I make a program using a dynamic library, libexample.so. The dynamic library depends on another dynamic library, libtool.so.
It looks linker succeeded linking the libexample.so because of message from gcc.
Building target: libexample.so
Invoking: GCC C++ Linker
g++ -L/home/takehiro/Documents/documents/code/lib/tool -shared -o "libexample.so" ./classes/example.o ./classes/example_template.o ./classes/example_test.o ./classes/impl.o -ltool
Finished building target: libexample.so
cp libexample.so /home/takehiro/Documents/documents/code/lib/example
However, it failed to link it with the libtool.so.
ldd /home/takehiro/Documents/documents/code/lib/example/libexample.so
...
libtool.so => not found
...
I checked existence of the libtool.so under /home/takehiro/Documents/documents/code/lib/tool which is pointed by -L optoin at above linker by
ls /home/takehiro/Documents/documents/code/lib/tool
libtool.so
This is the first time to use a dynamic library depending another dynamic library. So I am so confused. Is it normal or malfunction? Why it cannot link them?
Does someone have a suggestion or a solution to me? I am very glad it.
Thank you very much.
All that the -L option does is tell the linker where the shared library is, at link time.
This does not have any effect on where the runtime loader searches for shared libraries. That's why the shared library fails to be loaded at runtime.
You also need to pass the -rpath option to the linker, when you're linking your shared library, in order to set the RPATH attribute on the shared library, that specifies where its dependencies are to be searched for. Something like
g++ -L/home/takehiro/Documents/documents/code/lib/tool \
-Wl,-rpath=/home/takehiro/Documents/documents/code/lib/tool \
... remaining options
Related
I can build my application against the shared library but I'm getting the unresolved symbol errors when linking it against the static version of the same library:
I can build my application this way:
g++ -lutils application.cpp -o application.exe
The above command links in the shared version of an utils library.
I'm trying link against the static version of the library like this:
g++ -l:utils.a application.cpp -o application.exe
Both times I'm using
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=path/to/utils:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH
to inform g++ where utils.a is placed.
The unresolved symbol reported by ld is present in the output of the nm:
nm --defined-only path/to/utils.a
and is marked with the "T" (meaning that it is from the code section).
I'm trying to figure out what can be the reason of the problem.
Is it correct to use LD_LIBRARY_PATH to specify where to search for utils.a?
What is the exact command to verify that a static library defines (resolves) the symbol? Is the command
nm --defined-only path/to/utils.a
enough or should I use any additional options like
nm --defined-only --demangle path/to/utils.a
e.g.?
Just option -static should be enough for compiler. In case only one library has to be static, then -static- and lib name is short name not file name.
Is it correct to use LD_LIBRARY_PATH to specify where to search for utils.a?
As mentioned by #user10605163, LD_LIBRARY_PATH is not to find path to static library at compile and link time. It is an environment variable used in some Linux distribution to search shared libraries during run time. Please find more documentation here It is useful for build and test environment but not a recommended way of linking in production systems.
What is the exact command to verify that a static library defines (resolves) the symbol? Is the command nm --defined-only path/to/utils.a
Yes, that is correct. However based on the information provided this error is not likely an error with symbols not present in utils(as it worked with shared library), but with the linking.
Refer GNU documentation GCC link options
Excerpt:
-l library : Search the library named library when linking. The linker searches a standard list of directories for the library. The directories searched include several standard system directories plus any that you specify with -L.
Also, with -l link option you need to provide the library name (without 'lib' and extension) or full file name.
-lutils or -llibutils.a
You can also provide direct full path here only, if required.
I have a linux based OS with a lot of system libraries compiled as static libraries.
How can I use such libraries in my application, and link them to my final binary?
You use them as you do use shared libraries, except that you link against statically. An introduction to GCC - shared libraries and static libraries article will get you started.
I've trouble to understand. If you are linking with something like
g++ -o myprog myprog.o obj1.o obj2.o -L/path/to/lib -L/path2/to/lib -llib1 -llib2 -lib3
the linker called through the gcc or g++ wrapper will do "the right thing(tm)", if liblib1.so exist in the library path (/path/to/lib, /path2/to/lib plus a set of system specific directories where system libraries probably are), it will be linked dynamically, if not liblib1.a will be linked statically. The only thing to be aware of, is that if there are mutual dependencies in static libaries (lib1 needs lib2 and lib2 needs lib1), you may need to repeat them several times or use the --start-group and --end-group options of ld to mark libraries which needs to be considered together.
I use log4cxx logging library. I need to link with its static version to avoid additional binary dependencies. I use it in my dynamic library. Default build of log4cxx produces static library but I cannot link with it because it was compiled w/o -fPIC flag. So I changed log4cxx bulding as:
CPPFLAGS="-fPIC -static" ./configure
make
As a result I received a liblog4cxx.a that I can link with my .so library. Linking was done by Cmake, something like:
target_link_libraries(my_dynamic_lib log4cxx)
link_directories(relative_path_to_dir_where_liblog4cxx.a_lives)
Everything looked fine until runtime. I cannot load my_dynamic_lib.so because of undefined symbol "logger"
Please explain me what's wrong and how to resolve this problem.
thanks
You can verify whether the shared library contains the symbol by using
nm -g my_dynamic_lib.so | grep logger
If it is shown with symbol type U it means it's undefined.
