Home/ Questions/Q 4608474
In Process

The Archive Base Latest Questions

Editorial Team
  • 0
Asked: 2026-05-22T00:51:01+00:00

I’m attempting to design a shared library of shared libraries using g++ with hopes

  • 0

I’m attempting to design a shared library of shared libraries using g++ with hopes of simplifying my compile scripts and easing my update process in the future, but I’m still novice at best with GNU tools and writing libraries, at that. Can anyone provide advice on whether the following idea is possible with g++?

For convenience, consider the following file system layout:

main.cpp
libraryX/
libraryX/libX.so
libraryX/libraryY/
libraryX/libraryY/libY.so
libraryX/libraryZ/
libraryX/libraryZ/libZ.so

My goal is to be able to link indirectly using cascading relative paths. For instance, main.cpp links to libraryX/libX.so, which links to libraryY/libY.so and libraryZ/libZ.so. Is it possible to only link main.cpp to libX.so and use functions defined in libY.so and libZ.so?

If so, could you provide an example of the flags one would need to do so? I’ve been trying variations of the following command using various sources from Google to no avail:

g++ -shared -fPIC -Wl-rpath=libraryX -LlibraryX -lX.so main.o -o executable

Any guidance or references are greatly appreciated.

Share

Leave an answer

You must login to add an answer.

Need An Account,

1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    Don’t do this (even if you can figure out how).

    When you link against -lX, the static linker must know all other shared libraries that are “part of this link”. Since -lY is not on the link line, the static linker will either give you an error, or it must somehow figure out where libY.so is coming from. For the latter, it has to replicate the RPATH search that the runtime loader will perform. This replication is error prone (the static linker may not use the exact same algorithm) and best avoided.

    Finally, your command line is totally wrong: -shared means you ask the linker for a shared library, but you are clearly trying to link an executable. You generally should not use -fPIC when linking an executable. Also, -Wl-rpath=... should be -Wl,-rpath=... (the comma is important).

    • 0