Re: Question about gpsd library/linking for an external gpsd client?

[Greg Troxel]

"Gary E. Miller" <gem@rellim.com> writes:

> Yo Curtis!
>
> On Thu, 4 Jun 2020 11:47:03 -0500
> Curtis Olson <curtolson@flightgear.org> wrote:
>> scons install doesn't seem to install libgps.a.
>
> Correct, by default.  Because the default is to build and install
> the shared libgps.so.
>
> Distros hate static libs.

Linux distributions perhaps.  pkgsrc, following BSD norms, more or less
expects there to be both a .a  and a .so, so that users who are linking
however they want.  I checked one of my boxes and /usr/pkg/lib has 124
.a files and 126 .so.

It is true that packaging systems do not want things *in the packaging
system* to link with static libs or to build copies of things that
should be packages.

> Maybe gpsd should have the option for both instead of either or.
>
> If you want libgps.a, set shared=false when you configure gpsd.

That seems to turn off .so, or at least that's what it says.  Really
there should be a staticlib=true even if it defaults to off, that
doesn't disable shlibs.