USES = libtool and missing .la files [WAS Re: pkg-plist for devel/glib20]

[gtodd at bellanet.org]

On Sun, 7 Sep 2014, Cary wrote:
> Here it shows a diff for pkg-plist of port devel/glib20:
>
> http://svnweb.freebsd.org/ports/head/devel/glib20/pkg-plist?r1=324037&r2=366944
>
> Five files which the port is building are not being installed. They are:
>
> lib/libgio-2.0.la
> lib/libglib-2.0.la
> lib/libgmodule-2.0.la
> lib/libgobject-2.0.la
> lib/libgthread-2.0.la
>
> In my directory /usr/ports/devel/glib20:
>
> $ find work/ -type f -name "libg[ilmot]*-2.0.la"
> work/glib-2.36.3/gio/libgio-2.0.la
> work/glib-2.36.3/gthread/libgthread-2.0.la
> work/glib-2.36.3/glib/libglib-2.0.la
> work/glib-2.36.3/gmodule/libgmodule-2.0.la
> work/glib-2.36.3/gobject/libgobject-2.0.la
>
> So far two other builds have failed for me because
> two of the above listed files were not found.
> Ports that failed to build were :
> gnome-desktop-2.32.1_4         x11/gnome-desktop
> xfce4-desktop-4.10.2_2         x11-wm/xfce4-desktop

For the last few days I have been seeing the same thing scattered around 
the ports tree. It seems various libtool archive files (e.g. the above as 
well as libiconv.la, liffi.la, probably others ...) are no longer being 
installed. When subsequent builds are run they are unable to find libtool 
archive "dependencies". e.g. libpurple will fail not finding 
libgobject.2.0.la ... copying libgobject.2.0.la from previous package or 
backup will allow the build to proceed until another missing *.la file 
causes the build to fail. And so on ...

I have not been continuously building ports so I can't say when the 
failures started but a larger number of ports began to include 
'USES=libtool ' about a week ago. Perhaps pkg-plist files are not
including the files due to this change.

/usr/port/UPDATING doesn not warn of any problems or fallout from 
'USES=libtool'. How best to resolve this?

cheers,

G. Todd