A library is a collection of functionality that programs can use. They can be dynamically loaded by a program, or they may be compiled into the program.
23
votes
2answers
1k views
Why are shared libraries executable?
Why have almost all the shared libraries in /usr/lib/ have the executable permission bit set? I don't see any use case for executing them. Some do manage to hook-up some form of main function to print ...
14
votes
2answers
4k views
What is the difference between .a and .so file?
As far as I understand they are libraries, but what is the difference between the two?
8
votes
2answers
605 views
strace for library calls
I know of strace, which is super handy for watching system calls. Is there an equivalent that can trace calls to external libraries?
For example, I'm trying to debug some SSLeay misbehavior with a ...
7
votes
1answer
163 views
ELF shared libraries - motivation for the PLT
Could self-modifying code be used to speed up function calling in dynamically linked libraries?
As far as I understand it, ELF shared libraries use a kind of indirect jump table (the procedure ...
7
votes
1answer
195 views
Finding the library versions a library was linked against
I have a library that was compiled on an unknown Ubuntu machine, And I'd like to determine what version of Ubuntu that machine had at the compile time.
My idea was to try and find the versions of ...
7
votes
1answer
323 views
What files should I copy from Windows into Wine?
As far as I understand Wine runtime does better if some libraries are copied from MS Windows, but some Windows system libraries really are not to be used with Wine (some can even make it stop working, ...
6
votes
1answer
106 views
How does gcc know where boost is installed
I installed boost using sudo apt-get install on Ubuntu. Later I did not have to give gcc the I flag alongwith the path to the boost libraries to use boost ! Nor did I do any pkg-config --cflags --libs ...
6
votes
1answer
180 views
Executing a shared library
Some shared libraries provide an output when called from the command line as if they were executables. For example:
$ /lib/libc.so.6
GNU C Library stable release version 2.13, by Roland McGrath et ...
5
votes
2answers
397 views
How to check if libfftw3_threads.so.3.2.4 shared library was compiled for pthreads or for OpenMP?
There is FFTW library installed by an administrator system-wide, in /usr/lib64, and it includes /usr/lib64/libfftw3_threads.so.3.2.4.
When I compiled this library myself, before it was installed by ...
5
votes
1answer
3k views
What does libgcc_s.so contain?
I tried running objdump on the lib to figure it out without success. Is there a way to find out what a library does?
4
votes
4answers
1k views
What is the difference between a Library call and a System call in Linux?
I would like to know what is the difference between a Library call and a System call in Linux. Any pointers for a good understanding of the concepts behind both will be greatly appreciated.
4
votes
2answers
550 views
Difference between system calls and library functions
I have been through the answer of this question but do not quite understand the difference between system calls and library functions. Conceptually, what is the difference between the two?
4
votes
2answers
229 views
Compiling old solaris programs under Linux
I've got sources for a program developed under Solaris in ANSI-C. I am told it was developed around 1996-1997. I'm currently struggling with compiling it under a current Ubuntu. I got pretty far and I ...
4
votes
3answers
99 views
ldd tells me my app is “not a dynamic executable”
I have a 32-bit application (called uclsyn) I received from an astronomy professor. I managed to get it running on CentOS a year ago, but now when I am setting up a new CentOS VM, it won't run and I ...
4
votes
1answer
1k views
Where did /usr/lib64 go and what is /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu?
I have two Ubuntu-x86_64 systems. One is version 10.04, the other 12.04 and there is a difference in the structure of the lib directories. This doesn't surprise me, but I'm curious if anyone knows ...
4
votes
2answers
997 views
Changing linked library for a given executable (CentOs 6)
I have an executable linked like this:
$ ldd a.out
libboost_system-mt.so.1.47.0 => /usr/lib64/libboost_system-mt.so.1.47.0 (0x00007f4881f56000)
libssl.so.10 => ...
4
votes
1answer
70 views
Will GNOME and GTK libs bloat up my KDE?
I want to use Shutter. I installed it previously under Kubuntu and it needed a lot of libs.
What bothered me most was that Kubuntu wanted me to restart, that is rare for OS's nowadays and in general ...
