Unlike libfreetype6-dev in Cosmic the version shipped with Disco doesn't include libfreetype.la file

[PhotonQyv]

I noticed when trying to compile an application against the version of the freetype library shipped with Disco that it doesn't include the libfreetype.la file in /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/

My compilation failed when it couldn't find the file.

[Steve Langasek (vorlon)]

Why is your application looking for a .la file? This is supplementary information to libtool which, if absent, should not cause build failures. The vast majority of library packages in Debian and Ubuntu do not ship .la files, they instead ship pkg-config .pc files which provide a cleaner interface for the system library case.

[PhotonQyv (shenstone-porter)]

I've just upgraded to Disco from Cosmic. I was re-building GEGL so that I could re-build Gimp, the GEGL build moaned when it couldn't find the libfreetype.la . I'd reconfigured it, cleaned it, and then built it again. It still stopped with an error when it couldn't find libfreetype.la

The Cosmic version of this library shipped with this file, so why doesn't the Disco version.

Incidentally, worked around it by compiling and installing libfreetype to /usr/local and borrowing the .la file from there, GEGL now compiles, and I'm currently recompiling Gimp.

I know I'm a masochist, I like to build Gimp from source, both for the 2.10 version and the 2.99 version.

[Steve Langasek (vorlon)]

I've checked the build-dependencies of gegl in Ubuntu, and none of them ship .la files. So it looks like some other library that you have built locally, which depends on freetype (gegl does not directly build-depend on freetype), has a .la file installed which references the now-removed libfreetype.la.

This sort of brittleness is exactly why we no longer ship .la files.

You should rebuild your other local library against the .la-less disco freetype, at which point this problem goes away and gegl should be buildable.

The .la file will not be readded to the package.

[PhotonQyv (shenstone-porter)]

Thanks Steve (:*

I'll do that (:*