Creating a shared library on various platforms

When applications get bigger and code needs to be shared among different applications, then shared libraries sound like a great idea. To get this done, a multi platform compilation sprint race begins.

Shared libraries are libraries that are loaded by programs when they start. When a shared library is installed properly, all programs that start afterwards automatically use the new shared library. It's actually much more flexible and sophisticated than this, because ... [read more]

The library had to be compiled for Linux, Windows, Mac OS X, AIX, HP-UX, Sun OS and Solaris. Internet search engines along with compiler man pages are the best tools for the job. By looking around, I found the following links useful:

Linux:

• Shared libraries
  
• Static, Shared Dynamic and Loadable Linux Libraries
• GCC: Why is the new C++ visibility support so useful?

AIX:

• Objects and libraries on AIX
• mkshrobj, Creates a shared object from generated object files

Mac OS X:

• Shared code
  
• Shared libraries om Mac OS X, mailing list

Sun OS, Solaris

• Solaris shared library FAQ

HP-UX:

• Creating shared Libraries.
  

Creation of the shared lib was done for a mid-sized project. The library's build process was based on gmake for Unix and gmake and nmake on Windows. The main application's build system also needed adjustments to use the new library. This is also described in the links above.