Dynamically link .so files

[lperkins2]

TL;DR

Move the statically linked libraries out of the executable and into a lib directory.

What ?

Currently, a number of libraries (libSDL et cetera) are statically linked into the game executable (on Linux), which makes it impossible to replace these libraries with the OS provided versions. I would like to see these linked libraries moved out of the executable and into a lib directory. A launcher script would then handle setting the LD_LIBRARY_PATH or LD_PRELOAD variables before invoking the factorio executable.

Why ?

These are libraries that are often provided by the OS. While the bundled versions work well enough for most people, most of the time, they often are compiled without settings that might be useful to particular users. Additionally, letting users provide these libraries increases variety of systems that can successfully run Factorio, and will let the more advanced users debug and work around issues that would otherwise take up developer time. It's also a fairly standard approach to application packaging on *nix systems.

[Rseding91]

No. We specifically statically link as much as possible because we don't want anyone to change the libraries we use - every single one of them has been modified by us in some way to make them work with Factorio.

[dee-]

So, being also an online game with reachable servers (reotely accessible) and the capability to include modder's files (spiced images, etc.), you provide security updates for the statically linked libs?

At least that's the way our contractors handle those situations: "Build an apache yourself because the Kerberos packages are not available for that platform? Great, here, have full support obligations."