Force definition of symbol for a C++ template instance in a library

I'd like to provide a library that provides template code. But I would also like to keep the most possible the ownership of this code (generated code) when I can guess the usage of different usual types of my template. Here is an example of what I am trying to do: lib1.h ``` #include <iostream> template<int N> void print_me() { std::cout << "I am function number " << N << std::endl; } ``` lib1.cpp ``` #include "lib1.h" /* Force symbols to be defined here. */ template void print_me<0>(); template void print_me<1>(); ``` I compile my library using: g++ -shared -fPIC lib1.cpp -o lib1.so And when I use my library: main.cpp ``` #include <lib1.h> int main() { print_me<0>(); print_me<1>(); print_me<2>(); } ``` Compiled with: g++ main.cpp -l1 Here I would expect that the symbol print_me<0>() and print_me<1>() are defined and used from lib1.so and print_me<2>() defined and used for my executable (checked with nm --defined-only). But it seems that this is not the case! The symbols for 0 and 1 are well defined in lib1.so but as weak symbols. And are redefined in my executable (0, 1 and 2) again, weak. That implies that the code for 0 and 1 for my executable is taken from main.cpp which is not what I want (I checked with specification in main.cpp). Is there a way (in the lib1.h for instance) to say at compile time of main.cpp that the symbols are already defined somewhere and that it does not need to add these symbols?