Very Computer

Can someone point me to some basic information on unix shared and static
libraries for someone who's just starting out developing libs for unix?
What do they all mean?

--
    _ ___  _
   | |   \| |     Jeff Saenz
   | | |  | |     Jet Propulsion Laboratory
 __| |  _/| |__   Pasadena, CA 91101
|____|_|  |____|

unix shared libraries are run time libraries; therefore, the actual code is
not included
in your executable file.  The code modules from the libraries are
dynamically resolved
when the program is started.  This also means that when you want to run the
program
you have to make sure that the shared (run-time) libraries that you need are
installed properly on the machine that you are running the program and that
the environment variable LD_LIBRARY_PATH includes a path to the directory
for the libraries.

When you link your program with static libraries, the linker includes the
code modules
from the static libraries in your final executable file, so you don't have
to include the
libraries in your distribution.

Jonathan Winata

  Jeff> Can someone point me to some basic information on unix shared
  Jeff> and static libraries for someone who's just starting out
  Jeff> developing libs for unix?  What do they all mean?

Slightly more advanced that what you asked for perhaps, but GNU
"libtool" hadles the intricacies of generating libraries on many
versions of Unix without you needing to jump through hoops, and it
comes with a manual.

All GNU tools can always be downloaded from ftp.gnu.org, Internet
weather permitting.