FWIW firefox has update checker - and linux packagers explicitly disable it..
BTW: Just to reword Jed's statement - its not 'library' thats doing the check - but the petsc makefile [ via 'chkopts' target] at example/application compile time. BTW: Presumably your patch is the following: Satish ------ $ git diff |cat diff --git a/conf/rules b/conf/rules index f4b12c8..fe98ece 100644 --- a/conf/rules +++ b/conf/rules @@ -62,7 +62,7 @@ chklib_dir: chk_makej # 3. Check if the shared libs are out of date -chkopts: chk_upgrade +chkopts: @for LIBNAME in ${SHLIBS}; do \ library=${INSTALL_LIB_DIR}/$$LIBNAME.a; \ sharedlibrary=${INSTALL_LIB_DIR}/$$LIBNAME.${SL_LINKER_SUFFIX}; \ On Tue, 11 Nov 2014, Aron Ahmadia wrote: > FWIW, I'm introducing a patch in the PETSc distribution in HashStack to > disable this check from the Makefiles. I see the value of this being an > opt-in check the user can run: `make info; make self-update`, but not an > automated check unless the user opts-in at configure. That's the > responsibility of the system/package manager, not a library. > > A > > On Tue, Nov 11, 2014 at 11:21 PM, Karl Rupp <r...@iue.tuwien.ac.at> wrote: > > > Hi, > > > > There is a difference between a library and an end-user application. > >> Having "updaters" for end-user applications seems to be the status quo > >> on Windows and to a lesser extent on Macs, but is resented on Linux. > >> Having a library do these checks is not okay anywhere. > >> > > > > I remember a session at the Google Summer of Code where some guy from one > > of the open source wikis shared his experiences with having embedded a > > 'counter pixel' in a release. In short, his lesson learned was that any > > kind of "phoning home" is an absolute no-go unless made *very* clear to the > > users (plus opt-out). This was pre-Snowden, so many people are now much > > more sensible with respect to these matters... > > > > Best regards, > > Karli > > > > >