The following packages: gnome-base/nautils gnome-base/control-center app-editors/gedit app-arch/file-roller media-libs/gst-plugins (There is probably more) Install the libtool .la files for dlopened componets (/usr/lib/bonobo, /usr/lib/gstreamer-0.8) + a couple stick a static libs in there as well. These are not needed as the files they are installing are not linked but dlopened which don't use the .la files. They just waste space (not much but all those little 2-3k files add up quickly ;) ) Its not a blocker or something really major, just a minor nit. Reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: Portage 2.0.50-r11 (gcc34-x86-2004.2, gcc-3.4.2, glibc-2.3.4.20040808-r0, 2.6.8-gentoo-r3) ================================================================= System uname: 2.6.8-gentoo-r3 i686 Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.40GHz Gentoo Base System version 1.4.16 distcc 2.16 i686-pc-linux-gnu (protocols 1 and 2) (default port 3632) [disabled]Autoconf: sys-devel/autoconf-2.59-r4 Automake: sys-devel/automake-1.8.5-r1 ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="x86" AUTOCLEAN="yes" CFLAGS="-O3 -march=i686 -fomit-frame-pointer -pipe" CHOST="i686-pc-linux-gnu" COMPILER="" CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xkb /usr/kde/2/share/config /usr/kde/3.3/env /usr/kde/3.3/share/config /usr/kde/3.3/shutdown /usr/kde/3/share/config /usr/lib/mozilla/defaults/pref /usr/share/config /usr/share/texmf/dvipdfm/config/ /usr/share/texmf/dvips/config/ /usr/share/texmf/tex/generic/config/ /usr/share/texmf/tex/platex/config/ /usr/share/texmf/xdvi/ /var/qmail/control" CONFIG_PROTECT_MASK="/etc/gconf /etc/terminfo /etc/env.d" CXXFLAGS="-O3 -march=i686 -fomit-frame-pointer -pipe" DISTDIR="/usr/portage/distfiles" FEATURES="autoaddcvs ccache nostrip sandbox" GENTOO_MIRRORS="http://gentoo.osuosl.org http://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/distributions/gentoo" MAKEOPTS="-j2" PKGDIR="/usr/portage/packages" PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/var/tmp" PORTDIR="/usr/portage" PORTDIR_OVERLAY="/usr/local/portage" SYNC="rsync://rsync.gentoo.org/gentoo-portage" USE="X acpi aim alsa arts avi berkdb bitmap-fonts calendar cdr crypt cups divx4linux dvd dvdr emacs encode esd evo exif fam fftw flac foomaticdb ftp gd gdbm gif gmp gnome gpm gstreamer gtk gtkhtml guile iconv imagemagick imlib inifile java jikes jpeg libg++ libgda libwww lzo mad mbox mikmod mime ming mmap mmx mng motif mozilla mpeg mysql mysqli ncurses nls nptl odbc offensive oggvorbis openal opengl oscar oss pam pdflib perl pic png postgres ppds python qt quicktime readline sasl scanner sdl shared sharedmem slang speex spell sse sse2 ssl svg svga tcltk tcpd tetex tiff truetype usb videos wxwindows x86 xine xinerama xml xml2 xmms xpm xprint xsl xv xvid zlib"
afaik .la's aren't required at all on most arches, there is just no consensus to remove them. In that light i see no reason to ditch them in just a few packages as long as there is no gentoo wide policy.
From what I understand (if anyone can claim understanding of the libtool voodoo) The .la files are used by libtool when building & linking something (installed or not), so the ones in /lib and /usr/lib (or any other directory that ld/libtool will scan) are in fact used when developing/building something that uses the libraries previously built with libtool. The ones that aren't needed is the plugins,monikers,views,theme-engines or whatever you call the dlopened stuff that never gets linked against by compile time linker (ld) So basically it comes down to if you link to it at compile time you need those droppings. If you dlopen it you don't. Like I said not overly critical but they do manage to suck up space quickly the potential savings on my install is 1.7 megs. (find /usr -name \*.la | wc -l) 884 of them at an average of 2K per hit winds up with roughly 1.7 megs. If you poke around in the Red Hat packages you'll see thats what they do. Anyway I'll leave it up to the gentoo folks to decide.
they are used if they are there, but they aren't needed. Actually they cause more bogus bugs atm than that it is useful. The size I find neglectable and if someone is really bothered by them, they are easily deleted. So unless there's some gentoo wide policy on this.. wontfix
