Re: Setting autotools for static compilation

[Paulo J. Matos]

On 29/04/06, Ralf Wildenhues <address@hidden> wrote:
> Hi Paulo,
>
> * Paulo J. Matos wrote on Sat, Apr 29, 2006 at 01:15:47PM CEST:
> > ATT: Cross-sent to automake and autoconf MLs since problem spans both
> > worlds, I think!
>
> Do you use Libtool?  Then it would probably a Libtool question.
> But anyway.

No, as far as I know, libtool is for me to create my own libraries and
link them with my program. I cannot use libtool to link others
libraries, mainly if I do not know how they were created, right?

> > I'm currently using autoconf for the for my libraries with
> > AC_CHECK_LIB, and to generate static binaries I do everytime I
> > configure:
> > ./configure LDFLAGS="-static"
>
> OK.  Why do you want static linking?

Yes, it's wierd I know!
This binary is for a competition. It'll have to run on system without
the libraries I use installed out of the box, except of course, gcc
and glib which are standard in Linux systems.

> > However, in google groups:
> > http://groups.google.com/group/gnu.g++.help/browse_frm/thread/2144e5bd146e9cfe
> > Paul Pluzhnikov told that it was not the best way to do this. Instead
> > of using -static I should do:
> > -Wl,-Bstatic -llog4cpp -lglpk -Wl,-Bdynamic
> > (because I was using log4cpp and glpk at the time)
>
> Is he the author of those libraries, or may otherwise happen to know
> that those libraries can't keep their interface clean?

Don't really know about that... :) Seems it just knows more than I do
on these matters!

> Ah, I guess rather than special-casing those two libraries, you would
> like to link all non-Glibc (and maybe non-GCC) libraries statically,
> right?  (The rest of my mail assumes this somewhat.)

Right!

> > So in general I should do:
> > -Wl,-Bstatic <LIBS> -Wl,-Bdynamic
>
> Hmm.  I did a small survey about this a little while ago, as a first
> step to implement per-deplib static/shared switches in Libtool[1].
> Above settings are fairly portable, but there are important exceptions.

Still, I don't understand how to use them with automake and autoconf!

I don't think I can use libtool since these are not my libraries and
furthermore, I do not have the slightest idea on how they were
created.

> > My question is, Is there a way to configure this efficiently in
> > autotools, so that whenever I add a check for a LIB it is also added
> > to that line for static linking?
>
> Hmm.  Libtool-1.5.24 will have -static-libtool-libs, which will allow
> you this functionality portably, but only for libraries created with
> libtool.  Eventually, the per-deplib flags feature[2] will appear in
> mainline libtool in some way or other, which will allow this for all
> kinds of libraries.
>
> Cheers,
> Ralf
>
> [1] http://wiki.azazil.net/GnuLibtoolProject/FeatureRequests/PerDeplibFlags
> [2] http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/libtool-patches/2006-01/msg00064.html


--
Paulo Jorge Matos - pocm at sat inesc-id pt
Web: http://sat.inesc-id.pt/~pocm
Computer and Software Engineering
INESC-ID - SAT Group