[GRASS-dev] Can I trust libtool?

GRASS GIS GRASS GIS developer
,
1

Hi,

I started to build on Windows (MSYS/MinGW) latest releases of GRASS required libraries (zlib, libpng, and so on…) and I thought everything was going well… but (occasionally) browsing /usr/lib dir I found NO dlls of what I built, only .a and .la libraries, while I found dlls in /usr/bin… I assumed that was due to libtool (what a °*_°!!), on how it creates and links libraries; because I don’t know so much about this matter, I then preferred to go on the safe way and use Paul’s prebuilt libs; the same is for GDAL (so, I must use 1.4.1 againt latest 1.5.0); …but, at the same time I’m building expat, gsl and geos using libtool!!! what a mess!!

If you tell me that I can trust the way libtool manages libraries and linking (I use latest MinGW release), I could restart all (how much time spent…!) and rebuild using latest libraries (for png, proj, gdal… and so on… and trying to add also tiff and jpeg support, and, probably, ffmpeg).

Thanks

Marco

2

<marco.pasetti@alice.it> writes:

> Hi, I started to build on Windows (MSYS/MinGW) latest releases of
> GRASS required libraries (zlib, libpng, and so on...) and I thought
> everything was going well... but (occasionally) browsing /usr/lib
> dir I found NO dlls of what I built, only .a and .la libraries,
> while I found dlls in /usr/bin...

[...]

  I'm not familiar with W32, but IIRC, the dynamic libraries are
  searched in PATH on W32. Since /usr/bin is much more likely to
  be in PATH than /usr/lib, I deem this behaviour as correct.

  There're bugs in any software, and libtool is hardly an
  exception, but after using it for quite some time, I'd say that
  it's reliable enough.

3

Good news
Thanks :wink:

MP

-----Messaggio originale-----
Da: grass-dev-bounces@lists.osgeo.org
[mailto:grass-dev-bounces@lists.osgeo.org] Per conto di Ivan Shmakov
Inviato: lunedì 11 febbraio 2008 19.14
A: grass-dev@lists.osgeo.org
Cc: Ivan Shmakov
Oggetto: Re: [GRASS-dev] Can I trust libtool?

<marco.pasetti@alice.it> writes:

> Hi, I started to build on Windows (MSYS/MinGW) latest releases of >
GRASS required libraries (zlib, libpng, and so on...) and I thought >
everything was going well... but (occasionally) browsing /usr/lib > dir I
found NO dlls of what I built, only .a and .la libraries, > while I found
dlls in /usr/bin...

[...]

  I'm not familiar with W32, but IIRC, the dynamic libraries are
  searched in PATH on W32. Since /usr/bin is much more likely to
  be in PATH than /usr/lib, I deem this behaviour as correct.

  There're bugs in any software, and libtool is hardly an
  exception, but after using it for quite some time, I'd say that
  it's reliable enough.

_______________________________________________
grass-dev mailing list
grass-dev@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/grass-dev

4

marco.pasetti@alice.it wrote:

I started to build on Windows (MSYS/MinGW) latest releases of GRASS
required libraries (zlib, libpng, and so on...) and I thought everything
was going well... but (occasionally) browsing /usr/lib dir I found NO
dlls of what I built, only .a and .la libraries, while I found dlls in
/usr/bin... I assumed that was due to libtool (what a °*_°!!), on
how it creates and links libraries; because I don't know so much about
this matter, I then preferred to go on the safe way and use Paul's
prebuilt libs; the same is for GDAL (so, I must use 1.4.1 againt latest
1.5.0); ...but, at the same time I'm building expat, gsl and geos using
libtool!!! what a mess!!

If you tell me that I can trust the way libtool manages libraries and
linking (I use latest MinGW release), I could restart all (how much time
spent...!) and rebuild using latest libraries (for png, proj, gdal...
and so on... and trying to add also tiff and jpeg support, and,
probably, ffmpeg).

Windows doesn't have a separate path variable for DLLs, like
LD_LIBRARY_PATH on Linux. DLLs are located using a combination of
PATH, various system directories, registry entries, and the directory
containing the executable.

Consequently, Windows builds normally put DLLs in the "bin" directory
so that they will be found without needing additional configuration.
The "lib" directory is normally reserved for static libraries
(including import libraries for DLLs).

FWIW, GRASS itself doesn't use libtool. Also, because it already needs
to set a large number of environment variables at startup, it puts
DLLs into the lib directory and adds the lib directory to the PATH
setting.

--
Glynn Clements <glynn@gclements.plus.com>