5.3 Using Automake with libtool

Libtool library support is implemented under the ‘LTLIBRARIES’ primary.

Here are some samples from the Automake Makefile.am in the libtool distribution's demo subdirectory.

First, to link a program against a libtool library, just use the ‘program_LDADD’¹ variable:

     bin_PROGRAMS = hell hell_static
     
     # Build hell from main.c and libhello.la
     hell_SOURCES = main.c
     hell_LDADD = libhello.la
     
     # Create a statically linked version of hell.
     hell_static_SOURCES = main.c
     hell_static_LDADD = libhello.la
     hell_static_LDFLAGS = -static

You may use the ‘program_LDFLAGS’ variable to stuff in any flags you want to pass to libtool while linking ‘program’ (such as -static to avoid linking uninstalled shared libtool libraries).

Building a libtool library is almost as trivial... note the use of ‘libhello_la_LDFLAGS’ to pass the -version-info (see Versioning) option to libtool:

     # Build a libtool library, libhello.la for installation in libdir.
     lib_LTLIBRARIES = libhello.la
     libhello_la_SOURCES = hello.c foo.c
     libhello_la_LDFLAGS = -version-info 3:12:1

The -rpath option is passed automatically by Automake (except for libraries listed as noinst_LTLIBRARIES), so you should not specify it.

See Building a Shared Library, for more information.

     program_LDADD = "-dlopen" libfoo.la
     program_DEPENDENCIES = libfoo.la