Re: Any Compilation Gurus?

[Adam Williams <awilliam@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

>>So I revise my question:  What is libtool?
>libtool is actually this big script that provides a layer of abstraction
>for utilities that build libraries. Some of these tools vary from system
>to system, and there are different implementations (and syntax rules) for
>the library creation, especially dynamicly loaded and/or share libs.

Wow!  That is a big script,  it even does something with your friends
LANG and LC_ALL.

I see reference to the variables LD_LIBRARY_PATH, LD_RUN_PATH,
GCC_EXEC_PREFIX, COMPILER_PATH, LIBRARY_PATH which I've met before, all
very interesting.

>>...is there a good intro-document to what all this means?
>Sorta:
>http://www.gnu.org/software/libtool/manual.html
>"intro" and "libtool" are kinda mutually exclusive notions. If you feel 
>comfortable using ranlib and ar, and similarly user-freindly utilities,
>you're ready for the above. If you don't, or you never heard of these things,
>you're probably not. 

Gotcha.  I have used these, but long ago (a.out era).

>>I roughly understand make (make), compile (gcc), and link (ld), but the 
>>configure/make scripts of some of these new packages makes my eyes water.
>Your eyes might REALLY water if libtool did not exist, since all that stuff
>would in essence be coded in-line.