Description of problem: We use an AMD64 machine running 64-bit Fedora 3 to build 32-bit-compatible executables and we are missing the 32-bit /usr/lib/libreadline.a and .so. The installed rpm is readline-devel-4.3-13. A short term workaround is to copy /usr/lib/libreadline.a from a 32-bit FC3 machine. (See also bug 106882, thanks for fixing that). K.O.
http://download.fedora.redhat.com/pub/fedora/linux/core/3/x86_64/os/Fedora/RPMS/ shows an i386 readline package, ready to install. If 'rpm -q readline' only shows one, you need to install the i386 package too.
Sorry, you gave the wrong answer (the "readline" package does not contain libreadline.a). Here is the correct answer: /usr/lib/libreadline.a is in the i386 "readline-devel" rpm and this rpm installs cleanly on amd64 FC3. In our environment, where we mostly build 32-bit binaries, we would prefer to have all 32-bit development libraries installed by the "install everything" install method. K.O.
(Multilib devel packages.)
32-bit development libraries conflict in many cases. That's why only a small set (the LSB set, generally) is included.