Purpose of --static and Requires.private

[Niklas Gürtler]

On 09/28/2012 10:46 PM, Tollef Fog Heen wrote:
> ]] 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.
>
Okay, got it now, thanks for your help.