[Ffmpeg-devel] Re: uninstall target

[Michel Bardiaux]

M?ns Rullg?rd wrote:
> Michel Bardiaux said:
> 
>>Rich Felker wrote:
>>
>>>On Thu, Aug 25, 2005 at 12:39:56AM +0000, Burkhard Plaum wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>>Reimar D?ffinger <Reimar.Doeffinger <at> stud.uni-karlsruhe.de> writes:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>>Maybe, though my guess is that installing only makes sense when you
>>>>>build a dynamic libavcodec, which is not well supported in an aspect...
>>>>
>>>>It's gotten MUCH better. pkg-config support and the fixes of some memleaks,
>>>
>>>
>>>Fixing memleaks isn't very useful when every upgrade breaks abi or
>>>even api...! lavc just is not intended for use as a shared lib at this
>>>time.
>>
>>But it is licensed as LGPL which means it is *supposed* to have a stable
>>ABI!
> 
> 
> Huh?  Licenses imply nothing whatsoever about API or ABI stability, or any
> other usability factors.  Did you ever read the "as is" disclaimer?

How is one supposed to use lavc while complying with LGPL? (rhetorical 
question) The answers one finds all over the web are

(1) dynalink to lavc.so so that users of your app can enjoy successive 
releases of lavc by simply replacing the dso. This of course requires a 
stable ABI.

(2) Statically link your app to lavc.a but distribute relocatable 
binaries of your app so that users blah blah by simply relinking your 
app. This of course requires a stable ABI.

(3) Distribute your app with source. But then its no longer LGPL but GPL.

In other words, LGPL without a stable ABI is a scam: you cant comply 
with it without acting as if it were GPL.

> 
> 
>>A general note on make uninstall: IMHO it has to be able to uninstall
>>correctly *every* older version. Assume (just as example) libavutils
>>goes away at one point, the make uninstall should still remove libavutil
>>if it finds it. Maybe the make install should install the Makefile
>>containing uninstall?
> 
> 
> If you want automated removal, use a package manager.  Keeping a complete
> history of anything that might ever have been installed in the makefile
> is ridiculous.
> 


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Michel Bardiaux
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