Link static library with static library

Question

I have a Makefile.am with two noinst_LIBRARIES, and one of them needs to link with the other.

Adding it to the CFLAGS throws a compiler warning, but as far as I know, automake likes to freak out about using LDADD with libraries, since they are not complete programs.

How can I do this, assuming libb.a needs to pull in liba.a?

You don't link static libraries, they are added to your binary. — Iharob Al Asimi
– Iharob Al Asimi, Commented Jun 3, 2015 at 13:46
It's not clear to me what exactly you're trying to do, but note that you cannot link one static library to another. They're just a collection of object files, and there is no mechanism in static libraries to indicate that they depend on another library. — nos
– nos, Commented Jun 3, 2015 at 13:46
@nos true, however if there is dependency, i.e. if liba.a uses symbols from libb.a then when including the libraries in your binary you must be careful about the order in which you pass them. Which means that circular dependencies are not allowed. — Iharob Al Asimi
– Iharob Al Asimi, Commented Jun 3, 2015 at 13:47
@iharob Circular dependencies can be handled, but you must mention the libraries several times when linking the program that uses them, e.g. pass the flags -lA -lB -lA — nos
– nos, Commented Jun 3, 2015 at 13:51

Stefano Sanfilippo · Accepted Answer · 2015-06-03 14:07:56Z

1

You can't do it. Actually, what you are trying to do doesn't really make sense. Static libraries are just archives containing object files and a table of contents. Put simply, you can think of a static library as a .zip containing .o files.

The linking phase only takes place when compiling a shared object or executable. When your program is linked against liba.a, you also need to specify -static -lb or similar and that's it.

edited Jun 3, 2015 at 14:07

answered Jun 3, 2015 at 13:52

Stefano Sanfilippo

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2 Comments

2mac Over a year ago

I suppose I was considering "linking" the static libraries to be "include the object files from the other one in the final one".

Stefano Sanfilippo Over a year ago

That's very far from linking :) if you meant merging two archives into another, there is no universal way of doing so (because static libraries are not meant to be handled like that), but you might find platform-specific ways. For instance, GCC/Clang static libraries are ar archives that you could extract, merge and repack. Instead, MSVC has a tool for that. Be careful with conflicting names or symbols though.

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