Re: Static linking

[Russell Shaw <rjshaw iprimus com au>]

Ian Bell wrote:
> On Wednesday 01 Oct 2003 6:10 am, Russell Shaw wrote:
>
> snip
>
> > If static linking is so hard to do and no one uses it, then why are there
> > packages such as libgtk2.0-dev on debian that have the static libraries?
> >
> > dpkg -p libgtk2.0-dev
> > dpkg -L libgtk2.0-dev
> I don't really know, but dynamic linking has always been 'preferred' because 
> it reduces memory requirements.
>
> OTOH, with the rapid development of linux, the libraries soon become out of 
> date and you end up having compatibility libs so you can still run the old 
> code.  So running old and new code at the same times ends up loading two libs 
> anyway.
>
> Now that large amounts of memory are cheap I think there is a case for a lot 
> more static linking.  The one huge benefit is that ther are no dependencies 
> to worry about so installation is vastly simplified.  (suspect I may now need 
> to don flameproof jacket and retire to underground bunker for 50 years for 
> blasheming).

The reason i wanted to statically link is so i can use the libraries with
no optimization (-O0). The shared system libs are optimized with -O2 which
makes things difficult in gdb. Static linked apps are also useful for single-
purpose embedded systems.

I think i found the problem. I assumed that anything starting with "-"
after -Wl was passed to the linker. However, i think everything needs
commas. This works now (mixture of static and dynamic):

gcc -o shapegen main.o gui.o xmalloc.o object.o menu.o dialog.o
    -Wl,-Bstatic,
    -lgtk-x11-2.0,-lgdk-x11-2.0,-latk-1.0,-lgdk_pixbuf-2.0,-ltiff,-lpng,
    -lpangoxft-1.0,-lpangox-1.0,-lpango-1.0,-lgmodule-2.0,-lgobject-2.0,
    -lglib-2.0,
    -Bdynamic,-lfreetype,-lfontconfig,-ljpeg,-ldl,
    -L/usr/X11R6/lib,-lXinerama,-lXi,-lXft,-lm,-lc

I searched google for *days* on how to static-link a gtk app. More
than half the results said it couldn't be done or it didn't work.