httpd, htpasswd, htdigest, and the other main applications need to be built with static libraries. In other words, they must not be linked against libapr.so and friends.
Why? Because otherwise we make life difficult for users, and make violation of the Principle of Least Astonishment a virtual certainty. Assume we provide binaries that are linked against dynamic libraries, and then consider someone who has an Apache installation (whether built from source or installed from RPM or other package is immaterial) who copies the existing tree to another directory tree for testing or whatever reason. Everything in the second tree will work fine -- until something changes in the original tree, such as it being deleted or upgraded. Since the original library locations are hard-coded in the binaries that were copied, they no longer work -- perhaps spectacularly. Similarly, it is unacceptable for someone to copy htpasswd (for instance) from one system to another and have it hork because of differing versions or locations of the libraries. If we didn't include the libraries in our package, but specified them as prerequisites instead, this wouldn't be a problem -- everything that used the libraries would probably access them from some standard system location. But since we're so tightly tied to them and force the httpd-and-other apps to be built against the versions included, we need to make sure those builds include the libraries statically. -- #ken P-)} Ken Coar, Sanagendamgagwedweinini http://Golux.Com/coar/ Author, developer, opinionist http://Apache-Server.Com/ "Millenium hand and shrimp!"
