[CMake] Programs linked to .a or .so libraries?

[Convey Christian J NPRI]

> > 1) We want to minimize the number of external dependencies 
> required to 
> > use the software, so that installing it requires a minimum of fuss.
> 
> You could provide an additional binary package containing the 
> needed libraries. Extremely easy ;)

I'd like to avoid packaging other projects' software if possible.  It seems
to cause confusion.

> 
> > 2) I'm producing Debian packages for the software, so I 
> need to know 
> > which dynamic libraries my program will need when it is 
> executed.  For 
> > example, if my program has been linked to libFLTK.so, then 
> my Debian 
> > package must state a package-dependency on the libfltk1.1 package.  
> > But if my program has been linked to libFLTK.a, no such package 
> > dependency exists and therefore my own Debian package 
> shouldn't list libfltk1.1 as a dependency.
> 
> Debian packages provide both .a and .so files but GNU ld will 
> prefer the .so file.

A package "libfoo" will typically provide something like "libfoo.so.1.3" and
a symlink "libfoo.so.1".

The package "libfoo-dev" will provide "libfoo.a", and a symlink "libfoo.so"
which points at "libfoo.so.1".

Thanks for the tip about GNU ld.


> 
> > Because the computer that's being used to create the Debian 
> packages 
> > might have both libFLTK.a and libFLTK.so installed on it, I need to 
> > control, or at least know, which version of the FLTK 
> library was linked to my program.
> 
> If you build on Debian, can't you use the dh_shlibdeps with a 
> proper debian/ directory?

Thanks, this is very helpful.  I didn't know about dh_shlibdeps.  While I
still don't have a good way to force my program to be linked against .a
files rather than their .so counterparts, at least I know how to properly
document the package
dependencies now.
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