4
votes
1answer
591 views
EGLIBC vs GLIBC on laptops
From what I understand the primary cause of fork/branch of EGLIBC as compared to GLIBC was the problem with patches for ARM that Debian devs wanted to push upstream.
I have slightly different ...
4
votes
1answer
216 views
Can I use a chroot on my dev machine to build an application to run on embedded linux installation?
I am trying to develop an application to run on an embedded linux installation. It comes with an older version of libc than I have on my development maching. If I were to create a chroot environment ...
4
votes
2answers
3k views
error while loading shared libraries: libGL.so.1: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
anisha@linux-y3pi:~/> google-earth
./googleearth-bin: error while loading shared libraries: libGL.so.1: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
anisha@linux-y3pi:~/> locate ...
4
votes
2answers
440 views
libssl and libcrypto backward compatible?
I have an old server application that requires libssl.so.0.9.6 and libcrypto.so.0.9.6.
My issue is I currently have libssl.so.1.0.0a and libcrypto.so.1.0.0a on my system. I tried symlinking to the ...
3
votes
4answers
958 views
Install development files locally to build on system without root access?
There is a server that I do work on, running an older version of Linux. I don't have root access to the system, so I wanted to build a more recent version of a tool that I use a lot (Vim 7.3). I ...
3
votes
2answers
57 views
How do I know which library and man page will be found first?
With binaries, I can always do which foo to know which binary I am invoking with $ foo, but what about man pages? Is there a way to know the path of the man page will be loaded by default?
Similarly, ...
3
votes
2answers
47 views
/etc/ld.so.conf doesn't contain /usr/lib
I am using pkg-config to help supply the correct libs during c++ compilation. As I understand it, it searches in directories supplied by /etc/ld.so.conf. My ld.so.conf references the following lib ...
3
votes
2answers
212 views
Viewing Linux Library / Executable version info
In Windows, EXE and DLL have version info, including at least the following fields:
file version
product version
internal name
product name
copyright
In Linux Library / Executable:
Which fields ...
3
votes
2answers
337 views
Package installation and dependancies - how to prevent installation of existing libraries?
I'm a relatively new Ubuntu server user, so I'm learning as I go. I have an issue with a software package I'm installing (QGIS) which has several dependancies one of them being gdal library. ...
3
votes
1answer
394 views
libstdc++.so.3 => not found on CloudLinux, no SuperUser permissions, seemingly in chroot.
I am trying to install the Linux x64 BOINC command-line interface client on a CloudLinux machine with x86_64 Architecture.
When I try to run the executable I get an error:
./boinc: error while ...
3
votes
1answer
100 views
How do I get a list of shared library filenames under Linux?
Is there a GNU Linux built-in for getting a list of the filenames of shared libraries? I have considered parsing the output of ldconfig -p. However, I'm not sure about consistency in output from ...
3
votes
1answer
480 views
Proper management of ld.so.conf and shared libraries
I'm curious as to how other Linux admins manage /etc/ld.so.conf and in general, shared libraries across multiple Linux servers.
We have about 30-40 Linux servers running SLES 11. Since they are ...
3
votes
1answer
51 views
How do I get rid of unnecessary mp3 tags in my music library?
I have a massive bunch of music. Some of the tracks have unnecessary MP3 flags. How can I get rid of them?
3
votes
1answer
514 views
ffmpeg: error while loading shared libraries: libtheoraenc.so.1
When I want to run ffmpeg I get the following error:
ffmpeg: error while loading shared libraries: libtheoraenc.so.1: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
This is output of ls ...
3
votes
1answer
971 views
Why can't ld find this library?
I'm not very knowledgeable on this topic, and therefore can't figure out why the following command does not work:
$ gfortran -o dsimpletest -O dsimpletest.o ../lib/libdmumps.a \
...
3
votes
2answers
493 views
Ubuntu 10.04 can't boot, kernel panic
I downloaded pcap source compiled it and got a lib ending in libsomething.so.1.21.1. I tried to find how to install a lib online and in my impatience did the following
sudo .install-sh /lib ...
