Re: Effects of some references to other libraries in a shared library

[John Calcote]

Gerald,

On 5/3/2009 3:32 PM, Gerald I. Evenden wrote:
> In a shared library there are about 8 routines out over 100 that refer to
> libgsl and libpthread.  A frequent situation may arise where an application
> program has no need for using the 8 procedures infected with other library
> needs.
>
> At the current time, when I try to link such a program I get a failure unless
> I add all the references to the additional libraries---even though they are
> not employed by the program in any manner.
>
> Is there any reasonable way around this or do I have to either separate the 8
> routines into another library or add the references to libgsl (+*blas) and
> pthread to Makefiles of programs that have no involvement with these library
> procedures?
>    
There are two options: one you mentioned already - separate the 8 
routines into another library. The other option involves manually 
loading importing the routines you need from pthread and libgsl at 
run-time. This will clear the hard dependency on these other libraries. 
And if you call these 8 routines only 2 percent of the time, then it 
will also clear soft dependencies for your users 98 percent of the time.

Regards,
John