Re: Request for option to disable building of static library

[Daniel Reed]

On 2003-07-22T22:02+0900, Peter O'Gorman wrote:
) On Tuesday, July 22, 2003, at 09:37  PM, Sander Niemeijer wrote:
) > A few other libraries, however, are plug-ins (modules created with the
) > '-module' flag) that only need to be delivered as shared libraries.
) Firstly, in case you were wondering why libtool builds static libraries
) even for loadable modules, libtool via. ltdl supports loading modules
) on systems without dynamic loading capabilities using the
) -dlopen/-dlpreopen flags.

One use for modules could be to reduce executable size/memory footprint when
unwanted features can be left unloaded, so in an environment where that's
not possible, linking them in permanently is a fine alternative.

However, if I were to distribute a core utility with module loading
capabilities, then distribute extension/upgrade modules separately, the
effort to build a static version for linking into the binary is a day late
and a dollar short (the binary could be months or years old when the modules
are compiled).

It might make sense then for a -no-static option to not just switch it into
shared-only mode, but to make it exclusively shared-only: Right now if I
specify AC_DISABLE_STATIC, and libtool doesn't know how to build shared
libraries, it goes ahead and builds static ones instead; I would prefer it
emit an error.

-- 
Daniel Reed <address@hidden>    http://shell.n.ml.org/n/        
http://naim.n.ml.org/
It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education. -- Albert Einstein, 
Physicist