyre and
+gimble:
+> On Fri, 10 Jun 2011, Olav Vitters wrote:
+> 
+>> On Fri, Jun 10, 2011 at 04:35:57PM +0200, Christiaan Welvaart wrote:
+>>> On Fri, 10 Jun 2011, Olav Vitters wrote:
+>>>
+>>>> On Fri, Jun 10, 2011 at 04:15:01PM +0200, Christiaan Welvaart wrote:
+> ....
+> 
+>>>>>> Seems some distributions misunderstand the need and changed the wiki
+>>>>>> page. Removing .la files is needed however, otherwise you'll
+>>>>>> quickly mix
+>>>>>> distribution installed libraries and self-compiled libraries.
+>>>>>
+>>>>> What are you talking about here?
+>>>
+>>> <gnome-shell stuff>
+>>
+>> It is not gnome-shell, it is jhbuild and doing development (mainly
+>> GNOME). Basic GNOME already has ~200 modules.
+> 
+> Then why did you quote the webpage instead of saying just that?
+
+Because it was an example. I think most people could appreciate it as
+that and work it out.
+
+> 
+>>> So you are really talking only about gnome-shell, which I can't even
+>>> test because apparently it doesn't work in a VM. It is now packaged,
+>>> so you don't need to build it.
+>>
+>> Nope, I'm talking about doing development using jhbuild. E.g. if you
+>> want to contribute to GNOME, you'll have to get rid of all the .la
+>> files no matter which distribution you use.
+>>
+>> A new GNOME does not happen automatically. It requires people to compile
+>> the Git versions and committing stuff until a tarball is released and
+>> packaged.
+>>
+>> Making such development easier would result in a better GNOME, and I
+>> don't mind if the .la files stay, but prefer if they are removed.
+> 
+> I think doing software development related to the system you're working
+> on isn't easy. For example jhbuild may not like .la files but if you
+> want to use static libraries supplied by the system, .la files are quite
+> useful AFAIK.
+> 
+> So why did you point to that webpage if it's not related to mageia at
+> all, it's purely a jhbuild problem.
+
+Because it explains the issue and the problem that people would have
+using Mageia for development if the .la files remained.
+
+> If people are using a system with
+> gnome installed to develop gnome, it's not strange they run into
+> problems.
+
+I call shenanigans. I do this kind of stuff all the time. It's easy to
+use a custom prefix (i.e. not /usr) if you select the right configure
+options. It means you get a working system but can also develop the next
+version. I've been doing this kind of stuff for years. The removal of
+the .la files will make this approach much easier.
+
+Col
+
+
+
+
+-- 
+
+Colin Guthrie
+mageia(at)colin.guthr.ie
+http://colin.guthr.ie/
+
+Day Job:
+  Tribalogic Limited [http://www.tribalogic.net/]
+Open Source:
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+