From owner-freebsd-questions Mon Jan 4 15:56:20 1999 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id PAA25623 for freebsd-questions-outgoing; Mon, 4 Jan 1999 15:56:20 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from kakapo.pinnacle.co.nz (pinsoft.internet.co.nz [202.37.141.181]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id PAA25615 for ; Mon, 4 Jan 1999 15:56:17 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from jonc@pinnacle.co.nz) Received: from kiwi.pinnacle.co.nz (kiwi.pinnacle.co.nz [202.37.163.2]) by kakapo.pinnacle.co.nz (8.9.1/8.9.1) with SMTP id MAA11414; Tue, 5 Jan 1999 12:56:19 +1300 (NZDT) Date: Tue, 5 Jan 1999 12:56:19 +1300 (NZDT) From: Jonathan Chen To: Andrew cc: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: shared libs question (overlooked in freebsd-questions) In-Reply-To: <19981230223208.A6922@apogee.whack.org> Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG On Wed, 30 Dec 1998, Andrew wrote: > Hello all, > > I am curious to find out if anyone can explain shared libs... > > Background; when compiling tcp_wrappers-7.6 from source > libwrap.a is created. In the FreeBSD port, however, there > is an additional lib, libwrap.so.7.6 (and a symblink to it > from libwrap.so). > > OK, my question, what is the difference between libwrap.a > and libwrap.so.7.6, under what circumstances is each one > used, and how do I create libwrap.so.7.6 from sources? A shared library saves on disk and memory usage. Only one copy of the shared-library will exist in memory whenever one or more processes use it. A static library (ie .a suffix) on the other hand is basically a collection of object files that the linker will use to extract required files/functions to include into the completed binary. Statically compiled programs will therefore end up bigger than shared-library linked ones, and have a slightly bigger memory-footprint. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Jonathan Chen | Opportunites are seldom labeled --------------------------------------------------------------------- To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message