Normally a shared library will not resolve all the symbols it needs until run-time, so it is possible (and perfectly normal) to link a shared library with missing symbols.
If you put -llog4cxx at the start of the linker command line for my_dynamic_lib.so then it won't link to any of the code in there, and will leave the logger symbol unresolved until run-time. To force it to use the symbols in the static library make sure you list the static library after the objects that need it:
g++ -fPIC -shared -o my_dynamic_lib.so obj1.o obj2.o -llog4cxx ...
I don't know how to do that with cmake, but it looks as though your CMakefile only links to log4cxx when linking the main executable, not the dynamic library.
Usually you would link liblog4cxx.a with your executable and not with your my_dynamic_lib.so. I don't think you can link like in your example unless you can provide documentation that says otherwise.
I am trying to create a shared library (really a Python module) that links against a static library. Both libraries are part of the same project and built using cmake.
Now, the shared library is built like this:
add_library(MyLibPython SHARED ${PYTHON_WRAPPERS_SRC})
set_target_properties(MyLibPython PROPERTIES PREFIX "")
target_link_libraries(MyLibPython MyLibStatic ${LIBS})
This builds without error, but when I try to import the Python module, I get:
ImportError:
lib/python/MyLibPython.so: undefined symbol: _Zone_of_my_MyLibStatic_functions
I also have a number of executables (unit tests) that are built in a similar way, and they work perfectly.
I should add, this is using gcc on Linux.
Check your linker command line. Is it passing something like -Wl,--as-needed? If so, it might not be including everything required by the static library.
I don't think your technique is portable in general. Can you get a shared library to link against? I think that there are some platforms where everything that goes into a shared library needs to be compiled as PIC.
Anyway, to link an entire archive with GNU ld (look up man ld):
gcc -o foo foo.o bar.o baz.o -Wl,--whole-archive libfoo.a -Wl,--no-whole-archive [rest-of-linker-args]
I have a Makefile for linux that I am porting over to Darwin. The makefile takes a bunch of .o files and links them together into a .so shared object. Okay, so I figured (am I wrong about this?) that the best analog for this in Darwin is the dylib. So I changed the -shared flag to -dynamiclib.
Now the code that I am linking together into the dylib depends on lots of external libraries. When I try to build the dylib, I get errors saying there are undefined references. But the Linux Makefile does not specify any of the -lwhatever or -L/path/whatever options in the build step that creates the .so file. Hm? Is this because when you create an ELF .so file, by default it leaves external references unresolved, and then when the shared library is loaded, it recursively loads shared libraries which are depended on by the shared library you are loading? Wouldn't it be the case that if the shared library depends on a .a or .o file, you would HAVE to statically link them into the shared library, otherwise you could not link at runtime? How can you get away with having undefined references in a library that is loaded at runtime, unless the references are also to dynamically loadable libraries?
Anyway so if I specify
-undefined suppress -flat_namespace
it doesn't require me to add those -l and -L options when creating the shared library. But I still don't understand how this can work ultimately.
This thread also discusses this issue. I think the key point is that in order to get the Linux-like linking behavior, you need to specify the "-undefined dynamic_lookup" flag. By default, the Darwin linker throws an error if there are any undefined references in a dynamic library. You can also use -U to set this behavior on a per-symbol basis. See 'man ld' for reference.
Use libtool.
libtool -dynamic -multiply_defined suppress -install_name `basename ../../../../rlp/lib/universal-darwin9-gcc40/libbtutils.dylib` -o ../../../../rlp/lib/universal-darwin9-gcc40/libbtutils.dylib ../../../../rlp/lib/universal-darwin9-gcc40/libbtd.a ../../../../rlp/lib/universal-darwin9-gcc40/libbttrie.a ../../../../rlp/lib/universal-darwin9-gcc40/libbtkey.a ../../../../rlp/lib/universal-darwin9-gcc40/libbtunit.a ../../../../rlp/lib/universal-darwin9-gcc40/libbtutilities.a ../../../../rlp/lib/universal-darwin9-gcc40/libbtopts.a ../../../../rlp/lib/universal-darwin9-gcc40/libbtxcode.a ../../../../rlp/lib/universal-darwin9-gcc40/libbtprops.a ../../../../rlp/lib/universal-darwin9-gcc40/libbtxml.a ../../../../rlp/lib/universal-darwin9-gcc40/libbttake3.a ../../../../rlp/lib/universal-darwin9-gcc40/libbttake5.a ../../../../rlp/lib/universal-darwin9-gcc40/libbtac.a -lstdc++.6 -lgcc_s.10.4 ../../../../build_system/lib/universal-darwin9-gcc40/libgcc.a -lSystem -lSystemStubs`