no more *.la files in libgc-dev

no more *.la files in libgc-dev

[David Pirotte]

Hello,

Thinking it was a libgc-dev debian package problem I posted a mail ... and got the
following 2 answers [below].

Once I manually removed all *.la files from my /usr/local/lib tree, I could further
try to compile guile-gnome-platform against gcc-4.6. 

As the list of *.la files I removed does not only includes guile-gnome stuff but
also libguile, cairo and g-wrap, I am posting here instead of guile-gtk.

Cheers,
David

;;;
;;; -- reportbug + first answer
;;;

From: Christoph Egger <christoph@debian.org>
To: David Pirotte <david@altosw.be>
Cc: 631663@bugs.debian.org
Subject: Re: Bug#631663: libgc-dev: missing .la files
Date: Sat, 25 Jun 2011 23:07:39 +0200
Organization: Privat
User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/24.0.50 (gnu/linux)

Hi!

David Pirotte <david@altosw.be> writes:
> libtool: link: gcc -shared -fPIC -DPIC
> .libs/libgw_guile_gnome_atk_la-guile-gnome-gw-atk.o -Wl,-rpath
> -Wl,/usr/local/src/guile-gnome/git-clone/glib/gnome/gobject/.libs
> /usr/lib/libatk-1.0.so /usr/lib/libgobject-2.0.so
> /usr/lib/libgthread-2.0.so -lrt /usr/lib/libglib-2.0.so
> -L/usr/local/lib /usr/local/lib/libgwrap-guile-runtime.so
> /usr/local/lib/libgwrap-core-runtime.so /usr/local/lib/libguile-2.0.so
> -lgc -lffi
> ../../../glib/gnome/gobject/.libs/libguile-gnome-gobject-2.so -pthread
> -pthread -pthread -O2 -pthread -pthread -Wl,-soname
> -Wl,libgw-guile-gnome-atk.so.0 -o .libs/libgw-guile-gnome-atk.so.0.0.0
> libtool: link: (cd ".libs" && rm -f "libgw-guile-gnome-atk.so.0" && ln
> -s "libgw-guile-gnome-atk.so.0.0.0" "libgw-guile-gnome-atk.so.0")
> libtool: link: (cd ".libs" && rm -f "libgw-guile-gnome-atk.so" && ln
> -s "libgw-guile-gnome-atk.so.0.0.0" "libgw-guile-gnome-atk.so")
> /bin/sed: can't read /usr/lib/libgc.la: No such file or directory
> libtool: link: /usr/lib/libgc.la' is not a valid libtool archive
> make[5]: *** [libgw-guile-gnome-atk.la] Error 1 make[5]: Leaving directory
> /usr/local/src/guile-gnome/git-clone/atk/gnome/gw'
> make[4]: *** [all] Error 2  

What exactly needs to be done to see this failure? Just building
guile-gnome-platform here seems to succeed. Note also that .la files are
removed on purpose [0] wherever possible

[0] http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2009/08/msg00783.html

Regards

    Christoph

-- 
9FED 5C6C E206 B70A 5857  70CA 9655 22B9 D49A E731
Debian Developer | Lisp Hacker | CaCert Assurer

A. Because it breaks the logical sequence of discussion
Q. Why is top posting bad?


;;;
;;; reportbug + second answer
;;;

From: Julien Cristau <jcristau@debian.org>
To: David Pirotte <david@altosw.be>, 631663@bugs.debian.org
Subject: Re: Bug#631663: libgc-dev: missing .la files
Date: Sun, 26 Jun 2011 00:57:49 +0200
User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.20 (2009-06-14)

On Sat, Jun 25, 2011 at 17:53:36 -0300, David Pirotte wrote:

> Package: libgc-dev
> Version: 1:7.1-8
> Severity: important
> 
> This is also true for the libgc-dev amd64 [same version] package.
> 
> Important: yes, very, but not urgent: it provides me [and the
> community off course] to conmpile guile-gnome-platform:
> 
> libtool: link: gcc -shared  -fPIC
> -DPIC .libs/libgw_guile_gnome_atk_la-guile-gnome-gw-atk.o   -Wl,-rpath
> -Wl,/usr/local/src/guile-gnome/git-clone/glib/gnome/gobject/.libs /usr/lib/libatk-1.0.so /usr/lib/libgobject-2.0.so /usr/lib/libgthread-2.0.so
> -lrt /usr/lib/libglib-2.0.so
> -L/usr/local/lib /usr/local/lib/libgwrap-guile-runtime.so /usr/local/lib/libgwrap-core-runtime.so /usr/local/lib/libguile-2.0.so
> -lgc -lffi ../../../glib/gnome/gobject/.libs/libguile-gnome-gobject-2.so -pthread
> -pthread -pthread -O2 -pthread   -pthread -Wl,-soname
> -Wl,libgw-guile-gnome-atk.so.0 -o .libs/libgw-guile-gnome-atk.so.0.0.0 libtool:
> link: (cd ".libs" && rm -f "libgw-guile-gnome-atk.so.0" && ln -s
> "libgw-guile-gnome-atk.so.0.0.0" "libgw-guile-gnome-atk.so.0") libtool: link: (cd
> ".libs" && rm -f "libgw-guile-gnome-atk.so" && ln -s
> "libgw-guile-gnome-atk.so.0.0.0" "libgw-guile-gnome-atk.so") /bin/sed: can't
> read /usr/lib/libgc.la: No such file or directory libtool:
> link: /usr/lib/libgc.la' is not a valid libtool archive make[5]: ***
> [libgw-guile-gnome-atk.la] Error 1 make[5]: Leaving
> directory /usr/local/src/guile-gnome/git-clone/atk/gnome/gw' make[4]: *** [all]
> Error 2 
You need to find what file on your system references /usr/lib/libgc.la,
and remove it.  Probably something in /usr/local/lib/*.la, looking at
your log.

