[pkg-boost-devel] Bug#424038: Bug#424038: Bug#424038: /usr/bin/ld: cannot find -lboost_program_options

[Roger Leigh]

Hi,

I'd just like to make a few observations about this bug.  Firstly, its
effect on one of my packages, schroot:

[./configure ...]
checking for boost::program_options::variables_map in -lboost_program_options... no
configure: error: libboost_program_options (Boost C++ Libraries) is not installed, but is required by schroot
See `config.log' for more details.

By removing the default, you are breaking software which used
"-lboost_program_options", which is going to break a lot of software.
It's also going to make it FTBFS in Debian.  This applies equally to
all of the boost library packages with -mt and -st variants.

You stated in an earlier message in this bug report that "I decided
that there would not have been any default at all".  I do feel that
this is the wrong decision.  I don't personally care which of the -st
or -mt variants is the default, but there *must* be a default or you
will break compatibility with all the boost-using software out there
which is using "-lboost_program_options".  If in doubt, please keep
the -mt variant as the default since it was already working.  As a
single-threaded programmer, I don't particularly care about the
pthread dependency, and can't really see the need for two variants of
the same library so long as the mt variant works for single-threaded
programs.

Olaf van der Spek's comment about which variant is safest is important
here, and it looks like the -mt variant is indeed the safest option,
but would require someone with more threads knowledge than myself to
confirm it.

Is the -mt and -st suffix a Debian-specific change, or is this what
upstream does?  It's equally important that boost-using software on
Debian will also build on non-Debian systems which have the boost
libraries installed.  This was previously the case when using
"-lboost_program_options".

Also note that "-lboost_program_options" (and the same applies to
*all* of the shared libraries) is documented in README.Debian.

My program/library is currently single-threaded, but may become
threaded in the future.  Needing to link to a different set of
libraries does seem strange; after all, I don't link to an mt libc6 or
libz.


Regards,
Roger

-- 
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