Very Computer

by gh » Fri, 19 Feb 1999 04:00:00

Hi
can anyone explain to me what the .a and .sl file endings mean. I think
those are something like lib/dll files.
I'm asking because I have received an .sl and an .a files to update an
application to a new version. Do I just have to replace the old files in
the application directory to archieve that or is there a system
directory that contains copies of that files?

Thanks in advance!

Guido

by **Clinton Pier** » Sat, 20 Feb 1999 04:00:00

>Hi
>can anyone explain to me what the .a and .sl file endings mean. I think
>those are something like lib/dll files.
>I'm asking because I have received an .sl and an .a files to update an
>application to a new version. Do I just have to replace the old files in
>the application directory to archieve that or is there a system
>directory that contains copies of that files?

>Thanks in advance!

>Guido

Those are likely libraries.[1] If they are dynamically linked
libraries, then they only need to be placed wherever your old
libraries are, and the run-time linker will use those instead. (If
you HAVE old versions of the libraries, that the RTL is using.)

If they are statically linked libraries, then you need to rebuild
(recompile) the application with the libraries in the right place for
the compile-time linker to find.

You didn't say what kind of UNIX it was. The ".a" file is probably a
statically linked library, the ".sl" a shared library. YMWV.

[1] I say "likely" because UNIX doesn't necessarily use filename
extentions to identify anything. They could be Excel spreadsheets for
all UNIX cares.
--
Clinton A. Pierce "If you rush a Miracle Man, you get rotten

Very Computer

What are the .a and .sl files?

What are the .a and .sl files?

What are the .a and .sl files?