porting an xwin-linked library

[Michael Rogers]

I'm learning this process as I go but it's frustrating and time-consuming.  I'm trying to compile an xwindows-based graphing library from a unix tarball that didn't anticipate cygwin porting.  The configure script had sections for linux, solaris, aix and something others, but not cygwin.  This is my first attempt at *any* cygwin port. 
I actually got it to compile by overriding the archive name checks in the "configure" file with their asbolute path names - I pointed it to the import libraries libX11.dll.a, libXpm.dll.a, libtcl84.a and libtk84.a.  I ran the configure script and made makefiles which compiled the entire distribution, including test files that linked to the libraries.  As one might expect, it didn't run because I was cavalier about linking the libraries correctly.  I compiled it debuggable and got a segmentation fault immediately.  I'm a newbie to gdb (I'm used to gui based debuggers) so I haven't tracked down the point that this happens yet, but I did an "info sharedlibrary" (or something like that) and it appears that the linker was smart enough that it had loaded the actual DLLs that run under cygwin-x for the four archives listed above.  So I think the problem is that it made a static archive, mylib.a, and the test programs tried to link to that.  I
 suppose that's a no-no under cygwin-x.
I sort of expected this but I don't know how to fix it.  I tried recompiling the library as a DLL in its /src directory on the command line but it's not working.  In what appears to be the closest attempt I've gotten so far - using "gcc -shared -o mylib.dll ./*.o -lX11 -lXpm -ltcl84 -ltk84" - the linker complains that the first object it tries to link has multiple definitions of all its functions.  I suppose there are some switches or variables I could define or modify in the Makefiles or the configure file that would make sure that the whole thing automatically compiled and linked everything consistently for cygwin-x but I just don't know that stuff well enough at this point. 
It's ironically a pity that the configuration/make system worked so well with a little redirection to the import libraries because I don't know enough about how to modify it make dynamic link libraries, or ensure it's linking correctly to DLLs, if its running under cygwin-x.  I still might also not be linking right to xwindows and tcl libraries but I *think* the linker did that right when I gave it the import lib files (eg, libX11.dll.a).  Is that all you need to do?
I wouldn't be averse to just recompiling everything piecemeal, from the comand line, but I've been reluctant so far because I don't know what other cygwin specific libraries or other switches I'd need to include.  That's transparent running make. This uses those big standardized GNU configure and Makefiles so its pretty opaque to a newbie.  I suppose I can back that out by searching on the arguments to the "CC" command in the Makefiles.
If anybody has some quick insights for me here I'd really appreciate it.  This is taking forever.




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