Re: CVS commit: pkgsrc/graphics/xzgv

[Joerg Sonnenberger <joerg%britannica.bec.de@localhost>]

On Sat, Dec 31, 2011 at 08:45:32AM +0100, John Marino wrote:
> On 12/31/2011 12:07 AM, Joerg Sonnenberger wrote:
> > On Fri, Dec 30, 2011 at 11:03:54PM +0100, John Marino wrote:
> > 
> > It is not an assertion. Symbol lookup *is* recursive. That is a very
> > fundamental property of ELF. This is *not* about compile time. It is all
> > about runtime.
> > 
> > Joerg
> 
> Ok, we're talking about real-time dynamic linking then.  One way or
> another it's going to load the symbol lists from all shared objects
> listed by ldd.  I assume your point is that if the previously
> indirectly-linked library is not the last loaded, rtld will have to scan
> all the (mostly unused) symbols in it sequentially before getting to
> more heavily used symbols of other libraries.

Please learn about dynamic linking on ELF first, there are various good
resources about it out there.

> What's the real impact?  slightly slower startup time?  Is it even
> perceptible?

The important part is that it is a *useless* change. There is absolute
nothing wrong with indirect symbols.

> Otherwise you're basically advocating that all platforms of pkgsrc
> either stick to binutils 2.21 or less forever, or that they patch
> gold/ld version 2.22+ to behave as before.  I don't think such an
> artificial restriction is desirable.

Somehow I don't see that as a strict requirement. Heck, I would consider
it worth filling a bug report in binutils...

Joerg