libtiff build undefined reference to `_imp__TIFFOpen' error

Question

probably this is a trivial newbie question, however, I can't figure out how to solve it.

I'm trying to build a test program using libtiff (test program copied from here). I've downloaded the static library libtiff.lib as well as the required header file tiffio.h. When I compile the main c function with no problem I have a main.o file. When I try to link main.o with libtiff using this command

gcc -g -Wall -o test.exe ./libtiff.lib ./test.o

I have this error:

undefined reference to `_imp__TIFFOpen'

I've looked into the lib file with nm -A libtiff.lib command and I can find this line

libtiff.lib:libtiff3.dll:00000000 I __imp__TIFFOpen

but it has 2 leading underscores instead of 1 as required by the linker. I'm using mingw on Windows 7 and all the required files are in the same directory.

No clue how to link with no errors.

Thanks in advance.

GNU linker links libraries left-to-right in general. You need to place the `.lib` **after** your `test.o` on the command line! — Antti Haapala -- Слава Україні, Sep 29 '20 at 20:25
The explanation is that of https://stackoverflow.com/q/45135/918959 "The linker searches from left to right, and notes unresolved symbols as it go. If a library resolves the symbol, it takes the object files of that library to resolve the symbol (b.o out of libb.a in this case)." - but I couldn't find a clean MinGW duplicate in C instead of these Linux C++ ones :D — Antti Haapala -- Слава Україні, Sep 29 '20 at 21:52

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 29 '20 at 21:49

1

As suggested in the the comments, it was sufficient to invert the order of objects passed as arguments:

gcc -g -Wall -o test.exe ./test.o ./libtiff.lib

answered Sep 29 '20 at 21:49

MaxC

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libtiff build undefined reference to `_imp__TIFFOpen' error

1 Answers1