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Asked: 2026-05-12T13:10:25+00:00

I’m trying to compile a piece of software which has the standard build process

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I’m trying to compile a piece of software which has the standard build process e.g. 

configure
make
make install

The software requires a library e.g. libreq.so which is installed in /usr/local/lib. However, my problem is I’d like to build the software and link it with a different version of the same library (i have the source for the library as well) that I’ve installed in /home/user/mylibs.

My question is, how do I compile and link the software against the library in /home/user/mylibs rather than the one in /usr/local/lib

I tried setting “LD_LIBRARY_PATH” to include /home/user/mylibs but that didn’t work.

Thanks!

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    When you have an autoconf configure script, use:

    CPPFLAGS=-I/home/user/include LDFLAGS=-L/home/user/mylibs ./configure ...

    This adds the nominated directory to the list of directories searched for headers (usually necessary when you’re using a library), and adds the other nominated directory to the list searched for actual libraries.

    I use this all the time – on my work machine, /usr/local is ‘maintained’ by MIS and contains obsolete code 99.9% of the time (and is NFS-mounted, read-only), so I struggle to avoid using it at all and maintain my own, more nearly current, versions of the software under /usr/gnu. It works for me.

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