Bug#582865: [libglib2.0-dev] pkg-config requires too many libraries

[Peter Fritzsche]

Package: libglib2.0-dev
Version: 2.24.1-1
Severity: normal

I tried to package some software which uses gmodule-2.0 and libgobject-2.0. 
Now dpkg-shlibdeps just hammers my output with messages like 

dependency on xxxx could be avoided if ....


I checked your /usr/lib/pkgconfig/gmodule-2.0.pc and noticed that there is a 
Require statement with many other pkg-config files. libgmodule-2.0.so.0.2400.1
doesn't seem have have so have unresolved symbols. So either the header files 
generate code which creates otherwise unresolved symbols or you don't use 
Require in /usr/lib/pkgconfig/gtk+-2.0.pc correctly. Please see the difference 
with Require.private in gmodule-2.0:

$ pkg-config --cflags gobject-2.0 gmodule-2.0
-pthread -I/usr/include/glib-2.0 -I/usr/lib/glib-2.0/include+
$ pkg-config --libs gobject-2.0 gmodule-2.0 
-Wl,--export-dynamic -pthread -lgobject-2.0 -lgmodule-2.0 -lrt

How it looks now:
$ pkg-config --cflags gobject-2.0 gmodule-2.0
-pthread -I/usr/include/glib-2.0 -I/usr/lib/glib-2.0/include
$ pkg-config --libs gobject-2.0 gmodule-2.0 
-pthread -Wl,--export-dynamic -lgobject-2.0 -lgthread-2.0 -lgmodule-2.0 -lrt -
lglib-2.0

So the cflags are untouched, but the libs are a lot cleaner for non static 
compilations. Please change it to Require.private or give a good reason not to 
do so (broken build systems of other applications are no good reason). It 
should cleanup many dependencies in our repository which aren't needed at all 
and only happens due to gmodule's and gobject's bad pkg-config file.

Maybe someone can check too why -pthread and -lrt is needed. I don't see a 
reason here.


--- System information. ---
Architecture: amd64
Kernel:       Linux 2.6.32-5-amd64

Debian Release: squeeze/sid
  500 unstable        ftp.uni-kl.de 
  500 unstable        ftp.debian.org 
    1 experimental    ftp.debian.org 

--- Package information. ---
Depends             (Version) | Installed
=============================-+-=============
libc6              (>= 2.2.5) | 2.10.2-9
libpcre3             (>= 7.7) | 8.02-1
libglib2.0-0     (= 2.24.1-1) | 2.24.1-1
pkg-config        (>= 0.14.0) | 0.24-1
zlib1g-dev                    | 1:1.2.3.4.dfsg-3


Recommends      (Version) | Installed
=========================-+-===========
python                    | 2.5.4-9


Suggests            (Version) | Installed
=============================-+-===========
libglib2.0-doc                |