A dumb question about static libs ?

Christopher Faylor cgf-use-the-mailinglist-please@cygwin.com
Fri Oct 3 18:20:00 GMT 2008


On Fri, Oct 03, 2008 at 07:15:29PM -0000, John Emmas wrote:
> I'm sure this'll seem obvious to those of you who are more experienced
> with Cygwin than I am - but to me, it seems like a pretty reasonable
> question.....
>
> I understand that Cygwin isn't an emulator and therefore it can't run a
> standard Linux executable.  I also understand why a Linux shared object
> can't be used with Cygwin as if it was a DLL.
>
>But what about static libs?  I've noticed that if I use Cygwin's nm.exe
>I can list the contents of a Cygwin static lib.  However, it also
>happily lists the contents of a conventional Linux static lib.  So
>assuming (a) that the given Linux library was built for the right
>processor - and assuming (b) it's the right library for any associated
>header files, could it be used in building a Cygwin app?  Anyone ever
>tried this?

No, because it wouldn't work.  This has nothing to do with static vs.
dynamic.  While the format of a .a file may be similar that doesn't
equate to object file interoperability.  Cygwin's nm and ar commands
could theoretically read archives from a number of other operating
systems.  That doesn't mean that the objects that are in the archive
could be linked in.

cgf

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