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Sun May 28 02:27:38 2000

Gary V. Vaughan

The Libtool Team is pleased to announce patch release 1.3.5 of GNU libtool. A complete tarball for libtool-1.3.5 will be available from ftp.gnu.org and all GNU mirror sites in the next few days, along with diffs and xdeltas from release 1.3.4. In the mean time you can fetch it from here.

Alternatively, this version is now available via anonymous CVS, using the tag release-1-3-5. See this section for instructions on how to retrieve libtool from anonymous CVS.

The most important user-visible changes since release 1.3.4 follow (note that this release is mainly six months of accumulated bug fixes):

New in 1.3.5: 2000-05-27

  • Support for mac OS X (Rhapsody).
  • Improved support for Sequent SysV4.
  • Improved support for Cygwin-1.1.0.
  • Support recent dlltool formats.
  • Bugfixes.

Enjoy!

Thu Jan 20 11:40:28 2000

Gary V. Vaughan

Overhauled the website quite drastically:

Wed Dec 08 18:30:00 1999

Gary V. Vaughan

The Libtool Team is pleased to announce patch release 1.3.4 of GNU libtool. A complete tarball for libtool-1.3.4 will be available from ftp.gnu.org and all GNU mirror sites in the next few days, along with diffs and xdeltas from release 1.3.3. In the mean time you can fetch it from here.

Alternatively, this version is now available via anonymous CVS, using the tag release-1-3-4. See this section for instructions on how to retrieve libtool from anonymous CVS. Note that these instructions have recently changed, since the master repository has moved back to GNU.

The most important user-visible changes since release 1.3.3 follow (note that this release is mainly six months of accumulated bug fixes):

New in 1.3.4: 1999-12-06

  • Support for Compaq Tru64 V5.0
  • Improved support for Digital Unix V4.*
  • Improved support for NetBSD, FreeBSD and Unixware.
  • Many fine bugfixes.

Enjoy!

Fri Jul 02 18:54:36 1999

Gary V. Vaughan

The Libtool Team is pleased to announce patch release 1.3.3 of GNU libtool, and alpha release 1.3b. libtool-1.3.3 should be the final release from the 1.3 branch of libtool, and libtool-1.3b is the first official alpha release to include the latest development towards libtool-1.4.

libtool-1.3.3 will be available from ftp.gnu.org and all GNU mirror sites in the next few days, as well as via anonymous CVS, using the tag release-1-3-3. See this section for instructions on how to retrieve libtool from anonymous cvs. Diffs and xdeltas from 1.3.2 to 1.3.3, will also be available at the same time.

The release tarballs and the diffs and xdeltas are available from ftp.ffii.org until they are uploaded to the gnu machines.

The most important user-visible changes since release 1.3 follow:

New in 1.3.3: 1999-07-02

  • New -dlpreopen force flag to ensure that lt_preloaded_symbols is always defined.
  • Work around self-dlclose bug in FreeBSD 3.1.
  • Expand convenience libraries when creating reloadable objects.
  • Do not forget to import -L flags of convenience libraries.
  • Do not pass -whole-archive or equivalent to symbol extractor.
  • Create directory to expand convenience libraries only when needed.
  • Improved support for Cygwin, DJGPP and NetBSD
  • Various bugfixes

New in 1.3.2: 1999-05-26

  • Avoid circular links of objects and libraries.
  • Look for dlerror when dlopen was found in -ldl (typo).
  • Disable shared libraries with broken GNU ld on Solaris.

New in 1.3.1: 1999-05-21

  • Documentation improvements; recommend automake users to insert libtool.m4 in acinclude.m4
  • AC_LIBLTDL_CONVENIENCE and AC_LIBLTDL_INSTALLABLE now set INCLTDL.
  • New port to NEC UX/4800.
  • cygwin-b20.1 passes all tests.
  • Slightly improved BeOS support.
  • Many AIX 4.3.2 test failures have gone.
  • Pass unknown -L arguments through to the linker (for -LANG:* support).
  • Close a security hole with mode 777 directory during libltdl installation.
  • Fixed the infamous ifelse bug in libtool.m4.

libtool-1.3b will be available for testing from here in the next few days, as well as via anonymous CVS, using the tag release-1-3b. See this section for instructions on how to retrieve libtool from anonymous cvs. Diffs and xdeltas from 1.3.3 to 1.3b, will also be available at the same time.