2
votes
2answers
2k views
How to export LD_LIBRARY_PATH to all users and system services
I want to export LD_LIBRARY_PATH to system services and all users.
System services are run before login, so .bashrc is not applicable.
How to achieve this?
2
votes
2answers
1k views
Why does LD keep outputting “no version information available”
On every loading of a lib, I get the error:
no version information available
This lib has been compiled on another PC (ubuntu 10.04) than the one running it (mandriva 2010.2).
$ ldd ...
2
votes
2answers
1k views
libX11.so.6 Not found
I tried to make && make install package, but I get an error:
libX11.so.6 not found
Where can i get this lib?
2
votes
2answers
400 views
How to find a Fedora package providing a dependency I need?
I sometimes install software which isn't present in the repositories, and then I run into the problem of not satisfied dependencies. The error usually tells me which library or command is missing. ...
2
votes
2answers
6k views
startx error when setting up X server on archlinux
I am trying to install X on my archlinux home desktop. I get this error when trying to start it (startx/xinit):
[root@computer ~]# startx
xauth: file /root/.Xauthority does not exist
xauth: file ...
2
votes
5answers
251 views
Bash script that can test for a particular lib
I'm writing a bash script that needs to test if certain libs are installed on a VPS, and if they're not, the script will install them.
My problem is being able to have the script determine if they ...
2
votes
1answer
2k views
Running a statically linked binary with a different glibc
I have a statically linked binary for a tool that I'm trying to run on RHLE4. The tool complains about glibc. It needs 2.4 and the one in the system is 2.3.
Here is the message that it spits out:
...
2
votes
1answer
57 views
Difference between lib, lib32, lib64, libx32, and libexec
My 64 bit Ubuntu 13.04 system has the following directories in /:
lib
lib32
lib64
libx32
libexec
In the /usr directory there is:
lib
lib32
libx32
libexec
This seemed like something that could be ...
2
votes
2answers
651 views
Does Solaris have an equivalent to /etc/ld.so.conf?
I compiled a package for Solaris 11 Express that has some library dependencies, which I also compiled from source and installed in the usual /usr/local. (And Solaris doesn't even have /usr/local ...
2
votes
1answer
2k views
/usr/bin/ld: cannot find -lfl
After running the following command:
g++ lex.yy.c -lfl
I get the following error:
/usr/bin/ld: cannot find -lfl
How can I solve it?
2
votes
1answer
423 views
Installing flash player for firefox
I would like to install flash player for Firefox on Linux.
I downloaded the .tar.gz, and there are some compiled shared libraries. I am not sure how to make them work, and I am looking for a hint.
...
2
votes
1answer
41 views
Invoking a script with ld-linux.so?
I just downloaded a tar file that is supposed to include everything required to run a program that we can call some_binary. I extracted it's contents, and I see the following:
A binary (let's call ...
2
votes
1answer
89 views
Installing shared library - questions and problems
I'm having trouble "installing" a shared library I download online. The library name is run time access (http://www.runtimeaccess.com/). In the quick start guide, they explain how to use the library ...
2
votes
1answer
61 views
Deploy libs in hard-coded dir
I have a set of libraries and some apps that depend on it. Some of these libraries names might conflict with already installed libraries.
The easiest way for me to deploy them would be
Install the ...
2
votes
1answer
382 views
Fedora 16 dependency hell
There's a package libvpx-0.9.7 which is required by empathy application. Now I want to install another application which requires libvpx-1.0... Update is not allowed because some applications depend ...
2
votes
2answers
9k views
Error Loading Shared Libraries when Installing Redhat Directory Server
While Installing the Red Hat Directory Server on the Red Hat Linux Server 5 (x86_64)i am getting the following error
bin/slapd/server/dsktune: error while loading shared libraries: libstdc++.so.5: ...
2
votes
2answers
935 views
ldconfig issue with non-standard lib directory in CentOS
I am working with a virtual machine (CentOS 5.3) that has very little storage space on the main drive (which includes /usr, /usr/local, etc). Most of the storage space is available on a separate drive ...
