[tk_r00t]

I've been able to create a dynlib with the configure/makefiles in a port of a linux softare project but I've not been able to find how to link to it. While if Apple ported ld properly, the flag is supposed to be -l, but apple kinda destroyed that flag by making it search only for static libs. Also, is it just something with Apple's libtools that when I add a libx.al to a higher level source dir's Makefile.am's LDADD that it repeats that target twice in its command to g++ causing linking errors?

[macmike42]

If you are using Project Builder, select the target that you are want to link the library into and under "Settings", find the "Other Mach-O Linker Settings" field. Add your desired library and path to that field by adding (for example):

-L/sw/lib -lbz2 (that second one starts with a captial L)

Also add the following to the "Other C Compiler Flags" field if you are including files that have to do with this library (which you most likely are, unless you are loading symbols manually):

-I/sw/include (that's a captial i)

Those two lines will allow you to link to a copy of libbz installed by Fink, and to access the include file via #include <bzlib.h>.

If you are simplying using GCC to compile your source, add the two above lines as agruments to GCC on the command line. Finally, if you are doing a configure, make, make install; simply set the environment variable "LDFLAGS" to the first line and "CPPFLAGS" to the second line. Any copy of autoconf, make, or gcc run in a subshell should pick that up and look for libraries and includes at those paths.

[tk_r00t]

I think you misunderstood my post.
I am not using ProjectBuilder.
I am not a newbie! I've been programming for quite some time but just never with OS X. While -l is the correct linker flag under real Unix/Linux systems, according to the MacOS X hacks of the GNU docs,
-l ONLY searches for .a libraries, which are STATIC libraries. I don't want to use static libraries, I'm using shared libraries... Which Apple calls dylibs.
I need to know the flags to specify by command line to specify a dylib.
I've found that you can link to one by giving the exact path without flags but the problem is it only worked for the library that was in a random dir. I tried the path to the lib in /usr/lib(Actually they are soft links to the real lib, mabye Mac OSX doesn't support it right?) but ld couldn't find it.

[macmike42]

Originally posted by tk_r00t:
I am not a newbie!

My mistake! I started my C education on OS X, so I forgot that it links differently than, well, any other OS!

Basically it goes like this: OS X won't statically link anything unless you specifically tell it to, and even then it won't work very well since there aren't static versions of most of the standard OS X system libraries. Take for example, the following code:

Code:
#include <stdio.h>
#include <curl/curl.h>
int main() {
    CURL *ref;
    ref = curl_easy_init();	
    curl_easy_cleanup( ref );
    return 0;
}

Compiled and examined as such:

Code:
$ gcc -I/sw/include -L/sw/lib -lcurl -o test test.c
$ otool -L test
/sw/lib/libcurl.2.dylib (compatibility version 3.0.0, current version 3.2.0)
/usr/lib/libSystem.B.dylib (compatibility version 1.0.0, current version 63.0.0)

As you can see, with only the simplest of settings, the object file is dynamically linked. In fact, if I specify -static on the gcc command line, it refuses to link at all, and ld complains that the file for -lcrt0.o cannot be found.

Sorry if this was too long of a response for a question that could have been answered with "dynamic linking only", but, quite frankly, I had forgotten...

[Gul Banana]

To put it more simply, "-l ONLY searches for .a libraries" is incorrect. It will do what you want.