[tex-live] libstdc++.so.6

[George White]

Quoting Karl Berry <karl at freefriends.org>:

>     The binaries
> 
>       cfftot1 mmafm mmpfb otfinfo otftotfm t1dotlessj t1lint t1reencode
>       t1testpage
> 
>     in `bin/i386-linux' link to libstdc++.so.6 -- I don't have this, only
>     libstdc++.so.5, and my system is a bit older than a year.
> 
> I took a look today at importing the --with-cxx-runtime-hack stuff from
> web2c, which statically links libstdc++, with lcdf-typetools.  Anything
> is possible, I suppose, but it is not exactly straightforward.
> lcdf-typetools uses Automake, and for the hack to work, it obviously has
> to change the link command.  The result would not be pretty from the
> point of view of maintaining lcdftools, I'm afraid.
> 
> Since we have always distributed the lcdftools binaries dynamically
> linked before, I am inclined to just keep doing that, despite it being
> suboptimal.  At least when Staszek builds the binaries, it will be
> against libstdc++ v5 instead of v6.

FC4 has compatibility libraries to run older binaries:

$ rpm -qil -p compat-libstdc++-33-3.2.3-47.fc4.i386.rpm
Name        : compat-libstdc++-33          Relocations: (not relocatable)
Version     : 3.2.3                             Vendor: Red Hat, Inc.
Release     : 47.fc4                        Build Date: Tue 08 Mar 2005
08:47:04
PM AST
Install Date: (not installed)               Build Host: tweety.build.redhat.com
Group       : System Environment/Libraries   Source RPM:
compat-gcc-32-3.2.3-47.fc4.src.rpm
Size        : 733520                           License: GPL
Signature   : DSA/SHA1, Fri 20 May 2005 04:26:13 PM ADT, Key ID
b44269d04f2a6fd2Packager    : Red Hat, Inc.
<http://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla>
URL         : http://gcc.gnu.org
Summary     : Compatibility standard C++ libraries
Description :
The libstdc++ package contains compatibility standard C++ library
from GCC 3.3.4.
/usr/lib/libstdc++.so.5
/usr/lib/libstdc++.so.5.0.7

In my experience, these are rarely installed, and most users won't know to
install them unless explicitly instructed to do so.

TeX Live maintainer time is a precious resource, so the first priority should
be
a tl distro that builds and runs on systems tl maintainers use without tricky
hacks that will only cause trouble next eyar.  The 2nd should be to ensure that
it builds and runs on other "sufficiently common" systems.  

A few years ago, building tl on linux was a big deal.  Many users were running
linux on older hardware that was too old for Windows, with small disks and
memory. Compiling a big package could be an adventure.  My guess is that 
most libstdc++.so.6 linux system can build tl2005 from source with little
effort.  

This argues for tl binaries targeted for libstdc++.so.5, and a recommendation
that libstdc++.so.6 systems either install the vendor's compatibility libraries
or install the vendor's compilers and development libraries and compile the
sources.  


-- 
George N. White III
Head of St. Margarets Bay, Nova Scotia