Re: [Mingw-users] libtool, dlls and -lm

[Ralf Wildenhues]

Hello Keith,

This is a somewhat older thread:
http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/libtool-patches/2005-12/msg00102.html
with an (unfortunately; sorry!) still-pending issue:

* Keith MARSHALL wrote on Thu, Dec 22, 2005 at 06:17:57PM CET:
> Ralf Wildenhues wrote, quoting Bob Frieshahn:
> >> Since there is no standard 'file' command provided with MSYS/MinGW,
> >> is this safe?
> >
> > OK, so the only remaining case really is MSYS/MinGW itself.  Do we
> > know of win32 installations that provide a `file' command that does
> > not do what we expect?  Note that not having `file' available would
> > be fine here, but one that does something completely unrelated, for
> > example, would hurt. 
> 
> While it is true that MSYS/MinGW doesn't include a `file' command as
> standard, it is perfectly feasible to use a `foreign' implementation
> with MSYS;  e.g. I have installed the GnuWin32 v4.16 implementation
> http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=23617&package_id=18878
> into my `/usr/local' MSYS tree.  Not sure how robust it is;  e.g. it
> misidentifies manpage sources as `MKS Spell hash (old format)', and
> its own manpage refers to incorrect locations for the `magic' files,
> but it does seem to identify executables, shell scripts, and `*.a'
> or `*.dll' libraries reasonably well.

I installed above `file' program, but for some reasons I haven't been
able to analyze yet, I can't get it to work.  Could you do me a favour
and post the literal output of `file', when applied to
- an executable file (with the .exe applied),
- a shell script,
- a DLL,
- a plain archive (*.a),
- and an import library (usually named *.dll.a).

Thank you very much in advance,
Ralf