Mac OS X dynamic linker works sporadically

Question

I have a program that links to a library "libao_optimization.dylib". When it runs, most of the time it's fine. But sporadically, I get the following error:

dyld: Library not loaded: libao_optimization.dylib
  Referenced from: /User/gw/local/bin/tst_simulated_ngs_image_and_otfs
  Reason: image not found

The appropriate paths are in the DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH. I even tried putting the full path in the executable with

install_name_tool -change ... 

But, this error only occurs sometimes. Other times the library loads fine and the program runs. Has anyone experienced this on a Mac?

Answer 1

otool is the way to debug dyld paths. I normally check with

otool -L exeFileName

and then adjust the paths with

install_name_tool -change 

For new machines, I configure the env var

DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH 

When I still get errors, I test to see if the static version runs fine without errors. For example, for some boost dyld libs, this will work:

set(Boost_USE_STATIC_LIBS ON)

If the errors persist, then I know its not the path problem.