Re: [patch #9687] bugfix: make -export-dynamic imply --whole-archive

[Bob Friesenhahn]

On Sat, 20 Nov 2021, Alex Ameen wrote:

> Thanks for the follow up, this gave me a much clearer idea of the underlying 
> issue that you're trying to solve. I really do appreciate you taking the time 
> to help improve `libtool'.
>
> You're absolutely right that `libtool' completely bungles the use of 
> `--whole-archive' and `--no-whole-archive' which I see as a high priority 
> issue. In several build systems I've built in the past I have needed to apply 
> manual patches to `libtool' to work around this, and I plan on merging 
> changes to fix this soon ( I'm taking my time to create test cases ).

I don't pretend to understand the associated issues, but please take 
care that libtool does not promote solutions which only work with GNU 
ld (or linkers designed to perfectly emulate GNU ld) on a limited set 
of targets.

Libtool is a portability solution to encourage development of software 
which is able to compile and run on many targets, even if the authors 
of the software have never experienced those targets.

Linking static libraries into shared libraries is a complex topic and 
is a reason why libtool offers the clumsy/inefficient "convenience 
library" mechanism since it assures that the objects were compiled 
properly to be used in the library they are linked into.

Bob
--
Bob Friesenhahn
bfriesen@simple.dallas.tx.us, http://www.simplesystems.org/users/bfriesen/
GraphicsMagick Maintainer,    http://www.GraphicsMagick.org/
Public Key,     http://www.simplesystems.org/users/bfriesen/public-key.txt