Re: How does libtool decide which so to link against?

[Ralf Wildenhues]

Hello Giles,

please don't top-post, thank you.

* Giles Anderson wrote on Tue, Oct 26, 2010 at 12:00:55AM CEST:
> Thanks Mike, Daniel and please excuse my ignorance in questioning libtool.

Oh, no need for that.  We're all ignorant one way or another.  ;-)

> Do you know of a definitive guide & explanation of the correct way to
> define/use SONAMEs etc?

There is not always one correct way.  However, there is one way that the
Libtool manual recommends, and following it has turned out useful for
both developers and users of a library.  The Libtool approach is to not
change the name part of the SONAME (on most systems, anyway), but only
to modify the version part, with a custom, per-system mapping from
abstract interface numbers to SONAME version.  The API is described in
info Libtool Versioning.

Hope that helps.

Cheers,
Ralf