Re: Static linking

[Ludovic Brenta <ludovic@ludovic-brenta.org>]

Markus Schoepflin wrote on comp.lang.ada:
> up to now (gcc-4.3.x) we have been happily using 'gnatmake ... -largs
> -static' to create statically linked executable. This has stopped working
> with 4.4:
>
>  > touch foo.adb && gnatmake foo -largs -static
> gcc-4.4 -c foo.adb
> gnatbind -x foo.ali
> gnatlink foo.ali -static
> /usr/bin/ld: cannot find -lgnat-4.4
> collect2: ld returned 1 exit status
> gnatlink: error when calling /usr/bin/gcc-4.4
> gnatmake: *** link failed.
>
> Now I have been told that -static is a binder, not a linker argument, and
> indeed this works:
>
>  > touch foo.adb && gnatmake foo -bargs -static
> gcc-4.4 -c foo.adb
> gnatbind -static -x foo.ali
> gnatlink foo.ali
>
> But this is not a static executable:
>
>  > ldd foo
>         linux-gate.so.1 =>  (0xb7f9e000)
>         libc.so.6 => /lib/i686/cmov/libc.so.6 (0xb7e2d000)
>         /lib/ld-linux.so.2 (0xb7f9f000)
>
> Looking at the manual for the binder I'm told: '-static Link against a
> static GNAT run time.'. OK, so this works as advertised, no dynamic GNAT
> runtime used.
>
> Now what is the correct way to created a static executable? This seems to
> work, but is it correct?

libc6 does not exist as a static library anymore; on GNU/Linux there
is no way to create a completely static executable; you have to link
against (at least) libc.so.6 dynamically.  So, the executable you
obtain with -bargs -static is as static as you can get :)

>  > touch foo.adb && gnatmake foo -bargs -static -largs -static
> gcc-4.4 -c foo.adb
> gnatbind -static -x foo.ali
> gnatlink foo.ali -static
>  > ldd foo
>         not a dynamic executable
>
> And why did only passing '-largs -static' work for gcc-3.3.x?

I don't know and it seems strange to me that it worked at all if the
binder was not called with -static. Maybe others on comp.lang.ada have
more to tell us?

--
Ludovic Brenta.