Fwd: Re: [OTR-users] otr plugin doesn't show up

[Greg Troxel]

  However, does anyone know if this will cause any problems in the future?
   I obviously want to install this library correctly.

Hard to tell - this is really something you should ask on a Debian
support list.  Each OS has rules about where programs go and how
shared libraries are handled.  Debian at least used to be opposed to
-rpath, and it's pretty clear your problems are about shared library
searching.

Generally, one should only put programs under the control of the
package system in directories owned by the package system, and put
other programs elsewhere.

  hackstock:/home/faber# ldd /usr/local/lib/gaim/gaim-otr.so 
          libgcrypt.so.11 => /usr/lib/libgcrypt.so.11 (0x40018000)
          libgpg-error.so.0 => /usr/lib/libgpg-error.so.0 (0x40065000)
          libotr.so.2 => /usr/lib/libotr.so.2 (0x4006a000)
          libc.so.6 => /lib/libc.so.6 (0x40079000)
          libnsl.so.1 => /lib/libnsl.so.1 (0x401ac000)
          /lib/ld-linux.so.2 => /lib/ld-linux.so.2 (0x80000000)

That *ought* to indicate that libotr.so.o2 was found in /usr/lib.

  Now, if I'm right, gaim was looking for libotr in /usr/lib/.  I poked
  around on the Debian website for a while, and found the .deb package for
  a slightly older version of libotr, and it showed that when installed,
  it places libotr.so.2 into /usr/lib.

But this is about where Debian things programs in .debs should go, not
where otr belongs in some larger sense.  (That's fine of Debian to
specify where to put programs; just pointing out that it's a package
thing not an otr thing.)

  So, I cp'd libotr.so.2 into
  /usr/lib -- and it instantly showed up in the gaim plugins list when I
  restarted -- and didn't throw any error messages.

This is asking for later trouble IMHO - you've put a file into /usr
which is managed by the package system.

A cleaner fix is to tell the system to look in /usr/local/lib for
libraries.  Using -R/usr/local/lib on the link link for gaim-otr
should also do this, but if Debian still discourages rpath you should
ask the Debian people what you should do instead.

  I was able to
  establish an encrypted chat session with another friend who has the same
  version of OTR running, and all seems to be well.

More specifically, gaim appears to have correctly loaded gaim-otr and
libotr.  Whether things are really in the right place is another
matter, but it's good that you are now running.

-- 
        Greg Troxel <gdt at ir.bbn.com>