[Mingw-users] Usage of -l and -L and .libs [WAS RE: winsock newbie]

[Chris M. <nin...@ho...>]

Chris -

What is the difference between -l, -L and specifying a lib on the gcc 
command line?

For instance, I have psmsg.lib in a local lib directory. Right now, in order 
to compile I have to use the following:

gcc -o myfile.exe myfile.o ./lib/psmsg.lib

Shouldn't I be able to say:

gcc -o myfile.exe myfile.o -L./lib -lpsmsg

When I try the above, I get a raft of parse errors and warnings from 
sqltypes.h (one of the #includes that I'm using in my source, I don't think 
it's specific to that particular .h file, just a symptom of something else).

I realize that there are lib<library>.a's, but I am under the impression 
that an .a file is a collection of .lib files. And I also realize that the 
fact that I am able to use ./lib/psmsg.lib on the gcc command line is an 
extension, and a relatively new one from the posts last month concerning the 
subject on "normally" having to extract information from a .dll and create 
an ".a" vs just using the ".lib" or the ".dll" on the command line.

From reading the documentation, a -l is supposed to specifiy a libary, and a 
-L is supposed to specify a directory to search for libaries in. So I guess 
my basic question is on clarifying my understanding of what consitutes a 
library, because I thought that psmsg.lib was the library for psmsg.dll ....

Any thoughts are greatly appreciated.

Cheers,

Chris

----Original Message Follows----
From: "Chris Hansen" <pop...@so...>
To: "ScanMan" <sc...@sc...>, <min...@li...>
Subject: RE: [Mingw-users] winsock newbie question
Date: Thu, 16 Aug 2001 08:23:48 +0200

You are missing the Winsock import library.

Try this instead:
gcc -otest.exe test.c -lwsock32

or this, if you're using Winsock2:
gcc -otest.exe test.c -lws2_32

Regards
Chris


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