2.4.5. Linking static libraries with the GCC

Prerequisites

• GCC must be installed on your system.
• You must understand static and dynamic linking.
• You have a set of source or object files forming a valid program, requiring some static library foo and no other libraries.
• The foo library is available as a file libfoo.a, and no file libfoo.so is provided for dynamic linking.

Procedure

• To link a program from source and object files, adding a statically linked library foo, which is to be found as a file libfoo.a.

  1. Change to the directory containing your code.

  2. Compile the program source files with headers of the foo library:

     $ gcc ... -Iheader_path -c ...

     Replace header_path with a path to a directory containing the header files for the foo library.

  3. Link the program with the foo library:

     $ gcc ... -Llibrary_path -lfoo ...

     Replace library_path with a path to a directory containing the file libfoo.a.

  4. To run the program later:

     $ ./program

     警告

     The -static GCC option related to static linking forbids all dynamic linking. Instead, use the -Wl,-Bstatic and -Wl,-Bdynamic options to control linker behavior more precisely. See Static and dynamic libraries with GCC.