如何将所有链接依赖项打包到一个Linux静态库中？

Question

I'm publishing a multi-platform library and it's working everywhere except Linux. There's probably a way to do what I need, but I'm not seeing it and hoping someone here can help.

My library consists of two projects, 'subLibrary.lib' and 'library.lib' on Windows (for example). I build 'subLibrary' then link it into 'library' for distribution. Consumers only have to link with 'library' to get everything, including what's in 'subLibrary'.

Every other platform works the same -- I publish one giant 'library.a' that contains everything and consumers link with it, not having to know about any of the lower-level dependencies.

When building a standard executable on Linux, my link command must specify not only 'library.a' but also every dependency of it. This is because intermediate libraries leave symbols unresolved until later.

What I want to do is make it the same as the other platforms so the consuming executable only has to link with 'library.a' and that library contains everything it needs.

I know this will make the library larger, but it's the only way to ensure dependency resolution and build time for everyone.

Answer 1

On unix a library is simply a collection of all the object files. You can add more files to the library with AR, but you do need to be careful of file name conflicts.