Re: Running an uninstalled executable

[Bob Friesenhahn]

On Tue, 12 May 2015, Alberto Luaces wrote:

> Hello,
>
> in an autoconf+automake+libtool C++ project containing only one program,
> I want to run the executable before installing it.
>
> Reading the manual I thought that it could be done with
>
> libtool --mode=execute program_binary
>
> but it fails, since there are undefined references to shared libraries
> not installed in standard directories.
>
> Can libtool solve this problem for me?

Libtool is supposed to solve this problem automatically for libraries 
in the build-tree built using libtool, or involved libraries which 
have a correct associated ".la" file.  It is not uncommon for the .la 
files that libtool installs to be deleted, or for libraries to be put 
into a location other than the paths the .la file says they reside.

If the installed libraries violate the libtool expectations, then 
there are only the choices of building the software with a hard-coded 
run-path (-RLIBDIR or -Wl,-rpath,/libdir'), or using environment 
variables like LD_LIBRARY_PATH.

As a developer, I find using the run-path to be most 
reliable/convenient, but this may not be suitable when creating 
packaged binaries for installation.

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