Embedded Linux Development Using Yocto Project Cookbook - Second Edition

Getting ready

By convention, library files start with the lib prefix. All libraries need to be explicitly passed to the linker so that they are used, except libc which will be automatically linked. There are basically two library types:

• Static libraries (.a): When the object code is linked and becomes part of the application.
• Dynamic libraries (.so): These are linked at compile time but not included in the application, so they need to be available at runtime. Multiple applications can share a dynamic library so they need less disk space.

Libraries are typically placed in the following standard root filesystem locations:

• /lib: Libraries required for startup
• /usr/lib: Most system libraries
• /usr/local/lib: Non-system libraries

Dynamic libraries ...