Re: Statically linked binary & NSS

[Roland McGrath <roland@frob.com>]

> Roland McGrath <roland@frob.com> writes:
> 
> > Don't be silly.  Static linking has its uses, though not many of them, and
> > people should be able to use it when they want to.  I certainly agree that
> > it's not a priority for spending time on.
> 
> Tell me about one program beside fsck which has to be linked statically?

Every sane distribution statically links their installation programs, so
you can use them to recover when libc gets completely scrod.  Many things
that get put on boot floppies wind up statically linked.  There are others.

> The reasons behind this are good: it allows to change the
> implementation of the library and the OS.  This is very important for
> applications which should continue to run in some years.

Those are some of the good reasons why people will (and in fact do) very
rarely choose to use static linking.  But there are some situations where
it is appropriate.