Bug 822771

Summary:	sci-misc/boinc-7.16.17 installs static libs (PATCH)
Product:	Gentoo Linux	Reporter:	Anna Vyalkova <cyber+gentoo>
Component:	Current packages	Assignee:	Gentoo Science Related Packages <sci>
Status:	UNCONFIRMED ---
Severity:	normal	CC:	jstein, proxy-maint, sven.eden
Priority:	Normal	Keywords:	PATCH
Version:	unspecified
Hardware:	All
OS:	Linux
Whiteboard:
Package list:		Runtime testing required:	---

Description Anna Vyalkova 2021-11-10 03:28:54 UTC

libboinc and libboinc_crypto are always installed as static libs:
https://github.com/BOINC/boinc/commit/d4dd0ed53dd3b92aa3fe3842bd020f579458a312

It's not likely to be changed upstream (static linking allows to run applications
built with different versions of libboinc).

Debian has a patch to fix it.
https://salsa.debian.org/pkg-boinc-team/boinc/-/blob/master/debian/patches/boinclib_shared.patch

Comment 1 Sven Eden 2021-11-16 06:51:54 UTC

The question is, whether anything would actually need these dynamic libraries.

It looks like all applications using them would have been linked to the static libs before they got downloaded by the manager anyway.

There is also no package that depends on sci-misc/boinc that would link to either library.

So, if someone was building some local software against either lib, they would have to change their build system to link against the dynamic variant. Their software would also be in danger of breaking with the next upgrade of sci-misc/boinc.

Turning this into a dynamic library would add a regression for people who are used to build against static libraries for over a decade, now. But there would be no gain out of it.

I have no idea why debian does that, there is no hint about that. And I couldn't find a hint in my debian VMs, that there is anything in need of a dynamic libboinc.so.

This more looks like "because we can". Unless, of course, I am overlooking something important.

Comment 2 Anna Vyalkova 2021-11-22 09:14:11 UTC

(In reply to Sven Eden from comment #1)
> The question is, whether anything would actually need these dynamic
> libraries.
> 
> It looks like all applications using them would have been linked to the
> static libs before they got downloaded by the manager anyway.
> 
> There is also no package that depends on sci-misc/boinc that would link to
> either library.
It only matters when building BOINC applications from source:
https://boinc.berkeley.edu/wiki/Anonymous_platform

Comment 3 Sven Eden 2022-07-27 10:44:06 UTC

(In reply to Anna Vyalkova from comment #2)
> It only matters when building BOINC applications from source:
> https://boinc.berkeley.edu/wiki/Anonymous_platform

There is no hint about dynamic libraries being needed.

If you build your own applications, you would build your own boinc_client, too, anyway.

I am very uncertain here, because I also do not see a reason why libboinc.a and libboinc_crypt.a should be kept anyway.