C++ Cookbook

1.3. Building a Static Library from the Command Line

Problem

You wish to use your command-line tools to build a static library from a collection of C++ source files, such as those listed in Example 1-1.

Solution

First, use your compiler to compile the source files into object files. If your source files include headers located in other directories, you may need to use the -I option to instruct your compiler where to search for headers; for more information, see Recipe 1.5. Second, use your archiver to combine the object files into a static library.

To compile each of the three source files from Example 1-1, use the command lines listed in Table 1-8, modifying the names of the input and output files as needed. To combine the resulting object files into a static library, use the commands listed in Table 1-10.

Table 1-10. Commands for creating the archive libjohnpaul.lib or libjohnpaul.a

Toolset	Command line
GCC (Unix)Intel (Linux)Comeau (Unix)	ar ru libjohnpaul.a john.o paul.o johnpaul.oranlib libjohnpaul.a
GCC (Windows)	ar ru libjohnpaul.a john.o paul.o johnpaul.o
Visual C++Comeau (with Visual C++)	lib -nologo -out:libjohnpaul.lib john.obj paul.obj johnpaul.obj
Intel (Windows)	xilib -nologo /out:libjohnpaul.lib john.obj paul.obj johnpaul.obj
Metrowerks (Windows)	mwld -library -o libjohnpaul.lib john.obj paul.obj johnpaul.obj
Metrowerks (Mac OS X)	mwld -library -o libjohnpaul.a john.o paul.o johnpaul.o
Borland	tlib libjohnpaul.lib /u /a /C +john +paul +johnpaul ...