On 01/20/2014 03:43 PM, Juergen Beisert wrote:
A *.a archive does not mean it is always a static library. The autotools for example use them for internal libraries only. 'internal' means they get not installed when "make install" runs, they are linked internally against the produced binary, whatever it is. If this internal *.a library is intended to be linked against an application its content is mostly compiled as NOPIC. If it is intended to be linked against a shared library its content must be compiled as PIC. Thought this info could help you to sort out why the TDE buildsystem builds more than variant of this library.
jbe
jbe,
Thank you. It would have taken me hours to dig that knowledge up. And see my presumption about it being graphics related was totally wrong. I'm no autotools/cmake guru -- I end up fighting with them both more than using them. Glad to know what an autotools archive is and at least understand what PIC and NOPIC means in this context.