Re: Single static library from multiple Libtool .a files

[Bob Friesenhahn]

On Mon, 6 Feb 2012, Nate Bargmann wrote:
> For some reason, that I have yet to understand, his static build
> succeeded with all the backends in libdir but fails with them in pkgdir.
> In my opinion, it would be better to be able to provide him with a
> single .a library that includes the entirety of the frontend and backend
> libraries.  Right now I am at a loss on how to accomplish this with
> Libtool.  Perhaps Libtool is not the way to accomplish this as suggested
> by the Automake documentation and perhaps a specific Makefile target is
> needed to build the single archive?

Libtool does support "convenience" archive libraries which appear as 
static archive libraries but are only used when building and are never 
installed.  When an application or library links with such a 
convenience library, it is the same as including all of the contained 
.o files.  The contained .o files are extracted from the archive and 
are applied the same as if they were derived from local source files.

I think you would need to use Automake conditionals to decide if a 
backend library should be an installable shared library or if it 
should be an uninstallable convenience library used while building an 
installable library.  This is all controllable via Automake so please 
consult tha Automake documentation.

Bob
--
Bob Friesenhahn
address@hidden, http://www.simplesystems.org/users/bfriesen/
GraphicsMagick Maintainer,    http://www.GraphicsMagick.org/