What are a and so files

Question

I m currently trying to port a C application to AIX and am getting confused  What are  a and  so files and how are they used when building running an application

User · Answer

Wikipedia is a decent source for this info.

To learn about static library files like .a read Static libarary

To learn about shared library files like .so read Library_(computing)#Shared_libraries On this page, there is also useful info in the File naming section.

User · Answer

a files are usually libraries which get statically linked  or more accurately archives   and    so are dynamically linked libraries    To do a port you will need the source code that was compiled to make them  or equivalent files on your AIX machine

User · Answer

Archive libraries   a  are statically linked i e when you compile your program with -c option in gcc  So  if there s any change in library  you need to compile and build your code again    The advantage of  so  shared object  over  a library is that they are linked during the runtime i e  after creation of your  o file -o option in gcc  So  if there s any change in  so file  you don t need to recompile your main program   But make sure that your main program is linked to the new  so file with ln command   This will help you to build the  so files  http   www yolinux com TUTORIALS LibraryArchives-StaticAndDynamic html  Hope this helps

User · Answer

a are static libraries  If you use code stored inside them  it s taken from them and embedded into your own binary  In Visual Studio  these would be  lib files    so are dynamic libraries  If you use code stored inside them  it s not taken and embedded into your own binary  Instead it s just referenced  so the binary will depend on them and the code from the so file is added loaded at runtime  In Visual Studio Windows these would be  dll files  with small  lib files containing linking information

User · Answer

They are used in the linking stage   a files are statically linked  and  so files are sort-of linked  so that the library is needed whenever you run the exe   You can find where they are stored by looking at any of the lib directories     usr lib and  lib have most of them  and there is also the LIBRARY PATH environment variable

[c] What are .a and .so files?

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