Re: [Plib-users] problems with configure

[Steve B. <sjb...@ai...>]

Philip Brown wrote:
> 
> [ Steve Baker writes ]
> > Philip Brown wrote:
> > >
> > > configure does not seem to be picking up my installation of mesa.
> > >
> > > I have /usr/local/include/GL/gl.h, etc.
> > > I have /usr/local/lib/libGL.so
> >
> > Those are not the correct places. OpenGL *MUST* be installed here:
> >
> >    /usr/include/GL/gl.h
> >    /usr/lib/libGL.so
> >    /usr/lib/libGLU.so
> >
> > These are the 'official' locations on every Linux/UNIX derivative
> > I can think of.
> 
> That is not true. It is commonly installed in /usr/local

Commonly - perhaps - but certainly incorrectly.

I refer you to the standard:

  http://oss.sgi.com/projects/ogl-sample/ABI/

...this is the standard for Linux, IRIX has always been this way, 
BSD and Solaris.

The practical problem with allowing libraries (especially OpenGL)
to be in any of a gazillion places is that people frequently get
one OpenGL installed on their machine (hopefully in the correct
place) then install another somewhere else when they get the right
version for their hardware - they frequently have it installed in
three or four places (/usr/X11R6/lib is another frequent place).

What happens is that the wrong one gets loaded in some programs
and not others - and the resulting complaint ("Program X runs
fast, program Y crashes and program Z runs - but really slowly")
is *REALLY* hard to diagnose...not only do you not know which
library is installed in which of the usual places - but you also
don't know which one the complex interaction of symlinks, configure
'guesses', ldconfig and /etc/ld.so.conf may have landed you with.

Hence there is now ONE STANDARD - agreed by more or less everyone.

It works - it's the rule.

-- 
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