[GRASS-dev] Reasons for GDAL dynamic library load in code?

[Glynn Clements]

Vaclav Petras wrote:

> To be sure removing it completely is a good step, I wanted to check the
> original motivation. Any ideas? The commit message doesn't mention the
> motivation and I'm not getting anything from Internet searches.

Dependencies. GDAL has lots of them. If libraster is linked directly
against GDAL and one of the GDAL dependencies is missing or broken,
GRASS will be almost completely non-functional.

By using dlopen(), if there's an issue with GDAL it only matters if
you try to use GDAL-linked (r.external) maps.

This isn't an issue if you're getting GRASS (and everything it depends
upon) via your distribution's package manager. It may be an issue for
DIY builds.