Request for review: glpk -AND- shared vs static libs in Extras

[Ed Hill]

On Tue, 2005-07-26 at 08:40 -0500, Quentin Spencer wrote:
> GLPK (Gnu Linear Programming Kit) is a library for solving linear 
> programming (LP) problems. This is used by the development (2.9.x) and 
> the upcoming 3.0 versions of octave. For more information about the 
> library, see:
> http://www.gnu.org/software/glpk/glpk.html
> 
> My SRPM can be found here:
> http://webpages.charter.net/qspencer/octave/glpk-4.8-1.src.rpm
> 
> One note about this package. The upstream sources do not provide for 
> building shared libraries. The maintainer has seemed somewhat 
> unresponsive to requests on the mailing list for this (and a lot of 
> other things), and I don't really have time or interest in maintaining 
> patches separate from the sources, so for now this is a static-only 
> library. I have put everything in glpk-devel, with the intention of 
> creating a glpk package in the future if shared libs are supported. This 
> library is not likely to be used by many applications, so for now I 
> don't see this as a problem.

Hi Quentin,

If someone else doesn't get to it first, I promise review glpk before
Aug 1.

Also, I think the removal of static libs is (or perhaps should be?)
mostly aimed at Core.  In Extras, its not like we're shipping a lot of
ISO9660 or DVD images.  All of extras truly is "optional", right?  So I
don't see why fighting with every package to produce shared libs makes
sense in Extras -- particularly given all the work involved, the lack of
upstream interest (as you point out!), and the smaller user base that
many Extras packages are targeting.

Or am I missing something?

Ed

-- 
Edward H. Hill III, PhD
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