The release tarballs and the diffs and xdeltas are available from ftp.ffii.org until they are uploaded to the gnu machines.

The most important user-visible changes since release 1.3.3 follow:

  • Complete inter-library dependencies support. It's now possible to link libtool libraries against other libtool libraries.
  • Libtool is able to find already-installed libtool libraries, even if they were moved out of their installation directory.
  • New -Wc,flag and -Xcompiler flag flags to pass flags directly to the compiler.
  • New -Wl,flag and -Xlinker flag flags to pass flags directly to the linker.
  • New -no-fast-install flag to selectively disable fast-install mode.
  • Support for installing stripped libraries using GNU strip (install -s). Automake >= 1.5 will install stripped libraries with make install-strip.
  • More of the tests performed by ltconfig are cached.
  • Allow linking shared libraries against static ones on FreeBSD, GNU/Linux, GNU Hurd and Solaris.
  • Support for linking DLLs on Win32.
  • New `clean' mode to delete uninstalled files.
  • New demos and tests.
  • Various bugfixes.

Happy libtooling!

Tue May 04 10:20:30 1999

Gary V. Vaughan

As reported in the mailing list, we have moved the development CVS repository to ffii.org. Eventually, we hope to mirror this back to gnu.org so that anoncvs access will continue to work as before. In the interim, the latest development code is available from ffii.org (press enter at the password prompt):

      $ cvs -d :pserver:anoncvs@anoncvs.ffii.org:/var/cvs login
      Password:
      $ cvs -d :pserver:anoncvs@anoncvs.ffii.org:/var/cvs co libtool
      

Also, daily snapshots of the trunk can be downloaded from ftp.ffii.org if you can't do CVS.

Thu Apr 29 18:30:07 1999

Alexandre Oliva

The Libtool Team is pleased to announce the long-awaited release 1.3 of GNU libtool. It should be available in ftp.gnu.org and all GNU mirror sites, as well as via anonymous CVS, using the tag release-1-3. See this section for details. Diffs and xdeltas from release 1.2 are available.

The most important user-visible changes since release 1.2 follow (see below for changes since alpha release 1.2f)

  • Support for convenience archives.
  • New maintainers. Anonymous CVS and home page at gnu.org.
  • Portable dlopening interface with libltdl, new -module flag.
  • Correctly link installed libtool libraries into programs and other libtool libraries. Linking of uninstalled libtool libraries into libraries is under development for 1.4.
  • Do not drop library dependencies on platforms that allow them.
  • Linking with uninstalled libraries no longer picks installed ones by mistake.
  • Use libraries from the build tree when running uninstalled executables (may require double linking).
  • Allow developers to optimize for build-tree executions.
  • Support -export-symbols-regex for controlled symbol exporting.
  • Support -R to hardcode directories in library search paths.
  • New ports, demos and tests. Lots of improvements and bug fixes.

User-visible changes since release 1.2f:

  • AM_PROG_LIBTOOL is smaller and faster
  • AC_LIBTOOL_WIN32_DLL is required in configure.in for libtool to attempt to build dlls on win32 hosts
  • Shared libraries on AmigaOS up to version 4 are now disabled since they don't meet libtool's requirements for shared libraries
  • -L supports now relative directories
  • Libltdl has a new license: LGPL with a special exception
  • Libltdl can be used as stand-alone package
  • dlopen support for BeOS
  • Partial support for Motorola System V 4
  • Improved support for AIX, BeOS, Cygwin, DJGPP, DU, IRIX and HP/UX
  • Documentation updates
  • New tests
  • Bugfixes

Mon Mar 15 16:00:05 GMT 1999

Alexandre Oliva

Today, in libtool's 3rd birthday (according to Gordon's ChangeLog :-), the libtool team is pleased to announce the alpha release 1.2f of GNU libtool. It is the basis for release 1.3, that will hopefully be out in a few weeks and will contain only bug-fixes.

