I've just put a new pmax shared-library snapshot of NetBSD-current on
ftp.netbsd.org.  This snapshot differs from the previous snapshot in
the following:

   * All of libc.a is built as PIC files.   You should now be able
     to link static or dynamically-linked executables without
     getting error messags.

   * The version of ld in the previous snapshot has been upgraded.
     The binutils-2.7 ld is badly broken when it comes to building
     static ELF binaries.   (nm and size dont' work on them).

   * The static binaries are, unfortunately, up to 25% bigger.
     /sbin, /bin, and a couple of kernels no longer fit on a 16Mbyte
     root filesystem -- not even with a 4k/512 filesystem.

   * Everything has been relinked with the latest shared-libs:
     libc.so.12.11, instead of libc.so.12.7.

Anyone with a 16Mbyte root filesystem -- still the default in the
/etc/disktab entries -- is going to have to either work hard to tailor
the contents of /sbin and /bin, or resize their root fileystem.  

I recommend resizing the root filesystem; the binaries in /bin and
/sbin may get slightly smaller, but there are just more things in the
root partition than there used to be, the contents of libc is growing
(e.g., due to YP) and the size of the static binaries in /sbin and
/bin just keeps growing.

If at all possible, i'd recommend resizing your NetBSD/pmax root
filesystem to 32 Mbytes.  I realize this isn't going to be easy for
insatllations with a single disk; it may require re-installation "from
scratch".  It's very likely you can simply shrink an existing swap
partition by 16 Mbytes or more; the dynamically-linked binaries in
/usr/{bin,sbin,libexec} should reduce swap usage dramatically.

I've been using a shared-lib environment myself since November.  I
believe the shared-lib support in this snapshot should be quite stable.


To Tom Yu (and others): Please note that I *still* haven't finished
cleaning up the /usr/src/share/mk/bsd.lib.mk files to build shared
libs properly. The portmaster of the NetBSD/alpha (Chris Demetriou)
and I are still discussing the ``right'' way to support, and build,
ELF shared-libs on all NetBSD ELF platforms.  I'd be grateful to
anyone willing to help test this -- and to test a shared-lib X11R6.1.

--Jonathan