Re: CVS commit: src/usr.bin/awk

[David Holland <dholland-sourcechanges%netbsd.org@localhost>]

On Tue, Oct 21, 2008 at 10:52:46AM -0700, Jason Thorpe wrote:
>> We have things like
>>
>>      LDADD+= -lfoo
>>      DPADD+= ${LIBFOO}
>>
>> all over the source tree.  Are you suggesting that they should all be
>> changed?
>
> I'm suggesting they should all be removed.  A dynamically-linked program 
> does not need this dependency because the updated version of the library 
> will be pulled in at run-time anyway.  If the API changes, the 
> auto-generated header file dependency will take care of it.

This can potentially result in the wrong thing happening after a major
version bump; e.g. suppose I change <stdlib.h> and bump libc and go to
rebuild a program that only uses <stdio.h>. It should nonetheless be
relinked, and won't be.

Also, it'll increase somewhat the chances of getting a broken system
out if someone makes a mistake with backwards compatibility.

Maybe these considerations don't matter much, but they do exist.

-- 
David A. Holland
dholland%netbsd.org@localhost