static/dynamic linking libraries

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static/dynamic linking libraries
\ Roman Zimmermann (29 Apr 2007)

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Subject:	static/dynamic linking libraries
Group:	Gentoo-user
From:	Roman Zimmermann
Date:	29 Apr 2007

I'm now using gentoo with EXTRA_ECONF="--disable-static" for a while and it
seems quite stable. Sometimes I encounter a package that won't build with
this setting, but that's a rare occasion. At the moment this packages are for
me:
x11-libs/libXxf86vm
sys-devel/gdb-6.6
dev-libs/jrtplib-3.5.2
dev-libs/libpcre
sys-apps/ed
I see that this way to disable static libraries is not perfect.

Disabling static linking has - for me - before all the advantage of reducing
size for most packages - for some packages up to 50%.

So I'm curious why (nearly?) all ebuilds build static _and_ dynamic libraries?
I understand that the current way is pretty hassle-free. But from my
perspective a (possibly officialy unsupported) way to make things easier for
people who wan't the choice would be fine.

I'm sorry if there has been such a discussion already. Also I don't want to
start a flame about what is the better choice (static or dynamic).

regards
Roman