Question

I have a project using GNU autotools, with a section of Makefile.am that looks like this:

lib_LTLIBRARIES += myproj/mysupport/libmysupport.la
myproj_mysupport_libmysupport_la_SOURCES = myproj/mysupport/some_sources.cc

lib_LTLIBRARIES += myproj/myapp/libmyapp.la
myproj_myapp_libmyapp_la_SOURCES = myproj/myapp/app_logic.cc
myproj_myapp_libmyapp_la_LIBADD = myproj/mysupport/libmysupport.la

sbin_PROGRAMS += myproj/myapp/myapp
myproj_myapp_myapp_SOURCES = myproj/myapp/main.cc
myproj_myapp_myapp_LDADD = myproj/myapp/libmyapp.la

Here, I have a support (libtool) library, an application library and a binary. The application library contains everything in the binary save main, which is the sole source brought in by the binary.

On my mac, this compiles and links fine, everything’s great. On Ubuntu however, I get this link error:

/bin/bash ./libtool --tag=CXX   --mode=link g++ -Wall -Wextra -Werror -ansi -fprofile-arcs -ftest-coverage --coverage -g -O0 -fprofile-arcs -ftest-coverage  -L/usr/local/lib -Wl,-rpath -Wl,/usr/local/lib -L/usr/local/lib -Wl,-rpath -Wl,/usr/local/lib -L/usr/local/lib -Wl,-rpath -Wl,/usr/local/lib -L/usr/local/lib -Wl,-rpath -Wl,/usr/local/lib -L/usr/local/lib -Wl,-rpath -Wl,/usr/local/lib  -o myproj/myapp/myapp myproj/myapp/main.o myproj/myapp/libmyapp.la -lgcov -llog4cplus  -lboost_filesystem-mt -lboost_iostreams-mt -lboost_program_options-mt -lboost_system-mt -lboost_thread-mt -lboost_system-mt -pthread 
libtool: link: g++ -Wall -Wextra -Werror -ansi -fprofile-arcs -ftest-coverage --coverage -g -O0 -fprofile-arcs -ftest-coverage -Wl,-rpath -Wl,/usr/local/lib -Wl,-rpath -Wl,/usr/local/lib -Wl,-rpath -Wl,/usr/local/lib -Wl,-rpath -Wl,/usr/local/lib -Wl,-rpath -Wl,/usr/local/lib -o myproj/myapp/.libs/myapp myproj/myapp/main.o -pthread  -L/usr/local/lib myproj/myapp/.libs/libmyapp.so -lgcov /usr/lib/liblog4cplus.so -lboost_filesystem-mt -lboost_iostreams-mt -lboost_program_options-mt -lboost_thread-mt -lboost_system-mt -pthread
/usr/bin/ld: myproj/myapp/main.o: undefined reference to symbol 'myproj::mysupport::Application::main(sauce::Modules&, int, char**)'
/usr/bin/ld: note: 'myproj::mysupport::Application::main(sauce::Modules&, int, char**)' is defined in DSO /home/user/code/local-myproj/debug/myproj/mysupport/.libs/libmysupport.so.0 so try adding it to the linker command line
/home/user/code/local-myproj/debug/myproj/mysupport/.libs/libmysupport.so.0: could not read symbols: Invalid operation
collect2: ld returned 1 exit status

Here’s the equivalent libtool command run on my mac:

/bin/sh ./libtool --tag=CXX   --mode=link g++-4.2 -Wall -Wextra -Werror -ansi -fprofile-arcs -ftest-coverage --coverage -g -O0 -fprofile-arcs -ftest-coverage  -L/usr/local/lib -Wl,-rpath -Wl,/usr/local/lib -L/usr/local/lib -Wl,-rpath -Wl,/usr/local/lib -L/usr/local/lib -Wl,-rpath -Wl,/usr/local/lib -L/usr/local/lib -Wl,-rpath -Wl,/usr/local/lib -L/usr/local/lib -Wl,-rpath -Wl,/usr/local/lib  -o myproj/myapp/myapp myproj/myapp/main.o myproj/myapp/libmyapp.la -lgcov -llog4cplus -L/usr/local/lib -lintl -R/usr/local/lib -Wl,-framework -Wl,CoreFoundation -lboost_filesystem-mt -lboost_iostreams-mt -lboost_program_options-mt -lboost_system-mt -lboost_thread-mt -lboost_system-mt
libtool: link: g++-4.2 -Wall -Wextra -Werror -ansi -fprofile-arcs -ftest-coverage --coverage -g -O0 -fprofile-arcs -ftest-coverage -Wl,-rpath -Wl,/usr/local/lib -Wl,-rpath -Wl,/usr/local/lib -Wl,-rpath -Wl,/usr/local/lib -Wl,-rpath -Wl,/usr/local/lib -Wl,-rpath -Wl,/usr/local/lib -o myproj/myapp/.libs/myapp myproj/myapp/main.o -Wl,-framework -Wl,CoreFoundation -Wl,-bind_at_load  -L/usr/local/lib myproj/myapp/.libs/libmyapp.dylib /home/user/code/myproj/debug/myproj/mysupport/.libs/libmysupport.dylib -lgcov -llog4cplus -lintl -lboost_filesystem-mt -lboost_iostreams-mt -lboost_program_options-mt -lboost_thread-mt -lboost_system-mt

A key difference appears to be the appearance of /home/user/code/myproj/debug/myproj/mysupport/.libs/libmysupport.dylib in the libtool: echo of the 2nd variant. Indeed, if I slip the equivalent argument in the literal ubuntu command, it completes successfully.

The missing argument corresponds to the LIBADD line in Makefile.am. So, the question: am I doing this right? If so, why does it work on OS X and not Ubuntu?

Some relevant versions on OS X:

$ autoconf --version
autoconf (GNU Autoconf) 2.69
Copyright (C) 2012 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
License GPLv3+/Autoconf: GNU GPL version 3 or later
<http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>, <http://gnu.org/licenses/exceptions.html>
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

Written by David J. MacKenzie and Akim Demaille.
$ automake --version
automake (GNU automake) 1.12.2
Copyright (C) 2012 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
License GPLv2+: GNU GPL version 2 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl-2.0.html>
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

Written by Tom Tromey <[e-mail]>
       and Alexandre Duret-Lutz <[e-mail]>.
$ libtool -V
Apple Inc. version cctools-822
$ g++-4.2 --version
i686-apple-darwin11-g++-4.2.1 (GCC) 4.2.1 (Apple Inc. build 5666) (dot 3)
Copyright (C) 2007 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions.  There is NO
warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

And now on Ubuntu:

$ autoconf --version
autoconf (GNU Autoconf) 2.68
Copyright (C) 2010 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
License GPLv3+/Autoconf: GNU GPL version 3 or later
<http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>, <http://gnu.org/licenses/exceptions.html>
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

Written by David J. MacKenzie and Akim Demaille.
$ automake --version
automake (GNU automake) 1.11.3
Copyright (C) 2011 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
License GPLv2+: GNU GPL version 2 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl-2.0.html>
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

Written by Tom Tromey <[e-mail]>
       and Alexandre Duret-Lutz <[e-mail]>.
$ libtool --version
libtool (GNU libtool) 2.4.2
Written by Gordon Matzigkeit <[e-mail]>, 1996

Copyright (C) 2011 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions.  There is NO
warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
$ g++ --version
g++ (Ubuntu/Linaro 4.6.3-1ubuntu5) 4.6.3
Copyright (C) 2011 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions.  There is NO
warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

Answer 1

Do you actually need to install your support library? Because you could try declaring it in noinst_LTLIBRARIES instead and see if that works.