Re: [PATCHES] Fix linking of OpenLDAP libraries

Tom Lane wrote:
> "Albe Laurenz" <all(at)adv(dot)magwien(dot)gv(dot)at> writes:
> > Let me expand a little on some of the peculiarities of
> > shared libraries on AIX:
>
> > - A normal AIX shared library is called libXX.a
> > It is an 'ar' archive that contains the shared object(s).
>
> Ah, so the problem really boils down to funny naming conventions.
> If they use ".a" for both shared and static libraries, how does anyone
> tell the difference?

It sounds to me like there is no difference. Notice how his example
ldd output shows dependencies on specific .o entries within the
various .a files that reside on the system, rather than on the .a
files as a whole. If those entries had been statically linked then
they wouldn't have shown up in the ldd output at all.

So the difference is no longer between static libraries and shared
libraries -- they're now just libraries. The only difference is how
you link to them.

What IBM has done here is very sensible, and is really what the other
Unixes should have done from the beginning: a library is just a
library, and what differs is how it's used.

--
Kevin Brown kevin(at)sysexperts(dot)com