Re: [boost] Boost and pkg-config support

Subject: Re: [boost] Boost and pkg-config support
From: Steve M. Robbins (steve_at_[hidden])
Date: 2011-03-01 02:52:35

On Tue, Mar 01, 2011 at 10:17:36AM +0300, Vladimir Prus wrote:

> Could you brief me on what's --as-needed, why is it needed, and why
> does it break a perfect model of "I link to shared library foo, and
> whatever dependecies are used automatically".

The rationale (from http://wiki.debian.org/ToolChain/DSOLinking)
is to detect situations where

    your executable links against a library A which links against
    library B, but your executable needs symbols in library B. This is
    problematic in the situation where library A removes its
    dependency to library B. The next time the executable gets rebuild
    it will break and cannot be linked.

I think that pkg-config style dependency information is also helpful
for people using static linking.

Cheers,
-Steve