Re: [Mingw-cross-env-list] Linking statically

[Nikos Chantziaras]

On 01/26/2011 03:23 PM, Daniel Stonier wrote:
> On 26 January 2011 21:53, Mark Brand<address@hidden>  wrote:
> > > COMPILE COMMAND:
> > >
> > > > i686-pc-mingw32-g++ -o dude.exe main.o -llog4cxx
> > >
> > > This fails with undefined references everywhere. Now if I add in all
> > > the underlying static libs, it works.
> > >
> > > > i686-pc-mingw32-g++ -o dude.exe main.o -llog4cxx -laprutil-1 -lapr-1
> > > > -lexpat -liconv -lrpcrt4 -lshell32 -lws2_32 -ladvapi32 -lkernel32 -lmsvcrt
> > >
> > > No problem. My question is, wasn't libtool supposed to use the .la
> > > files to automatically find and reference these underlying libs? Is
> > > there a syntax to get it to do so?
> >
> > I'm not a libtool expert, but don't you have to invoke libtool if you want
> > to use it?  I'm looking at
> >
> > http://www.gnu.org/software/libtool/manual/html_node/Linking-executables.html#Linking-executables
>
> Yes, looks like it. I learned how to use it by hand for the first time
> today and it does indeed resolve the problem linkages by referring to
> the .la file.

Actually, you're supposed to use i686-pc-mingw32-pkg-config to get the 
compile as well as the build flags.  If the main library you link 
against provides a pkg-config file, of course.  If not, I guess you have 
to use libtool.

For example, to compile a program that uses the "foo" library you append 
the correct compiler flags with:

  i686-pc-mingw32-g++ [...] $(i686-pc-mingw32-pkg-config foo --cflags)

And for linking you replace "--cflags" with "--libs".


> I'm also a bit curious as to why mingw cross-compiling toolchains
> always use static archives instead of shared libraries?

That's simply because on Windows static linking is the norm.  The 
advantages of dynamic linking disappear once you bundle the libraries 
with your program.  To get something from dynamic linking, the libraries 
must exist system-wide so that all applications can use them 
simultaneously.  But since that's not the case, there's no need to 
bother with dynamic linking anymore.