Compiling Library Into Program.

[Shogun]

Hi,
I have some memory of you being able to link a library statically if you want to make sure that the program runs on other computers, even if they do not have the library they use installed.

I have searched google, the forums and the gcc website, but I can't find out how this is done, so I'm simply asking: if this is possible and if it is how you do it?

[Salem]

Read the manual on the linker (ld)
Read about the "-static" linker option

[Shogun]

so I should for example use:

ld -llib -static  -o test.o

?

[Salem]

The manual page suggests that -static should be earlier on the command line

[Shogun]

so

ld -static -o test.o -llib

?

so the "-llib" is in the [file....] in the:

ld [ option ...	] [ file ...  ]

?

[chrismiceli]

You are right, but why don't use just link allowing gcc to pass the linker the options, such as this

gcc -static test.c -o test -lblah

But both work. Read this chapter of advanced linux programming to see how they both work:
http://www.advancedlinuxprogramming....x-software.pdf

[Shogun]

When I try this I get the following:

ld: can't locate file for: -lcrt0.o

I have now made a sarch for "crt" and I found crt1.o and crt2.o but no crt0.o, is this important and how do I fix it?

[chrismiceli]

Take off the .o in the -l part, like this

gcc -o file file.c -lblah
/*not*/
gcc -o file file.c -lblah.o

Also make sure the library is in the current directory or a system one for libraries, if not, you have to use the -L option to gcc.

[Shogun]

I don't have the .o in the library, I'm not even calling it,no clue where it came from, I search my SDK when I saw the message and I don't have that very library but I have crt1 and crt2...

[Shogun]

I made some more searching and I found the following:
guess I can't link stuff statically.. I wounder if there is any other way to do it, I'll have to do some more lookin around...

[Salem]

Driving the linker directly sucks, there is too much to get right.
If you really want to know, just compile a small program with the -v option, and see how complex a linker command line can be.

This works just fine here

$ gcc generic.c && ls -l a.out && file a.out
-rwxrwxr-x         11586 Nov 30 19:28 a.out
a.out: ELF 32-bit LSB executable, Intel 80386, version 1 (SYSV), dynamically linked (uses shared libs), not stripped
$ gcc generic.c -static && ls -l a.out && file a.out
-rwxrwxr-x        447193 Nov 30 19:28 a.out
a.out: ELF 32-bit LSB executable, Intel 80386, version 1 (SYSV), statically linked, not stripped

Obvious to tell that it's statically linked by the sudden jump in the size of the program executable.