Re: Notes on OSX 10.5.5
Re: Notes on OSX 10.5.5
- Subject: Re: Notes on OSX 10.5.5
- From: Martin Costabel <email@hidden>
- Date: Wed, 17 Sep 2008 19:53:26 +0200
Benjamin Reed wrote:
On Tue, Sep 16, 2008 at 2:24 PM, Jeremy Huddleston <email@hidden> wrote:
I assume you actually mean the text references in the .la files and NOT
sumlinks themselves (ala 'ln -s'). If somehow symlinks are wrong, then
there is a bigger problem than I realized.
Yes, sorry, I meant the .la files.
Both are to blame for the mismatch. Since the arrival of Leopard, there
have been several updates for the OS and for the xcode tools that
touched either the symlinks or the *.la files. None of these updates on
either side cared about compatibility with the other side.
The latest examples (and this is what made me angry) were the OSX 10.5.5
and the xcode 3.1.1 updates. Both were made after the situation with the
incompatible library version names was clearly explained several times
here and elsewhere, and was heard by Apple employees. Yet nothing was
done about the situation, although the effort would have been completely
negligible. In fact, removing the files that go into the DevSDK.pkg from
the OSX update must have taken much more time than would have been
needed for fixing the 4 or 5 wrong symlinks.
Plus, those symlinks are completely uselesss anyway. They are only used
through the reference in the *.la files. I am talking about the symlinks
in the Apple special form minor->major, which goes in the opposite
direction of the usual major->minor symlinks that do make sense.
X11SDK shipped the header files and the .la files. The .la files are
actually tied directly to the binary versions, so they need to change with
the binary versions that are shipped with X11User... hence our problem.
If they were edited to just use major versions they might work...
The .la files are horribly broken, so the situation now just doesn't work.
Removing the .la files from the distribution works for "fresh" systems, but
causes problems when users compiled fink and macports packages and have
references to them in macports or fink .la files.
...or removing them works too, as long as the .pc files still refer to
the right stuff.
Sorry. All I can really say is that this has been an educating experience
for all of us and will allow us to avoid these mistakes the next time around
(meaning 10.6). If you can offer a suggestion as to how we can actually
address this before then, I would most welcome it.
I still don't get it. Why wait for 10.6? The next minor OS or xcode
update would be the right moment. The users don't ask Apple to invent
some grand new scheme or to solve big philosophical problems, only to
release software where one part is not incompatible with another one,
and fix bugs that are trivial to fix.
Removing or editing to use major-library-version-number would fix it,
but in the end, if they're not "supported" it is proper that they be
removed.
You are aware of the fact that if the *.la files disappear in a new
version of X11, Fink (and I guess macports, too) has no simple upgrade
path, because *all* packages that link to X11 will need to be rebuilt
from scratch at the same time. This a change almost of the size of the
C++ ABI changes we had in the past.
--
Martin
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