Hey folks, this morning I filed this:
https://gnats.netbsd.org/60600
TL;DR - it’s largely a waste to run ldconfig(8) on every boot on platforms that
once had a.out shared libraries because NetBSD adopted ELF more than 20 years
ago, and even the platforms that were stragglers got their cute little pointy
green hats way more than a decade ago. As such, I would assert that the
presence of a.out shared libraries is vanishingly rare, and this rarity means
the costs that must be paid to run ldconfig(8) are boot time are not worth the
benefit for the overwhelming majority of people who are using such platforms
(note this is of NO consequence to amd64 or aarch64 users; y’all have never had
a.out shared libraries - consider yourselves lucky).
I’d like to change the default to ldconfig=NO. This can save a considerable
amount of time at boot on an I/O-constrained machine (especially if
makemandb(8) is also running in the background as it does on every boot, which
also makes my blood boil but that’s a separate discussion).
Of course, people who need / want to pay the cost of running ldconfig(8) at
boot are certainly free to do so, but I don’t think the cost should be paid by
everyone.
Ok, discuss!
-- thorpej
