[Boost-users] Boost, bjam, and symbolic links

Subject: [Boost-users] Boost, bjam, and symbolic links
From: svdbg_at_[hidden]
Date: 2010-01-28 05:17:27

Hello,

I generated some Boost librairies with bjam, and I get many symbolic links.

For date_time :

libboost_date_time-gcc41-mt-1_39.a
libboost_date_time-gcc41-mt-1_39.so -> libboost_date_time-gcc41-mt-1_39.so.1.39.0
libboost_date_time-gcc41-mt-1_39.so.1.39.0                                      
libboost_date_time-gcc41-mt.a -> libboost_date_time-gcc41-mt-1_39.a              
libboost_date_time-gcc41-mt.so -> libboost_date_time-gcc41-mt-1_39.so.1.39.0

Why don't I just get the .a and .so ?
Why these 3 symbolic links ?
And why do the original files have a so complicated name for the .so, with the release version mentionned twice ?

Isn't it possible to just have :

libboost_date_time-gcc41-mt-1_39.a
libboost_date_time-gcc41-mt-1_39.so

Thanks for help. I don't know what to do of these symbolic links.

Note : I am a newbie in Linux.