Re: autoconf linking with shared object

[Brian Dessent]

Matt Kowalczyk wrote:

> This forces me to add /usr/lib/libcrypto.so to the gcc command when I link the
> object to produce an executable for instance.  My gcc command looks something
> like below:
> 
> gcc --pedantic -Wall -std=c99 -O2 -g -O2 /usr/lib/libcrypto.so  -o main  
> Main.o
> my_md5.o

You really should not specify the full filename/path of the library like
that.  In addition to the reasons already given by others, not every
system uses ".so" as the extension of shared libraries.  Some call it
.dylib, some .dll, and so on.  Some people might want to statically
link.  Some people might want to link against a copy of the library
installed elsewhere.  "-lcrypto" handles all of these cases.

Brian