How do I reliably figure out link flags for libraries? I always end up googling/digging manuals.
Is there a way to list libraries available for linking, with names and/or descriptions?
edit: Linux system, GNU build chain, classics.
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2Read the library documentation ... – pmg Feb 12 '13 at 16:58
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linking semantics vary across operating systems and compilers. We'd need a lot more detail to make any useful contributions. – radical7 Feb 12 '13 at 16:59
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2http://linux.die.net/man/1/pkg-config – BoBTFish Feb 12 '13 at 17:00
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1Post that as an answer, @BoBTFish :) – salezica Feb 12 '13 at 17:01
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On most Linux systems, you can use pkg-config to list out the compiler options for a given library. For example:
g++ example.cpp $(pkg-config --cflags --libs libpng)
becomes
g++ example.cpp -I/usr/include/libpng12 -lpng12
Or an example with slightly more complicated output:
$ pkg-config --cflags --libs gthread
-D_REENTRANT -I/usr/include/glib-1.2 -I/usr/lib64/glib/include -lgthread -lpthread -lglib
BoBTFish
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1Also worth noting: `locate --regex pkgconfig/.*pc$` will list available package data for `pkgconfig`. – salezica Feb 12 '13 at 17:20