Date: Sat, 30 Jan 1999 23:30:43 +0100 From: Marcus Brinkmann <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Why should the application choose to hard code the PATH in the binary? AFAICS, there is no apparent reason for it. What has the path to do with the library? I think the only thing that should be hard coded is the exact soname and library name. Maybe I am missing something? Suppose you have your own set of shared libraries, in your own directory. Suppose you want to let other people use your programs linked against your own shared libraries. You can tell everyone who uses your programs to set LD_LIBRARY_PATH, or you can simply use -rpath so that your programs can always find your shared libraries. In general, it's convenient to store the path in the executable any time a shared library is installed in a directory which the dynamic linker does not search by default. Incidentally, I don't know what you mean by saying both soname and library name. There is only one name recorded for a shared library: the soname. Ian