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> > Support for loadable gconv transliteration modules has been removed. > And there was much rejoicing. Could you explain why?

• JoshTriplett 12y ago
  That gconv module support involved loading shared libraries from a special directory (for instance, /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/gconv/ on systems using multiarch paths, such as Debian). This had several problems: 1) glibc supported this even if statically linked, and could encounter runtime issues if the gconv modules found did not match glibc. For instance, if you shipped a statically linked binary. 2) glibc can handle not finding these modules at all, but once it finds them, if they fail to work glibc can choke and die. 3) These modules take up quite a lot of space, and glibc installs them by default. If you're building a space-constrained or embedded system, you'd want to remove them.