FreeBSD 4.6 - binutils 2.14 installs useless libbfd

John Levon levon@movementarian.org
Fri Sep 12 16:58:00 GMT 2003


On Fri, Sep 12, 2003 at 09:46:57AM -0700, Ian Lance Taylor wrote:

> There are very few users of BFD other than the GNU binutils and gdb.
> It's not unreasonable to force other users to either distribute their
> own shared libbfd, or to link statically.

Actually I think it is a little unreasonable. Surely you can't agree
that it's really sensible policy for every project needing basic
functionality to carry around their own Mb's of source (this would dwarf
the actual code we interface to libbfd with !). Not least because it
means we can't take advantage of any platform-local changes made to the
distributed libbfd.

Until the better binary-reader libraries are as widely distributed as
libbfd is, and at least minimally maintained, I don't see we really have
any pragmatic choice.

Furthermore, the parts of libbfd we actually use (namely, reading
symbols and debug info) have had stable APIs for ages.

When the better libraries see wider use and maintenance the problem
goes away, but until then ...

If you want to force it, stop installing libbfd. Though you'll just
find all the Linux distributions at least backing out that change ...

regards,
john

-- 
Khendon's Law:
If the same point is made twice by the same person, the thread is over.



More information about the Binutils mailing list