GNU libtool 1.2f is available at ftp://alpha.gnu.org. Diffs from older releases are not available because they'd account for more than 60% of the size of the distribution, although xdeltas are available because they are much smaller. Alternatively, you can get the distribution from the CVS repository, using the release-1-2f tag (see this section for instructions on how to retrieve libtool via anonymous cvs).

The user-visible changes since release 1.2d follow: (from the NEWS file)

  • libtool will correctly link uninstalled libraries into programs and prefer uninstalled libraries to installed ones
  • library paths that are in the system default run-time search path are no longer hardcoded into executables.
  • New fast installation mode, which links the final executable in order to avoid relinking during installation.
  • Programs in the build-tree are relinked when executed.
  • New AC_DISABLE_FAST_INSTALL macro to set the default for the fast-install mode to disabled
  • New -export-symbols-regex flag, to export symbols selectively by a regular expression
  • Support -R for specifying run-time path of programs and library dependencies.
  • New -avoid-version option to avoid versioning for libraries
  • libtool module names no longer need to have a lib prefix (requires automake 1.4).
  • New -thread-safe flag, to build thread-safe libraries
  • Major improvements in libltdl: API documentation, installable version, support for module search paths, support for lt_dlopen(0), can be embedded into packages as a tar file (libltdl.tar.gz), dynamic buffer allocation and buffer overflow checks, new macro LTDL_SET_PRELOADED_SYMBOLS() which must be used in the main program, dynamic memory allocation functions are user-defineable.
  • New AC_LIBLTDL_CONVENIENCE and AC_LIBLTDL_INSTALLABLE macros, to select convenience and/or installable versions of libltdl.
  • libltdl is now built and installed unless --disable-ltdl-install
  • New -dlopen self flag for dlopening the executable itself
  • New AC_LIBTOOL_DLOPEN macro to check for dlopen support, required if you use -dlopen or -dlpreopen
  • If libtool could not satisfy all dependencies of a module it will only build a static version of it
  • dld_preloaded_symbols was renamed to lt_preloaded_symbols
  • Support for BeOS
  • Improved support for FreeBSD, AIX, IRIX, OSF, SysV 4.3, HP/UX, DJGPP, BSD/OS 4.x and NetBSD
  • In order for libtool to attempt to link a shared library (dll) on win32 platforms, you must pass the -no-undefined flag to libtool in link mode.
  • The path to GNU ld now works on cygwin-b18 to cygwin-b20.2 at least.
  • Support for IRIX library versioning.
  • New demos and tests
  • Various bugfixes

Enjoy!

Tue Mar 09 13:05:35 GMT 1999

Gary V. Vaughan

Work on win32 support on the ild-branch continues apace, and will be merged into the trunk after 1.2f has been released. Libtool now accepts dll objects on the command line, and will generate an export list and import library on the fly to make this possible. This feature also solves the win32 problem with the import library associated with a dll using the same filename as the matching static archive.

There are a few small issues which need resolving before 1.2f is ready for release, not least of which is that lt_dlopen(NULL) is broken on OSF/1.

There is a new configure parameter, `--enable-fast-install' which controls whether a libtoolized package built on a machine which needs to relink installed libraries and binaries does the relink during the build. The default is to link build tree executables to load installed libraries so that no relink is necessary as these executables will run correctly when installed; if these executables are run in the build tree, they will be relinked on demand before being executed. If `--enable-fast-install=no' is used, then the executables in the build tree will be linked to load uninstalled libraries so that no on-demand relink is necessary if these executables are run from the build tree; of course some platforms (such as linux and irix) will require that the programs be relinked during install in order to pick up the installed libraries in preference to the uninstalled libraries in the build tree.