I don't think this is a bug.

Cheers,
Julien


;;;
;;; the list of .la files I removed
;;; note that the presence of *guile-gnome*.la is because I did succeed
;;; compiling/installing guile-gnome-platform against gcc-4.5 [realy in may] and did
;;; not want to run make uninstall [on purpose] before succeeding against gcc-4.6 ...
;;;

david@idefix:/usr/local/lib/tmp.la 18 $ ls
libguile-2.0.la*              libgw-guile-gnome-canvas.la*
libgw-guile-gnome-gobject.la*     libgw-guile-gnome-pango.la*
libguile-cairo.la*            libgw-guile-gnome-corba.la*
libgw-guile-gnome-gtk.la*         libgw-guile-gw-glib.la*
libguile-gnome-corba-2.la*    libgw-guile-gnome-gconf.la*
libgw-guile-gnome-libglade.la*    libgw-guile-standard.la*
libguile-gnome-gobject-2.la*  libgw-guile-gnome-gdk.la*
libgw-guile-gnome-libgnome.la*    libgwrap-core-runtime.la*
libgw-guile-gnome-atk.la*     libgw-guile-gnome-glib.la*
libgw-guile-gnome-libgnomeui.la*  libgwrap-guile-runtime.la*
libgw-guile-gnome-cairo.la*   libgw-guile-gnome-gnome-vfs.la*
libgw-guile-gnome-pangocairo.la*

Re: no more *.la files in libgc-dev

[Andreas Rottmann]

David Pirotte <david@altosw.be> writes:

> Hello,
>
> Thinking it was a libgc-dev debian package problem I posted a mail ... and got the
> following 2 answers [below].
>
> Once I manually removed all *.la files from my /usr/local/lib tree, I could further
> try to compile guile-gnome-platform against gcc-4.6. 
>
> As the list of *.la files I removed does not only includes guile-gnome stuff but
> also libguile, cairo and g-wrap, I am posting here instead of guile-gtk.
>
[Puts on Debian Maintainer hat] Debian indeed tries to get rid of .la
files wherever possible, as they cause spurious dependencies encoded in
the shared libraries, and subsequently, in Debian packages.  On the GNU
system, there is (somewhat ironically) no real advantage of having .la
files that I know of -- they are needed just for platforms with less
capable linkers, IIUC.

There thus is a coordinated effort going on to get rid of .la files
inside Debian, where first leaf packages (i.e. those where no package
build-depend on them, or more accurately, is built using the information
contained in their .la files) drop their .la files, making further
packages become leaf packages, who in turn can no drop .la files, and so
on.  If the process is followed correctly this should not cause any
issues internal to Debian, but there are occassional hiccups (see [0],
for an example where I was affected as a g-wrap maintainer).

For software installed "manually" (i.e. not via Debian packages), this
procedure may indeed cause issues, and my guess at what had happened in
your case is something like this: you built some software (for example
g-wrap) when libgc-dev still had its .la files installed by the Debian
package, leading to g-wrap's (to stay with the example) .la files
encoding the location of libgc's .la file.  When then libgc-dev dropped
the .la file, the .la files originally installed by g-wrap were broken,
thus breaking the build of any software depending on g-wrap.  The
solution (other than just removing the offending .la files) would be to
re-build and re-install all software depending on libgc-dev, including
g-wrap, as to get rid of the stale references to libgc's .la file.

[0] http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=625187

Regards, Rotty
-- 
Andreas Rottmann -- <http://rotty.yi.org/>

Re: no more *.la files in libgc-dev

[Ludovic Courtès]

Hello,

Andreas Rottmann <a.rottmann@gmx.at> skribis:

> On the GNU system, there is (somewhat ironically) no real advantage of
> having .la files that I know of

It’s needed at least when linking statically, because the .la file
contains dependency info not otherwise available (what pkg-config tries
to solve with ‘Libs.private’.)

Thanks,
Ludo’.

