so I know that you can't depend a static library to another one but i was wondering if there is something that lets me combine them together. I am trying to setup a game engine project file in vstudio 2019 and i want to compile it as a static library. I need in some way to combine it with SDL 2 library because I want create some systems using SDL. Is there a way I can do that?
Thanks for the help.
When creating a library, you can specify "Additional dependencies" in the "Librarian" properties of the project. The dependency may be another library. Also set "Link Library Dependencies" to "Yes" so that the whole library is included.
Sure you can have one static library depend on another. A static library is, roughly, a collection of independent compiled objects, with a "settling" of their provided and required symbol table. Those symbols that aren't found within the static library itself continue to be dependencies, which may well be provided by another static library.
Depending on your platform, there are tools for working with compiled libraries. On Unix-like operating systems, you would use the ar utility to combine static libraries ("archives") in various ways:
How to merge two "ar" static libraries into one?
On windows, there's the LIB.EXE tool. See:
How to merge two windows vc static library into one
Related
I have two static libraries lib1.lib, lib2.lib (not their code) with the same function-prototypes, but with different implementations.
I tried including both, and it seems to use always the implementation from the first library included.
If I include both of them in my project, is there a way to choose the implementation from a specific library?
I think it should be possible to write thin wrapper DLL's that link against each of the static libraries. Notice that this will only work if lib1.lib and lib2.lib are static libraries and that such a wrapping will incur a performance hit.
I've got a huge application here called HugeApp, it needs different libraries (which I've coded) and some of these libraries might need dependencies (other libs coming from the internet or ad hoc lib developped here).
I was wondering, if it was feasible and/or a good idea to hide some of these dependencies from HugeApp.
Let's say that you make a library in charge of doing the encrypted communication on a system, does the top application care and/or needs to know that there is some encryption libraries that are needed for this part (comms) of the system? It might be implementation specific... or not...
Thank you
There's no need for it to know, if you build those libraries as external DLL's then the external libraries are the only thing that care about the dependency. If you add a reference to the pre-built DLL then HugeApp doesn't need to know about the dependencies of the library (as long as they are either present in the library or the appropriate DLL or lib file is present so that your dll can make use of it). If anything your library can be another project altogether and you can include a reference to that in which case the project of your HugeApp only cares about that main reference and the other project will handle everything else.
If you enable /OPT:REF in linker optimizations it you will list which (if any) libraries that have no functions or data used by the project during link time. You can then remove them from the dependency list and link line in project settings. This will reduce the chance of removing a static library that is a dependency of another static library if any are present/used in your VS solution.
I am working on a project with SDL. I feel like a lot of my code could/should be reusable for any other projects I might want to take on.
I was going to start a library project, but I don't know how to go about linking to the SDL libraries.
Usually, I go to Project Settings and edited Mingw32 Linker to include the libraries (ming32, SDLmain, and SDL). But the linker does not show up in the settings.
So my questions:
Is there no linker settings because building a library is only a compiling operation?
And in general, is it possible to build a library on top of the existing libraries? That is, write my library using SDL functions and stucts. Or would I have to get the source code and rebuild entirely with my code included?
Also, advice on shared vs. static in this instance?
(Also, any advice for where to go about learning more about compilers and linkers and such. I got through data structures in school but no farther)
As an introduction, you have to distinguish very well static library from dynamic ones, they are completely different beasts... said that, to your questions:
Is there no linker settings because building a library is only a compiling operation?
I guess you are creating a static library in this case. A static library is simply the collection in one single object file of all the individual object files (i.e., the .o files produced by the compiler) that make up your source tree. No more, no less.
With a static library you don't need to specify which are the dependencies, since it is understood that it is when compiling the final executable that your library will be linked with all the other libraries that it depends upon. Therefore it is only at that time (final executable build) that any missing symbol will be detected, and all other libraries must be available.
A shared library (also dynamic library), is an executable file that embeds all the static libraries that it depends upon. It can also have external dependencies with other shared library, which would not be embedded.
