[ale] Static linking of readline

[Charles Shapiro]

Hmm.  That's an interesting idear.  I am using the .a libs from the
packages.  I tried linking to an ncurses library which I built from
the .o files and explicitly ran "ar -s" (ranlib) on.  I am pretty sure
that library was correct 'cause I could see its symbols with nm(1).
And I just checked the shiped /usr/lib/libreadline.a with nm, and sure
enough _it_ sees symbols in there.  Maybe it's some incompatibility
between my linker and ar(1)?

-- CHS


On Sat, Jul 28, 2012 at 9:35 AM, Jim Kinney <jim.kinney at gmail.com> wrote:
> That really sounds like incorrect .a  builds.
>
> On Jul 28, 2012 9:10 AM, "Charles Shapiro" <hooterpincher at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> The "diary.c" program compiles, links, and runs flawlessly to a shared
>> library executable 18K in size.  It uses readline(3) to get some stuff
>> the user types in.
>>
>> So you'd _think_ that, given "/usr/lib/libreadline.a", the command:
>>
>> gcc -static -I. -lreadline -o diary diary.c
>>
>> Would create the statically linked "diary" executable.  But in fact,
>> on my ubuntu 10.10 system you get:
>>
>> /tmp/ccU5znZ0.o: In function `get_timecode':
>> diary.c:(.text+0x65e): undefined reference to `readline'
>> diary.c:(.text+0x6ef): undefined reference to `readline'
>> /tmp/ccU5znZ0.o: In function `get_inputstring':
>> diary.c:(.text+0x76b): undefined reference to `readline'
>> collect2: ld returned 1 exit status
>>
>> After much manful struggle, I  determined that I could only get the
>> static-linked "diary" program to include readline if I disassembled
>> the /usr/lib/libreadline.a library with ar(1), then explicitly named
>> the .o files in the gcc command:
>>
>> cc -static -I. -lgpm  -o diary-static diary.c readline-6.1/bind.o
>> readline-6.1/callback.o readline-6.1/compat.o readline-6.1/complete.o
>> readline-6.1/display.o readline-6.1/funmap.o readline-6.1/histexpand.o
>> readline-6.1/histfile.o readline-6.1/history.o
>> readline-6.1/histsearch.o .  . .
>>
>> Alas, the same mechanism ( or lack of mechanism) also holds with the
>> ncurses library and the gpm library, which libreadline requires.  So
>> after an immensely long gcc command line, I have a statically linked
>> program which runs, and is only 1.3 MB in size.
>>
>> Has anyone else tried this with a less cumbersome method?  I have
>> verified that I can statically link the "hello world" example ( the
>> shared object one is about 7K, and the static one is about 600), so I
>> am pretty sure that libgcc.a is being properly referenced.  All of the
>> googling I have done seems to indicate that at the very least:
>>
>> gcc  -static -lreadline -lgpm -lncurses -I. -o diary-test diary.c
>>
>> Should produce a statically linked diary-test file, given
>> /usr/lib/libreadline.a, /usr/lib/libncurses.a, and /usr/lib/libgpm.a.
>> But of course it never picks the readline object out of
>> /usr/lib/libreadline.a, giving the same error message as above.
>> If I tear everything into .o files with ar(1) and explicitly link
>> those in, the linker works fine.  Once I am over the linker troubles,
>> the static-linked program seems to run.  I am quite sure that gcc is
>> seeing libreadline.a, since I get no kvetching about not being able to
>> find a file, and I tried moving libreadline.a around and pointing to
>> it in different places with no change in behavior.
>>
>> I am using:
>>
>> gcc -v
>> Using built-in specs.
>> Target: i686-linux-gnu
>> Configured with: ../src/configure -v --with-pkgversion='Ubuntu/Linaro
>> 4.4.4-14ubuntu5.1'
>> --with-bugurl=file:///usr/share/doc/gcc-4.4/README.Bugs
>> --enable-languages=c,c++,fortran,objc,obj-c++ --prefix=/usr
>> --program-suffix=-4.4 --enable-shared --enable-multiarch
>> --enable-linker-build-id --with-system-zlib --libexecdir=/usr/lib
>> --without-included-gettext --enable-threads=posix
>> --with-gxx-include-dir=/usr/include/c++/4.4 --libdir=/usr/lib
>> --enable-nls --with-sysroot=/ --enable-clocale=gnu
>> --enable-libstdcxx-debug --enable-objc-gc --enable-targets=all
>> --disable-werror --with-arch-32=i686 --with-tune=generic
>> --enable-checking=release --build=i686-linux-gnu --host=i686-linux-gnu
>> --target=i686-linux-gnu
>> Thread model: posix
>> gcc version 4.4.5 (Ubuntu/Linaro 4.4.4-14ubuntu5.1)
>>
>> ld --version
>> GNU ld (GNU Binutils for Ubuntu) 2.20.51-system.20100908
>>
>> -- CHS
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