[Q] shared version of libobjc

[Kazunobu Kuriyama]

Hi,

I recently built gcc-3.4.2 with the configure option --enable-shared and
found
that the option yielded a shared version of libobjc, i.e., libobjc.so.1.0.0.
The build/host/target system was i686-pc-gnu-linux.

It may sound quite natural; however, the installation manual of GCC says:

<<quote>>
--enable-shared[=package[,...]]

Build shared versions of libraries, if shared libraries are supported on the
target platform. Unlike GCC 2.95.x and earlier, shared libraries are enabled
by default on all platforms that support shared libraries, except for
libobjc
which is built as a static library only by default.

If a list of packages is given as an argument, build shared libraries
only for
the listed packages. For other packages, only static libraries will be
built.
Package names currently recognized in the GCC tree are libgcc (also
known as gcc),
libstdc++ (not libstdc++-v3), libffi, zlib, boehm-gc and libjava. Note
that libobjc
does not recognize itself by any name, so, if you list package names in
--enable-shared, you will only get static Objective-C libraries. libf2c and
libiberty do not support shared libraries at all.
<<end quote>>

So, if the instruction above is correct, what I got is something we've never
expected to have! That contradiction makes me anxious about the usability of
the shared version.

As the manual or other documents say nothing about if, I'm wondering if
I can
rely on it.

Does anyone knows something about it?

Thanks,
Kazunobu Kuriyama