And in general, is it possible to build a library on top of the existing libraries? That is, write my library using SDL functions and stucts. Or would I have to get the source code and rebuild entirely with my code included?
It is perfectly possible, both for static and dynamic libraries.
Also, advice on shared vs. static in this instance?
In this instance it is not possible to advice, because you don't specify enough information.
Look at this: When to use dynamic vs. static libraries, and this, to have a sort of guideline.
(Also, any advice for where to go about learning more about compilers and linkers and such. I got through data structures in school but no farther)
I think that the two links above give you plenty of information. If you want to further go into details, you could start from this wikipedia article and browse from there.
The library you are building can have external dependencies. That means that you can link it with SDL or any other external libraries that you like.
I think this page explains all your other questions: DLL Creation in MingW
I've noticed that there seem to be two approaches to linking: a flat and a hierarchical way.
Let me illustrate with two examples:
A Visual Studio solution can contain multiple projects with one of them being the main project. My usual approach is then to add all required libs to the main project and none to the other projects. I like this because that way I don't get "multiple definition"-linker errors. I don't know if this approach has an official name so I'll call it the flat way.
On the job our team works on a Linux-based traffic generation application. The build system uses Automake. When looking through the makefiles I noticed that each library specifies the libraries it requires (in the noinst_LIBRARIES variable). Each of these libraries can in turn specify their dependencies. This leads to a tree-like structure. So I call it the "hierarchical approach".
What are the best practices for this? It doesn't seem often discussed.
It usually comes down to static vs shared libraries.
If you use static libraries, then the main program must usually (always?) be linked against every library that it depends on, either directly or indirectly, hence a flat linking structure.
For shared libraries (or DLLs in Windows), each library bundles up its own dependencies, so the main program only needs to be linked against the libraries it depends on directly, leading to a graph structure.
I have a bunch of projects that all could share a "common" static library of classes.
What confuses me is if I make a static library out of these classes and link against it in my projects that I still need the headers of the classes in the static library in my main projects.
What is the benefit of the static library then?
How do companies like Adobe deal with this?
Static libraries allow you to create a library and use that library in many projects.
The need for header files:
Since the project using the library is programmed and compiled independent of the library, that program needs to know the declaration of the things you're using. Otherwise how would your compiler know you're writing valid code?
A compiler only takes source code as input and produces output. It does not deal with compiled object files or static libraries on input.
The need for linking in the library:
So having the headers allows you to write valid code in your project, but when it comes to link time you'll need to provide the definition which is contained inside the static library.
The linker takes all object files (compiled code) and also all static libraries and produces an executable or binary.
More info about static libraries (benefits, comparing dynamic, etc...):
Amongst other things, it is nice to separate your project into libraries so that you don't end up with 1 huge monolithic project.
You do not need to distribute the source code (typically in the .cpp files) this way.
If you were to simply include all the .cpp files in every project that used the common library then you would have to compile the .cpp files each time.
An advantage of static libraries over dynamic libraries is that you can always be sure that your programs will be self contained and that they are using the correct version of the library (since they are compiled into the executable itself). You will also have a slight speed advantage over dynamic linking.
Disadvantages of static libraries over dynamic libraries include that your file sizes will be bigger because each executable needs their own copy, and that you can't swap out a different version of the library since it's not dynamically loaded.
Re your question: How do companies deal with this:
A typical company will make use of both static and dynamic libraries extensively.
The typical way you make use of a static library is to have a target in your Makefile (or whatever build system you use) that installs the headers into an appropriate location at the same time that it installs the library.
So, your static library ends up in /usr/local/lib, and the headers go into /usr/local/include or wherever.
Also, when compared with linking against object files, linking against static library may result is a smaller final executable. The reason for this is, if you don't call any of the functions from a particular object file (included in the static library), the linker will not include the code for those functions in you final executable. See Extraneous Library Linkage