Re: [Mingw-users] Installing libraries

[Keith M. <kei...@to...>]

Erik de Castro Lopo wrote:
>> IMO, this is the best approach.  If you are using MSYS, then a good
>> place for any command line apps you want to install would be
>> /usr/local/bin (or /local/bin, which is the same place, due to the
>> way MSYS 'mounts' /usr).  When these apps need DLLs, for their use
>> only, then put these in /usr/local/bin too.  Set your PATH up so that
>> /usr/local/bin is searched, in whatever order you prefer, and not only
>> will the shell be able to find your apps, but those apps will also
>> find their DLLs.
> 
> Well /usr/local/bin already works for the apps if I put the DLL
> in the windows system directory, but now I think I should put
> the DLL in /usr/local/bin.

That would be my choice.
 
>> IMO, this is not as clean as simply keeping the DLLs and apps
>> together, in a common bin directory on the path -- /usr/local/bin is,
>> after all, provided for users' locally installed apps, so would seem
>> to fit the bill nicely.  Requiring the user to type
>> 
>>    PATH="$PATH:path/to/myDLLs" myapp ...
> 
> Would it be possible to add /usr/local/lib to the PATH variable
> and have that work? That tends to make a little more sense.

Any directory in the PATH should do.  Normally, Windows will put its own
system directory in PATH, which is why your use of %SYSTEMROOT%/System32
would have worked, in your original setup.  Adding /usr/local/lib to the
PATH, and putting the DLLs there would also work, *but* it is rather
unconventional -- this directory is normally used for libraries to be
*statically* linked to your apps, and is not normally included in PATH.
On Linux, it may also contain .so libraries, (the Linux equivalent of
DLLs), but then Linux has a different mechanism for locating them,
which is independent of any PATH search.

HTH.

Keith.