Re: [jamboost] linking shared + static system libraries

From: Vladimir Prus (ghost_at_[hidden])
Date: 2005-07-21 08:50:28

Hi Wieger,

> I seem to have a problem with combining static and shared linking of
> system libraries. I use the following command line:
>
> bjam --v2 gcc release link=static runtime-link=static
>
> In combination with the following jamfile fragment:
>
> exe dnavis :
> Main.cxx
......
> /site-config//fltk
> /site-config//xerces-c/<link>shared
.........
>
> Two of the system libraries are not available as static libraries, so
> I require them to be linked dynamically. However, linking fails with
> the message that the GL library (one of the two) can not be found. On
> inspection of the linker commandline it seems that nothing is done to
> link with the shared version of the GL library, so this was bound to fail.
>
>
> Does anybody know what I should do to make this work.

Short answer -- this just won't work.

Long answer -- with gcc, if you link with a single shared library, you link to 
shared libc. I was told (by binutils maintainer) that it's not possible to 
override this behaviour. Prior versions of Boost.Build tried some tricks to 
force static linking with runtime, and this worked with gcc 2.95, but broke 
with 3.* and at the time I was told it's simply impossible.

Further, the -static option does not mean "please link to static libraries 
when possible". The linker has an option to *prefer* shared libraries to 
static, and at option to *prevent* linking to shared libraries, but no option 
to *prefer* static libraries. And -static translates in "no shared 
libraries".

I don't find this situation satisfactory, say in your case you just don't have 
a static version of a library. However, it's binutils problem. I'd be happy 
to be proved wrong -- do you know a command line that works?

- Volodya