CODEWITHSUNDEEP
linuxlibrarieslibtool
chappar
chappar

Reputation: 7505

What are libtool's .la file for?

What are libtool's .la files for? How are they used with a shared object?

Upvotes: 181

Views: 132293

Answers (3)

Artyom
Artyom

Reputation: 31223

It is a textual file that includes a description of the library.

It allows libtool to create platform-independent names.

For example, libfoo goes to:

Under Linux:

/lib/libfoo.so       # Symlink to shared object
/lib/libfoo.so.1     # Symlink to shared object
/lib/libfoo.so.1.0.1 # Shared object
/lib/libfoo.a        # Static library
/lib/libfoo.la       # 'libtool' library

Under Cygwin:

/lib/libfoo.dll.a    # Import library
/lib/libfoo.a        # Static library
/lib/libfoo.la       # libtool library
/bin/cygfoo_1.dll    # DLL

Under Windows MinGW:

/lib/libfoo.dll.a    # Import library
/lib/libfoo.a        # Static library
/lib/libfoo.la       # 'libtool' library
/bin/foo_1.dll       # DLL

So libfoo.la is the only file that is preserved between platforms by libtool allowing to understand what happens with:

  • Library dependencies
  • Actual file names
  • Library version and revision

Without depending on a specific platform implementation of libraries.

Upvotes: 167

Rak
Rak

Reputation: 399

I found very good explanation about .la files here http://openbooks.sourceforge.net/books/wga/dealing-with-libraries.html

Summary (The way I understood): Because libtool deals with static and dynamic libraries internally (through --diable-shared or --disable-static) it creates a wrapper on the library files it builds. They are treated as binary library files with in libtool supported environment.

Upvotes: 16

Thomas Leonard
Thomas Leonard

Reputation: 7196

According to http://blog.flameeyes.eu/2008/04/14/what-about-those-la-files, they're needed to handle dependencies. But using pkg-config may be a better option:

In a perfect world, every static library needing dependencies would have its own .pc file for pkg-config, and every package trying to statically link to that library would be using pkg-config --static to get the libraries to link to.

Upvotes: 18

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