Statically linking libraries in MinGW
mingw, static-libraries
Solution
I found the solution here: http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/84461/MinGW-Static-and-Dynamic-Libraries
The idea being is to compile all libraries (source files) without linking. Then converting the output objects with `ar rcs -o lib*.a *.o` where * is the name of objects created (converting them one by one). After that, we simply compile the application with `-L.` to specify the directory and with `-l*` to specify libraries names without GNU naming decoration.
For those libs which depends on others, they should be specified first and then the referenced libs, or else errors such as `undefined reference to re` will occur when I did `-lre -ltest`, where `-ltest -lre` is the right one, because test library refers to re library.
Here is how I compiled it:
cc -c -o test.o test.c
cc -c -o re.o re.c
ar rcs -o libtest.a test.o
ar rcs -o libre.a re.o
cc -o main.exe main.c -L. -ltest -lre
It also works for Tiny C Compiler.
Problem
Suppose I have three C source files. The first two to be LIBs (lib*.a?), and the third is an application which uses them. The first is (re.c): ``` int re(int i) { return i; } ``` The second is (test.c): ``` int re(int); // Depends on re.c int test(int i) { return re(i); } ``` And the third is (main.c): ``` #include<stdio.h> int test(int); // Uses test.c int main(void) { printf("%d\n",test(0)); return 0; } ``` Now how can I create the first two LIBs in such a way that allows me to statically link them later with main application? I know how to create the DLLs and link them dynamically in my application such as: cc -o re.dll re.c -shared -Wl,--out-implib=libre.a (for re.c) cc -o test.dll test.c -L. -lre -shared -Wl,--out-implib=libtest.a (for test.c) cc -o main.exe main.c -L. -lre -ltest So how to create equivalent LIBs to be statically linked within my executable binary in MinGW, and how to link them? Obviously, under Windows :)