Re: garnome 0.27.1 links against wrong libraries.

[samuel thinkcmd com]

Martijn Brouwer (eambrouwer myrealbox com) wrote:
> On Fri, 12 Sep 2003 23:27:43 +0200
> Martijn Brouwer <eambrouwer myrealbox com> wrote:
> 
> > After this trial I moved all .la files from /usr/lib and tried to build vte again. Now it complains about a missing /usr/lib/libexpat.la 8)7. Is it wise to start garnome again from scratch with all the .la files out of the way?
> > 
> Now, with all .la files somewhere else, I recompiled everything and all went quite well. So, thanks for help. Still one question: 'Where can I find some explanation of what .la files are, what purpose the serve, and why you do not need them on linux?

.la files are for library associations.  This is needed on platforms
like HP-UX due to something they are lacking.  I think it has to do with
the ability to dynamically load libraries upon a dlopen().  So instead
of dlopen()ing, say, /usr/lib/libz.a it first looks in /usr/lib/libz.la
for all the other libraries that it will need as a prerequisite.  This
is the best idea I have, and I am pretty sure it is mostly correct.  If
someone sees a blatant error, please correct me:)

Thanks a lot

> 
> Bye, and thanks for the good work,
> 
> Martijn

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