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We originally used to carry both statically and dynamically linked binaries
for packages on the archive in order to provide wider platform support
(e.g. we built the statically linked binaries with PA-RISC 1.0 flags, but the
dynamically linked binaries were built with PA-RISC 1.1 flags) and also to
eliminate the need for dependencies if so desired (in general, statically
linked binaries had no dependencies on other packages in the archive).
However, those benefits were eventually outweighed by 1) the phasing out
of PA-RISC 1.0 machines from HP's product line, 2) the increased complexity
of the builds (because HP don't ship .sl versions of some .a libraries,
this necessitated "spelling out" the full path [e.g. /usr/lib/libPW.a] to
a library, rather than using the shorter variant [e.g. -lPW]), 3) the
necessity of linking static binaries with /usr/lib/dld.sl (see the WARNINGS
section of "man 3C iconv") and 4) the much greater size of the statically
linked binaries compared to the dynamically linked binaries (resulting in
excessive disk usage and, of course, much longer download times).
Hence, the decision was taken to eliminate all statically linked binaries
from the archive and this has now been achieved. By freeing up a substanital
amount of disk space, we were better prepared to host five binary platforms
(now PA-RISC 11.11 and PA-RISC/Itanium 11.23/11.31) rather than just one.
In case you're wondering why we didn't just buy bigger
disks, remember that this means 4 * the extra disks of course (we have
4 official sites), so that isn't a viable solution.
Note that we are now listing the (usually shared library)
run-time dependencies
for dynamically linked packages on each package's Web page - you should
transfer and install those run-time dependencies first prior to
installing the dynamic binary package you originally wished to install.
If a package
doesn't have any run-time dependencies, then this usually means that
its binary depot can be transferred and installed without needing to obtain
and install other binary depots first. Note that there are often additional
build-time dependencies required if you are building the package from
source code - those build-time dependencies are always a superset of the
run-time dependencies and usually include further packages to be installed
(particularly make).
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