Re: Simple linking problem

[Andrew Haley <aph-gcc at littlepinkcloud dot COM>]

gccNewbie writes:
 > 
 > After spending years working in Java, I've decided I'd like to do a little C
 > programming. I've gotten gcc, which I think is the first step. In fact, I'm
 > using an old version, 3.2.3 for MinGW. I've done "Hello world" just to be
 > sure gcc is working. Now I'm trying to get gcc to link.
 > 
 > I've studed all the options, all the ways to invoke gcc, and I can find
 > nothing helpful. I've got a library in a file starting with 'lib' and ending
 > with '.a'. I've downloaded this file from the web, I've downloaded the
 > source and used the makefile to compile the library. It seems that no matter
 > what I do I cannot get gcc to treat this file as a library containing the
 > stuff that I am absolutely sure it is supposed to contain.
 > 
 > I know gcc is finding the file. If I go "gcc -lblah" and it cannot find
 > libblah.a, it will give me an error that tells me the library wasn't found.
 > So the library file is found. I see nothing in the documentation that
 > suggests I should need to do anything more than "gcc -lmylib test.c" to
 > compile 'test.c' with the functions defined in mylib. I have the library, I
 > tell gcc to use the library, and yet it acts as though these library
 > functions are undefined, giving 'undefined reference to' messages.
 > 
 > I've looked at all the documentation I can think to study without finding
 > any possible solution. Is there any way to get gcc to tell me exactly what
 > is really in the library file?

Yes.  The command is called "nm".

Andrew.