Re: no more *.la files in libgc-dev

[David Pirotte]

Le Sun, 26 Jun 2011 22:15:23 +0200,
Andreas Rottmann <a.rottmann@gmx.at> a écrit :

...
> The solution (other than just removing the offending .la files) would be to
> re-build and re-install all software depending on libgc-dev, including
> g-wrap, as to get rid of the stale references to libgc's .la file.
> 
> [0] http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=625187
> 
> Regards, Rotty

Hello Andreas,

Thanks your explanation. Though I just uninstalled rebuilt/installed g-wrap
[v1.9.13-13-geeb1aae for guile-gnome-platform compatibility issues] and
'it' did build/install .la files: missing something?

Cheers,
David

;; --

david@idefix:/usr/local/lib 4 $ ll libgwrap-*
108 -rw-r--r-- 1 david alto 109790 Jun 29 23:13 libgwrap-core-runtime.a
  4 -rwxr-xr-x 1 david alto   1032 Jun 29 23:13 libgwrap-core-runtime.la*
  0 lrwxrwxrwx 1 david alto     30 Jun 29 23:13 libgwrap-core-runtime.so -> libgwrap-core-runtime.so.2.0.0*
  0 lrwxrwxrwx 1 david alto     30 Jun 29 23:13 libgwrap-core-runtime.so.2 -> libgwrap-core-runtime.so.2.0.0*
 68 -rwxr-xr-x 1 david alto  66188 Jun 29 23:13 libgwrap-core-runtime.so.2.0.0*
180 -rw-r--r-- 1 david alto 181824 Jun 29 23:13 libgwrap-guile-runtime.a
  4 -rwxr-xr-x 1 david alto   1122 Jun 29 23:13 libgwrap-guile-runtime.la*
  0 lrwxrwxrwx 1 david alto     31 Jun 29 23:13 libgwrap-guile-runtime.so -> libgwrap-guile-runtime.so.2.0.0*
  0 lrwxrwxrwx 1 david alto     31 Jun 29 23:13 libgwrap-guile-runtime.so.2 -> libgwrap-guile-runtime.so.2.0.0*
116 -rwxr-xr-x 1 david alto 117134 Jun 29 23:13 libgwrap-guile-runtime.so.2.0.0*


david@idefix:/usr/local/lib/g-wrap/modules 8 $ ll
total 224
 16 -rw-r--r-- 1 david alto  14040 Jun 29 23:13 libgw-guile-gw-glib.a
  4 -rwxr-xr-x 1 david alto   1182 Jun 29 23:13 libgw-guile-gw-glib.la*
  0 lrwxrwxrwx 1 david alto     28 Jun 29 23:13 libgw-guile-gw-glib.so -> libgw-guile-gw-glib.so.0.0.0*
  0 lrwxrwxrwx 1 david alto     28 Jun 29 23:13 libgw-guile-gw-glib.so.0 -> libgw-guile-gw-glib.so.0.0.0*
 16 -rwxr-xr-x 1 david alto  13536 Jun 29 23:13 libgw-guile-gw-glib.so.0.0.0*
108 -rw-r--r-- 1 david alto 110340 Jun 29 23:13 libgw-guile-standard.a
  4 -rwxr-xr-x 1 david alto   1165 Jun 29 23:13 libgw-guile-standard.la*
  0 lrwxrwxrwx 1 david alto     29 Jun 29 23:13 libgw-guile-standard.so -> libgw-guile-standard.so.0.0.0*
  0 lrwxrwxrwx 1 david alto     29 Jun 29 23:13 libgw-guile-standard.so.0 -> libgw-guile-standard.so.0.0.0*
 76 -rwxr-xr-x 1 david alto  74139 Jun 29 23:13 libgw-guile-standard.so.0.0.0*

Re: no more *.la files in libgc-dev

[Andreas Rottmann]

David Pirotte <david@altosw.be> writes:

> Le Sun, 26 Jun 2011 22:15:23 +0200,
> Andreas Rottmann <a.rottmann@gmx.at> a écrit :
>
> ...
>> The solution (other than just removing the offending .la files) would be to
>> re-build and re-install all software depending on libgc-dev, including
>> g-wrap, as to get rid of the stale references to libgc's .la file.
>> 
>> [0] http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=625187
>> 
>> Regards, Rotty
>
> Hello Andreas,
>
> Thanks your explanation. Though I just uninstalled rebuilt/installed g-wrap
> [v1.9.13-13-geeb1aae for guile-gnome-platform compatibility issues] and
> 'it' did build/install .la files: missing something?
>
No, that's expected: .la files are still built and installed by the
(upstream) G-Wrap, it's just that the corresponding Debian package
doesn't contain them anymore -- getting rid of .la files is a Debian
packaging thing, no change to upstream code or build system is made.

Regards, Rotty
-- 
Andreas Rottmann -- <http://rotty.yi.org/>