Purpose of --static and Requires.private

[Tollef Fog Heen]

]] Niklas Gürtler 

> On 09/28/2012 09:17 PM, Tollef Fog Heen wrote:
> > ]] Niklas Gürtler 
> >
> >> On 09/28/2012 08:43 PM, Tollef Fog Heen wrote:
> >>> ]] Niklas Gürtler 
> >>>
> >>>> Is it strictly needed for some case that helloworld1 doesn't depend on
> >>>> libgmodule-2.0.so.0, or is this a rather cosmetic feature?
> >>> It's for use when statically compiling.  So, rather esoteric.
> >>>
> >> No i meant "not specifying --static" - what would be the
> >> problem/downside if there were no Requires.private, and pkg-config would
> >> always output everything that's being output when specifying "--static"?
> > You end up linking against more than you need to and binaries would
> > sometimes needlessly need to be recompiled.
> >
> > A depends on B which depends on C (but does not expose C anywhere).  C
> > bumps soname.  If A is linked against B and C, A needs to be
> > recompiled.  If A is only linked against B, only B needs a recompile for
> > the ABI change.
> >
> Okay thanks, that's what i guessed for why it's there. But then, why
> does pkg-config ignore the --static flag when using --cflags? That way
> one could make "A" dependant on "C" when accidentally using functions
> from "C" or something...

Historical reasons.

If we had a way to get rid of it, I would.

-- 
Tollef Fog Heen
UNIX is user friendly, it's just picky about who its friends are