Building using external libraries (libjpeg / libtiff)

[hpreusse]

The xdvipsk uses the graphlib library, which in turn uses (libjpeg / libtiff). Currently these libraries are delivered with the xdvipsk package in the thirdparty subdir, which are compiled in addition and are statically linked. It would be very good, if the xdvipsk could use (libjpeg / libtiff) libraries, which are already installled on the system, i.e. read the header files of these libraries and link dynamically with the libraries.
For packaging software in the Linux area this is a quite common method, b/c we don't have to care about updating the libraries, for whatever reason. Maybe my request is already implemented, I just missed it. Let me know is this case. Many thanks!

[sigto]

The aim was to keep the xdvipsk package stable and independent of different system library versions. What other preferences do you see in dynamically linking, apart from the smaller binary size?

[hpreusse]

The main idea behind that request is that we don't have to care about the libraries we link with. Especially the libjpeg and the libtiff had security issues in the past, and it would be nice if we would not have to care about this kind of issues.
I'm the packager of the TeX packages in the Debian project so I have to care about the code even for a longer time and code deduplication is one method to avoid trouble. Many thanks for caring and answering.

[sigto]

Ok, I got your point. In the current situation, the security issues of libraries should be our primary concern. I’m going to look into refactoring the build setup, but I can't guarantee a quick turnaround on this one. I need some spare time. By the way, are you building xdvipsk for Debian project and not using prebuilds from the TeX Live distribution?

[hpreusse]

The Debian distribution accepts source only uploads, further we support architectures, where no prebuilt binaries e.g. loongson. So I have to rebuild anyway.
Many thanks for accepting the challenge, take your time. For now I'll upload statically linked binaries and will turn to dynamic linking later. Thanks again!

[sigto]

Configure options --with-system-libjpeg and --with-system-libtiff are available now. A partial tree of the TeXLive source code has been added to enable the compilation of the binary in place, without the need for additional files.

[hpreusse]

Thanks for that, i'll test it ASAP.