Re: Understanding -static

[Peter O'Gorman]

Akim Demaille wrote:

> Right.  But linking statically a dynamic library doesn't sound
> absurd to me (but I may be naive here).  At least, it works fine
> on GNU/Linux.
>
> > Perhaps libtool should complain that -static was specified and no  static
> > library was available in this case? How on earth does linux manage  this?
>
>
> What is the problem actually?

Part of the problem is probably my total failure to understand why/how this 
works on GNU/Linux. Does libtool generate a wrapper script for the 
executable there? Or does it include the path to the libraries build time 
location in the rpath?

Since darwin does not yet have rpath the location that the shared library 
will be at after it is installed is stored in the executable (and other 
shared libraries), which means that a wrapper script would be required in 
this circumstance. I suppose the fact that the wrapper script is not 
generated is a bug :( It should be possible for libtool to figure out if it 
has both the -static flag and a shared library on the link line for and 
generate a wrapper script if that is the case, I'll need to look into it.


> When I use gcc directly, I have a weird failure.
>
> sulaco% g++ -o hw main.o -static ./.libs/libhw.dylib
> ld: can't locate file for: -lcrt0.o
>
> There is nothing like crt0 on my machine.

Apple does not support complete static linking, the best explanation I could 
find as to why is here: 
<http://lists.apple.com/archives/unix-porting/2004/Mar/msg00059.html>, Jim 
Magee, the author of that mail is, I believe, a lead developer in the kernel 
group at Apple.

Peter
--
Peter O'Gorman - http://www.pogma.com