Re: an easy question

[Guido Draheim]

Jon Nall wrote:
> why do .la files have to store hard-coded paths of the .so files they
> reference? why aren't the names enough as ld.so should be able to query
> it's cache of library directories at runtime?

why not? - in other words, what's your actual problem with it...

> i realize libtool runs on lots of OSes, and maybe my question is
> linux-centric. but i really would like to understand what's going on.

not linux-centric, if at all, ELF-centric. The ELF file format is a
widely used standard adopted by most unix vendors, so it is pretty
common in modern unix systems. In consequence, I see more and more
programmers who silently rely on sharedlib functionality that are
really ELF-centric features.

http://developer.intel.com/vtune/tis.htm

A sharedlib_PATH however is quite common, even without ld.so:

http://www.fortran-2000.com/ArnaudRecipes/sharedlib.html