[PATCH] builds libs by default with full RPATH

[Michael Pyne]

On Wednesday 19 December 2007, Andreas Hartmetz wrote:
> And I might add - why are we using RPATH again? Why are search paths not
> good enough? Do the advantages really outweigh the disadvantages? If yes,
> is it still true if all KDE libraries are installed in /usr/lib as all
> distros do now or will do soon?

The question is what value to use by default for the RPATH setting.  Packagers 
will disable building with RPATH if they don't want it.  So AFAICS this 
setting is most applicable to users building from source (i.e. for testing), 
in which case I think using RUNPATH is the best idea (RPATH with 
the --enable-new-dtags linker option to use RUNPATH rather than RPATH).

This way the user can run KDE applications that he builds without needing to 
alter LD_LIBRARY_PATH or /etc/ld.so.conf (and the non-Linux equivalents for 
the BSDs, Solaris, etc.)

Note that if RUNPATH information is present in a executable the 
LD_LIBRARY_PATH is checked first.  If only RPATH tags are present it is used 
regardless of the LD_LIBRARY_PATH setting for backward compatibility.

> Dunno, RPATH looks like an ill-advised hack to me and (IIRC, IMBW, YMMV...)
> I haven't heard very convincing reasons to use it so far.

It has its uses.  I've named one, I'm sure there are others.

Regards,
 - Michael Pyne
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