reduced link interface: some link breakage possible

[Alexander Neundorf]

On Tuesday 16 December 2008, David Faure wrote:
> On Monday 15 December 2008, Alexander Neundorf wrote:
> >  2.) You are probably using symbols from some library which you don't
> > link to directly, but which was dragged in via one of the other libraries
> > you link to, and these "dragged in" libraries have now been mostly
> > removed. In this case, add these missing libraries explicitely to the
> > TARGET_LINK_LIBRARIES() command.
> > (because: less dependencies for packages, faster startup, some advantages
> > in keeping binary compatiblity).
>
> Doesn't this break SC, i.e. people upgrading to a newer kdelibs (e.g. via
> their distro) will suddenly be unable to compile 3rd party kde apps
> released before KDE 4.2?
>
> Would it help to only enable explicitely in every module that supports it,
> while leaving it disabled when compiling ksomeapp?

We had that since, I don't remember exactly, 2 months or so.
If the "average" developer doesn't enable it (why should he), he may break the 
build for the ones who enable it.
So, I know, it's not nice, but I think now is the time that it has to be 
forced on everybody :-/
I did my best to make sure everything links, but I alone can't get it 100% 
right.

> Or does it break both SC and BC anyway, in which case this wouldn't even
> help (e.g. ksomeapp can't link anymore, or 3rd party plasma applets will
> stop loading...)?
>
> We _have_ to provide some stability in the build system... breaking SC
> and/or BC is really not going in the right direction.

I know, I know, and I fully agree.
I raised this issue back in May or so, but even Dirk said it would be more 
important to do that now.
Anyway, we don't really have a choice.
The distributions are already shipping patched versions which do this (at 
least Debian), and Rex (RedHat/Fedora), Dirk (SUSE) and I think also a Gentoo 
packager said they would use these patches too.
So even if we would not do this now, these major distros would do it 
anyway :-/

So, better we do it now, and at least the distros ship something we know.

Alex