On Thu, Jan 09, 2025 at 12:40:40AM +0100, Patrice Dumas wrote: > > 2. In Debian we installed the .la files into /usr/lib/texinfo/ until version > > 7.1.1 [3]. For the 7.2 packages [4] I skipped them: I could convert some > > files using texi2any, so no drawbacks visible until now. > > > > Are these files really needed? > > I think not, on GNU/Linux and for installed libraries, the dynamic > loading support and use of rpath should make sure that the libraries are > correctly found and loaded even without .la, and in our code we do not > error out if the .la is not found. In-source and probably for other > platforms the .la are needed.
I don't believe this is correct. The .la files are needed for loading the XS modules (which is done by the module tp/Texinfo/XSLoader.pm, in 'load_libtool_library'). For example, Parsetexi.la is needed for loading Parsetexi.so. texi2any will still work without the XS modules but it will be much, much slower. It may not be necessary for the files named "lib*.la": libtexinfo-convert.la libtexinfo-convertxs.la libtexinfo.la libtexinfoxs.la for the reasons Patrice explains above.
