Re: Building all static

[Gary V. Vaughan]

Hi Bill,

Bill Moseley wrote:
> Sorry for the cross post, not sure which is the correct list.
> 
> My project builds a library and then builds a binary and links to that
> library.  Someone has asked how to build a completely static binary.

$ libtool --help --mode=link | grep static
  -all-static       do not do any dynamic linking at all
  -static           do not do any dynamic linking of libtool libraries

> 1) The configure option --disable-shared works at linking our binary
> with our library statically, but still links the binary dynamically
> with other libraries.  I assume that's correct behavior.  What does
> the --enable-static option do (or suppose to do)?  It seems to have no
> effect when I use it.

>From libtool.info(The `AC_PROG_LIBTOOL' macro):

 - Macro: AC_DISABLE_STATIC
 - Macro: AM_DISABLE_STATIC
     Change the default behaviour for `AC_PROG_LIBTOOL' to disable
     static libraries.  The user may still override this default by
     specifying `--enable-static'.

> 2) Is there a "standard" way to run configure that should build a
> completely static binary?

Assuming libtool is doing all your linking:

./configure LDFLAGS='-all-static'

You can find out what the magic flag for your compiler is by looking at
the AC_LIBTOOL_PROG_COMPILER_PIC in libtool.m4 (_LT_COMPILER_PIC in 2.0
alpha releases).  And then you could add that manually with:

make LDFLAGS=flag-from-libtool.m4

> Another message which seems related:
> 
> http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-libtool/2002-07/msg00055.html

This raises a good point.  And although the static link issue comes up
occasionally, I don't use it myself and handn't thought too deeply about
it.

Does anyone use libtool's -static flag to deliberately link statically
against libtool libraries only?  I would have thought that it is far
more common to want all-static behaviour.

Unless someone shouts me down, then according to the principle of least
surprise, I'm inclined to change the semantics to:

  -static       do not do any dynamic linking at all
  -lt-static    do not do any dynamic linking of libtool libraries

(We can keep -all-static as an alias to -static).

Cheers,
        Gary.
-- 
Gary V. Vaughan      ())_.  address@hidden,gnu.org}
Research Scientist   ( '/   http://tkd.kicks-ass.net
GNU Hacker           / )=   http://www.gnu.org/software/libtool
Technical Author   `(_~)_   http://sources.redhat.com/autobook

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