Bug 583689

Actually make looks for -lblah, in this order:
 * in the current directory
 * in VPATH
 * in /lib
 * in /usr/lib
 * in LIBDIR, as specified during the build of make itself

So one way to fix this is to use the VPATH variable or the vpath directive:
$ echo 'all: -ldb-4.7; @echo $^' | make -f -
/lib/libdb-4.7.so
$ echo 'all: -ldb-4.7; @echo $^' | make -f - VPATH=/usr/lib64/
/usr/lib64/libdb-4.7.so
$ echo -e 'vpath lib%.so /usr/lib64\nall: -ldb-4.7; @echo $^' | make -f -
/usr/lib64/libdb-4.7.so

Using vpath directive strikes as a rather safe solution, since you can limit the effect only to libraries (as opposed to VPATH, which will affect everything).

One adjustment that I can think of is to put LIBDIR in front of /lib and /usr/lib.  Then 64bit make would favor 64bit libraries and 32bit make 32bit libraries, which is presumably what you usually want.  It's not bulletproof, but there's probably fewer cross builds done than straight ones, so it's "less broken".

Definitive solution would probably be to introduce LPATH, VPATH-like variable that would only be applicable for lookup of "-lblah" dependencies.  But I don't particularly like the idea of complicating this obscure edge of make further.

Created attachment 407991 [details]
Patch series to add LIBDIRNAME, adjust search order, etc.

How about a solution that exactly addresses the problem: introduce a LIBDIRNAME variable that determines the path component appended to /, /usr, and EXEC_PREFIX when searching for libraries.  Putting EXEC_PREFIX before / and /usr is also the right thing to do, because "local" dirs belong first on search paths, though it will not give additional benefit in this case.

This is implemented, along with some code cleanup, in the attached patch series.  If it would be better to take the proposal upstream, I will do that.

Hey, I noticed that you took the report upstream.  Thanks.

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