Re: [MIT-Scheme-devel] liarc object file type

[Chris Hanson]

Taylor R Campbell wrote:
> Currently, we generate `.dylib' files on OS X and `.sl' files on HP-UX
> (if that is ever still used anywhere), but `.so' files everywhere
> else.  Is it actually important to use a different file type on
> different hosts?  It only complicates scripts to build, install, and
> clean, which have to know based on the host operating system what file
> type the relevant files will be; I don't know whether anything
> actually relies on using `.dylib' on OS X -- it works just as well to
> use `.so', even if it's unconventional in the context.

At this point we care only about GNU/Linux and *BSD systems.  If OS X
doesn't care about the suffix, and other systems use .so, by all means
let's use .so.

I think this doesn't matter much since the libraries in question are
private, and are always loaded explicitly rather than implicitly.  If
the suffix matters, it probably matters only for implicit loads.