[Pkg-openmpi-maintainers] Bug#502232: Bug#502232: Bug#502232: Bug#502232: Bug#502232: libopenmpi-dev: No static libraries in the package

[Dirk Eddelbuettel]

Jeff, Tim,

We had request by a Gary from Sandia about providing static libs, which we
seemed to have turned off a while ago.  Looking into the matter Sylvestre and
Gary found that we can in fact enable this easily (as your FAQ suggested) but
at the expense of libmca_common.so. 

Your docs have this:

> # This library is linked against various MCA components because all
> # shared-memory based components (e.g., mpool, ptl, etc.)  need to
> # share some common code and data.  There's two cases:
> #
> # 1. libmca_common_sm.la is a shared library.  By linking that shared
> # library to all components that need it, the OS linker will
> # automatically load it into the process as necessary, and there will
> # only be one copy (i.e., all the components will share *one* copy of
> # the code and data).
> #
> # 2. libmca_common_sm.la is a static library.  In this case, it will
> # be rolled up into the top-level libmpi.la.  It will also be rolled
> # into each component, but then the component will also be rolled up
> # into the upper-level libmpi.la.  Linkers universally know how to
> # "figure this out" so that we end up with only one copy of the code
> # and data.
> #
> # Note that building this common component statically and linking
> # against other dynamic components is *not* supported!

But it seems that we can't quite wrap our head around the implications.  So
to make it simpler:

-- would recommended for or against providing static as well as shared
   libraries?

-- do we risk anything here that could upset our users?

-- should we able to build everything in one pass (ie one configure call, one
   make, one make install -- which is the current setting that seems to work)

Gary made a valid point, and for certain cluster deployments I can see how
have static builds may make life easier (no lib-syncing etc pp, even though
of course this is the very thing that .deb packages make relatively easy).

Any advice you could provide would be appreciated.

Cheers from Chicago, Dirk

-- 
Three out of two people have difficulties with fractions.