Re: why is gtk install so difficult?

[Russell Shaw <rjshaw iprimus com au>]

Paul Davis wrote:
> > I don't recall the specific error, but to test that libraries work,
> > an autoconf macro can compile and run a small program using a specific
> > library to see if it works. Autoconf macros can be specific to each
> > platform and/or test for all known implementations of ld to get a
> > version number.
>
> that assumes that the problem shows itself in a simple test
> case. there are linker/library incompatibilities that will not reveal
> themselves unless a program does specific things to reveal them.
> and besides, what would your proposal result in? configure would say:
>
>     "installed linker (ld.so vN.n) and the installed version of 
>         libfoo (vM.m) are not compatible"
>
> and a new message would sally forth to gtk-list with the subject "why
> is gtk install so difficult?"

I looked over the previous posts:
  http://mail.gnome.org/archives/gtk-list/2003-October/msg00200.html
  http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=103708

I assume some pre-existing libraries were linked with an older linker,
then a newer linker was installed? The only solution in that case is
for users to know the meaning of:
  /usr/i386-pc-linux/bin/ld: anonymous version tag cannot be combined
                             with other version tags

Maybe ld should have a more meaningful error message on object/linker
versions. It would be tedious to write an autoconf sanity check macro
for every library to be linked.