[vorbis-dev] Distribution Fixes

[Maciej Stachowiak]

Jack Moffitt <jack at icecast.org> writes:

> > Umm - as far as I know the libfile.so.0.0.0 (for example) goes into the
> > "normal" package, while the file 'libfile.so' (or libfile.so.1) gets installed
> > in the -devel package.
> > 
> > For example look at libpng and libpng-devel, libungif and libungif-devel,
> > libxml and libxml-devel, gnome-libs and gnome-libs-devel, kdelibs and
> > kdelibs-devel...
> 
> I don't like doing things for the sole reason that 8 other packages did
> it that way :)
> 
> Is there a _reason_ that .so goes in devel?  I mean, it's just a symlink
> to the other .so.* files...  

It goes in the -devel package because it's only needed at build time,
not at run time. Not including the link makes it fail when you attempt
to include -lwhatever on the link line, which is desirable if you
don't have the headers.

More importantly, this is key to let users have the non-devel packages
of multiple major versions installed. If one package contains
libfoo.so.3.0.0 and another contains libfoo.so.4.0.0, rpm will happily
let you install both - unless they both also contain libfoo.so. Then
there is a file conflict. This is probably the mail reason the .so
links go in the devel package, since RPM is set up to let you have
multiple library versions but not multiple -devel package versions.

Also, the fact that 8 other packages did it that way _is_ a good
reason. To have a sane system it's important to follow common
packaging guidelines consistently.

> Maybe this is a failure of mine to understand why there are three .so*
> files per lib anyway.  Anyone care to explain or have a url that does?

The runtime dynamic linker (ld.so or ld-linux.so or whatever) needs
the file names with the version numbers to find the right library to
link. The static linker wants the link with only .so on the end so
when you say -lfoo.so it knows what file to look at.

Hope this helps.

 - Maciej

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