Question

How does one know the name of the library when linking it with LDFLAGS in a Makefile?

For example:

libxml2.dylib is linked with -lxml2

libz.dylib which is actually named zlib is linked with -lz

Where are those flags specified? How does one look them up?

Answer 1

By convention, you remove the preceding ‘lib’ from the library filename. For a library file called, ‘libmyspecial_library.so’, the corresponding flag is:

-lmyspecial_library

This is actually a convention with the gcc compiler. See the gcc man page for more info:

   -llibrary
      Use the library named library when linking.

      The  linker searches a standard list of directories
      for the library, which is  actually  a  file  named
      `liblibrary.a'.   The linker then uses this file as
      if it had been specified precisely by name....