libX11

[Rebecca Bendick]

Hi.  I'm trying to compile code on FC5, and it wants a static link to  
libX11.a  I've read through the archives and elsewhere on the web,  
and it seems like this library doesn't exist in FC5, so I should  
dynamic link to something else instead.  So, how do I do that, and to  
what do I link?  Sorry to be so thick, but I can't seem to find the  
answer anywhere.   I did install xorg-x11-devel, but find doesn't  
turn up any likely libraries anywhere.

Thanks,
Becks

[Michael A. Peters]

On Thu, 2006-05-04 at 13:14 -0600, Rebecca Bendick wrote:
>  Hi.  I'm trying to compile code on FC5, and it wants a static
> link to  
>  libX11.a  I've read through the archives and elsewhere on the web,  
>  and it seems like this library doesn't exist in FC5, so I should  
>  dynamic link to something else instead.  So, how do I do that, and to  
>  what do I link?  Sorry to be so thick, but I can't seem to find the  
>  answer anywhere.   I did install xorg-x11-devel, but find doesn't  
>  turn up any likely libraries anywhere. 
> From what I understand, Fedora is moving away from making static
libraries available. I know this is the case with Extras, I think it is
the case with core too.

This is something I personally disagree with, but here is the reasoning
(well, at least one of them):

User compiles software and it links against static library libfoo.a.
vulnerability is found in libfoo, Fedora releases patched libfoo.

But the user built their software against the vulnerable libfoo.a and
did not rebuild it after the update was installed.

Result: user potentially has software with a vulnerability in it.

If possible, you should ask the upstream source of your code to allow it
to link to a shared library.

An alternative is to rebuilt the src.rpm and change it to install the
static library.

[Rebecca Bendick]

How would I rebuild the src.rpm to force installation of the one  
library that I need?
---------------------------------------------------------------
Rebecca Bendick
SC 331
Department of Geology
University of Montana
Missoula, MT 59812
[phone]

bendick(a)mso.umt.edu

[Michael A. Peters]

On Thu, 2006-05-04 at 14:01 -0600, Rebecca Bendick wrote:
>  How would I rebuild the src.rpm to force installation of the one  
>  library that I need? 
you start by creating an rpmbuild environment in your home directory:

yum install fedora-rpmdevtools

as NON ROOT user:

fedora-buildrpmtree

Then you need to get the appropriate src.rpm - in this case -

libX11-1.0.0-3.src.rpm
I think it is in
http://download.fedora.redhat.com/pub/fedora/linux/core/5/source/SRPMS/

as your regular user, not as root, install the src.rpm

This will put the sources and patches in ~/rpmbuild/SOURCES/

and a spec file in ~/rpmbuild/SPECS/

you need to modify the spec file in ~/rpmbuild/SPECS/ with a text
editor.

1) change the release tag - put a .1
after whatever is there already (Release, not version)

2) depends upon the package. If in %build section, there is

--disable-static

passed to configure, change the --disable-static to --enable-static

Sometimes they way they get rid of static libraries is to simply delete
them in the %install section after install - in which case you need to
remove the lines that delete them.

3) modify the %files sections for the devel subpackage.
Add this to it:

%{_libdir}/*.a

now - you can rebuild the rpm -

cd ~/rpmbuild/SPECS/

rpmbuild -bb libX11.spec

If it complains about missing BuildRequires, you have to install them.
When it finishes, it will put the rpms in

~/rpmbuild/RPMS/arch/

(where arch is i386,x86_64, or ppc)

then upgrade stock libX11 and libX11-devel rpms with what you have
built.

[Michael A. Peters]

On Thu, 2006-05-04 at 14:01 -0600, Rebecca Bendick wrote:
>  How would I rebuild the src.rpm to force installation of the one  
>  library that I need? 
I just looked at the spec file.
They made it easy.

After installing the src.rpm as described in my previous post - you only
need to do 2 things:

1)

change

Release: 3

to

Release: 3.1

(reason for that is so that it looks like a newer to package to rpm and
will easily update)

2)

change (Line 48)

%define with_static 0

to

%define with_static 1

The package will build with static libraries in the -devel package