The following reply was made to PR lib/37473; it has been noted by GNATS.

From: Jason Thorpe <thorpej@shagadelic.org>
To: gnats-bugs@NetBSD.org
Cc: tech-userlevel@NetBSD.org
Subject: Re: lib/37473
Date: Tue, 4 Dec 2007 11:28:23 -0800

 Christos said:
 
 <quote>
 Well, this is the way OS/X went, and it was a bitch for me to  
 bootstrap the emulation code because I could not build a statically  
 linked binary. Trying to get the emulation going with a dynamically  
 linked binary was a pain in the ass because too much stuff needed to  
 go right before I even started executing main(). Yes, this is a  
 limited case and I agree with you that we should make .a's optional in  
 the install, but I would hate to completely lose the ability to  
 produce statically linked binaries like OS/X has. There are still a  
 few corner cases (installers, standalone programs) that can benefit  
 from static linking.
 </quote>
 
 
 I didn't suggest removing the ability to make static binaries.  "De- 
 support" doesn't mean "make it not work".  It does mean, however,  
 "don't bother putting effort into it".
 
 -- thorpej