Re: [Caml-list] OCaml packaging problems

[Michal Moskal <malekith@pld-linux.org>]

On Tue, May 14, 2002 at 08:39:54PM +0900, Jacques Garrigue wrote:
> > The ld.conf mechanism was modeled after the /etc/ld.so.conf file used
> > by the Unix dynamic loader.  It is intended to list a small number of
> > standard directories that contain shared libraries, typically one
> > directory for the "system" libraries (i.e. those provided by the OCaml
> > core distribution), one for local extensions (e.g. /usr/local/lib),
> > and perhaps one or two for especially large packages with many libraries
> > (e.g. /usr/X11R6/lib).  
> > 
> > When you install a package that provides a C shared library, you don't
> > install it in a package-dependent directory and add a line to
> > /etc/ld.so.conf with this directory; you install in /usr/lib or
> > /usr/local/lib, perhaps via a symbolic link.  I urge everyone to use
> > the same scheme for OCaml shared libraries.
> 
> It's not because Unix does something wrong that you have to follow it.
> In the past I was installing libraries somewhere else (using --prefix
> in most packages) and using -rpath. The trouble is that -rpath is
> broken on some Unices, so I've reverted to making symbolic links to
> /usr/local/lib for the soname. Otherwise it's a pain to manage.
> 
> Now I don't think that the current scheme in caml is perfect, but to
> me it works ok. When I delete a library I just delete its directory,
> and I'm sure it's clean.

Unix gets it right. That's what package managers are for. You do
rpm -e foobar (or equivalent) and that's all.

Looking in multiple directories takes time. Think how much would it
take to check hundred of directories, which is no more then avarage
linux installation have C libraries. Similar can be told about /usr/bin
and <tab> in shell.

-- 
: Michal Moskal :::::::: malekith/at/pld.org.pl :  GCS {C,UL}++++$ a? !tv
: PLD Linux ::::::: Wroclaw University, CS Dept :  {E-,w}-- {b++,e}>+++ h
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