static libs ... again

[Linus Walleij]

> gcc --shared/--static.

These are real messy to use, as far as I know it is an all-or-nothing flag 
to the linker, --static really links all libs statically (if the static 
versions are available).

What one would normally like to do would be:

gcc ... -lfoo --static -lbar --shared -lbaz

assuming switches progress from left to right to flag that one (and only 
one) library should be linked in statically.

This does not work, atleaste when I tried (could be that I'm unaware of 
something basic here.)

The only approach I ever found was to remove the dynamic libraries (rm -f 
/usr/lib/libfoo.so*) and link as usual. Since the dynamic libs are 
missing, the linker will pick up the static ones instead.

I wonder of it'll really work to have both static and dynamic libs in the 
same file tree and try to link the static version, but please enlighten 
me.

Of course as long as you're only using one single library, --static works 
OK but with more complex programs it's just one big mess. Another reason 
not to use it IMHO.

Linus