On 21-Mar-23 04:34, Darshan Sen via curl-library wrote:
Hi! I'd like to incorporate a custom build of libcurl (with HTTP3 support) into a Node.js C++ addon <https://nodejs.org/api/addons.html> that is going to be shipped to some systems that don't have curl or its dependencies installed.From what I can tell, the possible ways in which this can be done are -* build a fully relocatable version of libcurl and the dependency libraries * statically compile libcurl into my applicationI'm not sure if there are any better solutions to this. What is the recommended way of doing this?
It depends. So you'll probably get several answers.If you take either of the choices you suggest, you also take on the maintenance task for libcurl and the libraries it depends on. That means you'll have to update your addon whenever they have an issue that affects your addon - including security issues.
The more components you ship, the greater the work you take on. And a normal build of libcurl has quite a few dependencies. I only build a subset, but a quick ldd on libcurl.so lists 26. (Of course, some will be installed on most any system.) There is no unified schedule for their releases, so across all the libraries, you may see an issue every week. But the advantage is that your customers have a simple install, and only one vendor (you) to deal with.
The alternative is to simply state that libcurl (and thus its dependencies) is a dependency of your addon, and require that it's installed. If you are distributing your addon via a package manager, this is pretty simple - you specify libcurl and it's minimum version, and the rest is handled automatically. The distributions enforce a release schedule for the other libraries that consolidates the library updates. The downside is you don't control the exact configuration of libcurl, and your addon will probably encounter more versions of libcurl than if you packaged it. libcurl has a stable API, but if you accidentally (or intentionally) rely on undocumented behaviors, this could be an issue.
Unless you have the resources to devote to supporting a private distribution of libcurl et. al. for your customers, I'd simply make libcurl a dependency. It's less work for you, and consistent with the way most distributions work.
I'd have to see a very compelling use case to invest resources in a private distribution. While it may seem simpler now, the long-term costs tend to become large.
You'll have to decide what's best for you and your customers. Timothe Litt ACM Distinguished Engineer -------------------------- This communication may not represent the ACM or my employer's views, if any, on the matters discussed.
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