libtool: C++ libraries
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1 6.1 Writing libraries for C++
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1 Creating libraries of C++ code should be a fairly straightforward
1 process, because its object files differ from C ones in only three ways:
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1 1. Because of name mangling, C++ libraries are only usable by the C++
1 compiler that created them. This decision was made by the
1 designers of C++ to protect users from conflicting implementations
1 of features such as constructors, exception handling, and RTTI.
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1 2. On some systems, the C++ compiler must take special actions for the
1 dynamic linker to run dynamic (i.e., run-time) initializers. This
1 means that we should not call 'ld' directly to link such libraries,
1 and we should use the C++ compiler instead.
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1 3. C++ compilers will link some Standard C++ library in by default,
1 but libtool does not know what these libraries are, so it cannot
1 even run the inter-library dependence analyzer to check how to link
1 it in. Therefore, running 'ld' to link a C++ program or library is
1 deemed to fail.
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1 Because of these three issues, Libtool has been designed to always
1 use the C++ compiler to compile and link C++ programs and libraries. In
1 some instances the 'main()' function of a program must also be compiled
1 with the C++ compiler for static C++ objects to be properly initialized.
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