do you mind handing out a primer on linking vs static compiliing. Especially in the context of GPL?
@Ming while it's fresh do you mind handing out a primer on linking vs static compiliing. Especially in the context of GPL?
MFor the people that watched the Licences & Vulnerabilities Tech Tips where I talked about linking vs static compiling in the context of GPL...
When you want to make use of functions in a library within your code you have options:
So, I have a library,
This is classed as a derivative work so if the library was LGPL or GPL, then your code must also be GPL
That is a highly simplified answer - I may do a blog post about it where I can use more space.
For those of you who didn't watch the tech tips... Go watch it on the replay!
When you want to make use of functions in a library within your code you have options:
So, I have a library,
foo.c with some functions that I want to use in my application, bar- Use the library statically
- that means the functions in the library are going to be part of your binary
- Compile the library
gcc -c -o foo.o foo.c - Then make it a static library
ar rcs libfoo.a foo.o - Now use it in your code
gcc -c bar.c -o bar.ogcc -o bar bar.o -L. -lfoo
This is classed as a derivative work so if the library was LGPL or GPL, then your code must also be GPL
- Use the library as a shared object
This means that the library code has been compiled with a-sharedflag and you end up with a.sofile - e.g.libfoo.so
In your code you can then link to that librarygcc -L. -lfoo -o bar bar.c
That is a highly simplified answer - I may do a blog post about it where I can use more space.
For those of you who didn't watch the tech tips... Go watch it on the replay!
