[xml] Mac OS-X: Why are binaries linked against libxml2.dylib?

[Rush Manbert <rush manbert com>]

Hello,

I have built the 2.6.19 version of thew library and installed it in a 
non-standard location. I need to do this because I'm building an 
application that uses this library version, and I can't use whatever 
happens to be installed with the OS on my customer's machines. I want to 
keep my OS installation as it was (2.6.16) but link statically against 
the library version of my choice (2.6.19).

Because of the way I did this, I discovered that xmllint has been linked 
against libxml2.dylib. I see that the library contains a string that 
specifies the path where it will be installed (i.e. 
prefix/lib/libxml2.dylib). When xmllint gets linked against the library, 
xmllint ends up containing the same path string. As long as I go ahead 
and run the make install, I can run the xmllint that the build created 
and it will find the dylib.

My problem is that I'm using the make install locations as a staging 
area, then moving files to their final locations in my development tree. 
Needless to say, this makes it so that I no longer link against 2.6.19, 
but it tries the other default paths and finds 2.6.16 in /usr/lib.

I have two questions:
1) Is there some way to force the binary utilities to be linked 
statically against libxml2.a? The configure help doesn't mention 
anything, but the Windows version does this. I have also done it by hand 
by capturing the make output, copying the link line, and changing 
libxml2.dylib to libxml2.a. It works just fine and the resulting xmllint 
always tells me 2.6.19.

2) Doesn't linking statically to libxml2 make more sense than linking 
dynamically? You downloaded a specific package, so I would assume that 
you would want to use it. I certainly do.

Thanks,
Rush