Library initialisation in C++ - libraries and linking part 5

Part 5 of the series of articles on linking and libraries is up. This one gets into the details of what can go wrong when writing libraries in C++. The key take aways from the article are to use:

• LD_DEBUG=init to view runtime initialisation
• LD_DEBUG=bindings to examine how symbols are bound to libraries at runtime

Avoiding problems at linktime (part 4 in series)

Part 4 in the series on best practices for linking is available. The key takeaways are:

• Avoid defining duplicate symbols. The Solaris tool lari will produce a report on this issue (besides doing a bundle of other stuff). The problem with multiple definitions of symbols is that it is not predictable which definition will be picked at runtime. This is often deterministic on a particular platform, but could change on a different platform.
• Always define libraries as a hierarchy, with no circular dependencies. If there are circular dependencies the libraries may get loaded in an unpredictable order.