Tue Feb 23 13:24:44 GMT 1999

Gary V. Vaughan

Selective exporting has been implemented, so that it is now possible to limit the symbols lt_dlsym() will have access to. There are two new switches, `--export-symbols' and `--export-symbols-regex' to control this behaviour.

Portable support for using lt_dlopen(NULL) to get a handle on the main executable so that you can get the address of symbols in the executable itself with lt_dlsym() is now working. Ideally a package developer who wants to use this feature should use the new macro AC_LIBTOOL_DLOPEN in the package's configure.in, and arrange to have -dlopen self passed on the libtool link line.

Work on the full inter-library dependency support is now complete on the ild-branch of the repository, and is ready for merging onto the trunk for testing. It looks very much as though libtool-1.3 will have full ILD now!

There is some contention as to how we should best build one of the two binaries required on architectures which need to link executables which use installed libraries differently than when they use equivalent uninstalled binaries (currently we know about Linux and Irix). Some of us want to link the installable objects during the actual install; some of us want to link the objects which use uninstalled libraries on demand as they are executed in the build tree...

Fri Feb 05 18:40:38 GMT 1999

Gary V. Vaughan

A HUGE thread about the automatic use of -rpath for libtool libraries on linux dominated the list this week. Ultimately, we (the libtool maintainers) await a patch to prevent libtool from using -rpath for system directories in /etc/ld.so.cache (not a typo). The root of the problem is that most linux distributions have upgraded their system to glibc (libc.so.6) by replacing all of the libc5 dependant libraries with their glibc equivalents. This becomes a big problem when someone tries to run a binary which was compiled with -rpath on a libc5 era distribution on a new machine which has replaced to libc5 dependant libraries with new versions linked against glibc, but without amending the soname of the new versions to clue the runtime linker in on the new dependencies. RedHat got around the problem by patching ld.so to search LD_LIBRARY_PATH before -rpath.

We are looking to release libtool-1.2f as a 1.3 candidate after a few oustanding issues have been resolved:

  • The documentation is still not quite in line with the code, and needs a little tidying.
  • We need to find a way to allow some platforms to explicitly exclude some symbols from dlpreopening symbol lists, in order for SunOS4 and FreeBSD to be able to pass `make check'.

The full inter-library dependencies support we wanted to get into 1.3 just got a whole lot more complicated. We want for executables and libraries to be able to link against a mixture of installed and uninstalled (libtool and non-libtool) libraries in the build directory so that tests can be run with the correct linkage. And libtool needs to be able to relink those targets against the installed libraries at install time.

The milestones are now as follows:

  1. Selective symbol exporting and documentation cleanups for libtool-1.2f alpha release.
  2. Fix any problems with libtool-1.2f alpha for libtool-1.3 release.
  3. Finish up ILD, and merge back into the main source for libtool-1.4 (probably an alpha or two in between too).
  4. Release-1.5 as soon as win32 dll data symbol exporting works transparently along with whatever other features we have by this time.

Somewhere along the way, or maybe after these releases, we would like to move all of ltconfig.in into libtool.m4 so that it runs as part of the configure script; and port ltmain.sh to C. The former may happen relatively soon. the latter probably won't!

Fri Jan 29 16:01:53 GMT 1999

Gary V. Vaughan

Overhauled the web-site somewhat, and added a news page so that we can put up interesting items for people who are interested in libtool, but aren't subscribed to the mailing lists. We will try to update this on a weekly basis (or so), provided there is something interesting to say!

A few tidbits to get us started:

  • The release of libtool-1.3 is imminent, just as soon as we have fixed all known bugs in the 1.2d alpha. Many fixes are already in the cvs repository (version 1.2e).
  • There is a cvs branch for development of full support for linking with inter-library dependencies, which might make it into the 1.3 release.

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Last modified: Last modified: Sun May 28 02:31:35 BST 2000