Question

I am trying to compile a static library. I followed the steps which were given in an answer to this question but it is not working. Following is my makefile.

PROJECT = lq.a
OBJECTS = dlmalloc.o queue.o.o
CFLAGS  = -o -Wall -pedantic

all: $(PROJECT)

.c.o:
    gcc -c $(CFLAGS) $<

$(PROJECT): $(OBJECTS)
    libtool -o  $(PROJECT) -static $(OBJECTS)

And I get the following error.

libtool: unrecognized option `-o'

What is the correct way of writing this makefile?

Answer 1

You can use the program ar to create static libraries using the following syntax:

 ar rcs my_library.a file1.o file2.o

So, in your case:

$(PROJECT): $(OBJECTS)
     ar rcs $(PROJECT) $(OBJECTS)

You can find an explanation of the options on the man page, but basically:

• r says insert the given object files in to the archive (replacing any older versions of the same thing)
• c says create the archive if it isn’t already there (normally this happens anyway, but this option suppresses the warning).
• s says to write an object-file index into the archive.