Re: findlib: build-time or run-time dep?

[David Holland <dholland-pkgtech%netbsd.org@localhost>]

On Sun, Sep 20, 2026 at 02:47:41PM -0400, Greg Troxel wrote:
 > At the risk of asking y'all when I'm the one who understands ocaml the
 > best -- but I really hope that's not true!
 > 
 > ocaml packages that use dune bl3 on findlib, even though it's a tool,
 > and there's some bl3 targets to set it up for use.  I don't want to
 > fight that.

Assuming we buildlink the ocaml lib tree at all (not absolutely sure),
I think it inserts stuff into it.

 > Because of bl3, findlib ends up being a runtime (full) dependency.
 > While people that want to use findlib to find the installed libs need
 > it, that's their issue, and I don't think it's needed.
 > 
 > Thus, I'd like to make findlib a build-time dep only.

Unfortunately, I think it's needed at deinstall time. ocaml library
packages have a script +OCAML_FINDLIB_REGISTER that seems to have a
deinstall-time component.

A full dependency is not really the right way to handle things like
that, but alas it's all we have.

-- 
David A. Holland
dholland%netbsd.org@localhost