How to add flags to compiler in code blocks? - c

I am not sure if the question is framed correctly. But I am using code blocks on a windows machine. I want to use gcc -o myfile myfile.c -lpthread. But in my code blocks I don't have this -lpthread flag(is that called a flag?). So where do I need to add this in code blocks so that when I click build, it will simply call gcc -o myfile myfile.c -lpthread.

-lpthread is a flag to the linker saying to include the library pthread (POSIX threads). I'm not particularly good with code blocks but in the main settings you should be able to find options for configuring the compiler or linker. You need to add the library "pthread" there.
Take a look at this possible duplicate: How do I link to a library with Code::Blocks?

In codeblocks 16.01, you can specify the library you want to link (in this case libpthread.so) via Settings > Compiler... > Linker Settings > Add
Then you need to add the location of libpthread.so via locate libpthread.so
In this case, you may also need to specify -D_REENTRANT compiler flag to tell gcc about necessary headers for thread usage.

Related

Specifying Exact Library to Link with In Automake

I am having extreme trouble cross compiling a project related to gstreamer. I am trying to link it to a library on my cross compile machine's /usr/lib
If I do the standard linker flags -L{FILESYS_DIR}/usr/lib -lGLESv2 I get pthread complaints from my cross compile toolchain. Thus, I am trying to link to this library without using the -L flag.
No matter what I do, I am getting undefined symbol glFramebuffer2D. However a quick readelf -Wc $FILESYS_DIR/usr/lib/libGLESv2.so | glFrame shows me a glFramebuffer2D symbol.
I'm pulling my hair out because no matter what flags I specify to autoconf, something called libtool throws away my link request unless I use the -L -l approach...
Edit: I had another idea, I tried -Wl, $FILESYS_DIR/usr/lib/libGLESv2.so which worked in compiling and linking but not during runtime... Obvious to me (now) because the host machine root is $FILESYS_DIR. Anyways, this is on the right approach, but I guess I need relative names.
libtool: link: arm-none-linux-gnueabi-gcc -shared .libs/libgstbla_la-gstblaoverlay.o
.libs/libgstbla_la-gstblastabilize.o .libs/libgstbla_la-gles2_utilities.o -Wl,-
rpath -Wl,/home/z3/z3-netra/filesys/fs//opt/gstreamer-0.4/lib -Wl,-rpath -
Wl,/home/z3/z3-netra/filesys/fs//opt/gstreamer-0.4/lib -L/home/z3/z3-
netra/filesys/fs/opt/gstreamer/lib /home/z3/z3-netra/filesys/fs//opt/gstreamer-
0.4/lib/libgstbase-0.10.so /home/z3/z3-netra/filesys/fs//opt/gstreamer-
0.4/lib/libgstreamer-0.10.so /home/z3/z3-netra/filesys/fs//opt/gstreamer-
0.4/lib/libgstvideo-0.10.so /home/z3/z3-netra/filesys/fs//opt/gstreamer-
0.4/lib/libgobject-2.0.so /home/z3/z3-netra/filesys/fs//opt/gstreamer-
0.4/lib/libgmodule-2.0.so /home/z3/z3-netra/filesys/fs//opt/gstreamer-
0.4/lib/libgthread-2.0.so -lrt /home/z3/z3-netra/filesys/fs//opt/gstreamer-
0.4/lib/libglib-2.0.so -pthread -Wl,-soname -Wl,libgstbla.so -Wl,-version-script -
Wl,.libs/libgstbla.ver -o .libs/libgstbla.so
If needed, in one line as well:
libtool: link: arm-none-linux-gnueabi-gcc -shared .libs/libgstbla_la-gstblaoverlay.o .libs/libgstbla_la-gstblastabilize.o .libs/libgstbla_la-gles2_utilities.o -Wl,-rpath -Wl,/home/z3/z3-netra/filesys/fs//opt/gstreamer-0.4/lib -Wl,-rpath -Wl,/home/z3/z3-netra/filesys/fs//opt/gstreamer-0.4/lib -L/home/z3/z3-netra/filesys/fs/opt/gstreamer/lib /home/z3/z3-netra/filesys/fs//opt/gstreamer-0.4/lib/libgstbase-0.10.so /home/z3/z3-netra/filesys/fs//opt/gstreamer-0.4/lib/libgstreamer-0.10.so /home/z3/z3-netra/filesys/fs//opt/gstreamer-0.4/lib/libgstvideo-0.10.so /home/z3/z3-netra/filesys/fs//opt/gstreamer-0.4/lib/libgobject-2.0.so /home/z3/z3-netra/filesys/fs//opt/gstreamer-0.4/lib/libgmodule-2.0.so /home/z3/z3-netra/filesys/fs//opt/gstreamer-0.4/lib/libgthread-2.0.so -lrt /home/z3/z3-netra/filesys/fs//opt/gstreamer-0.4/lib/libglib-2.0.so -pthread -Wl,-soname -Wl,libgstbla.so -Wl,-version-script -Wl,.libs/libgstbla.ver -o .libs/libgstbla.so
/usr/lib should already be on the library search path, so you shouldn't need to specify an RPATH. What you do need to do though, is to tell your (cross-)linker where to find the libraries. I think that includes transitively dependencies, such as libpthread. Do you have $FILESYS_DIR/usr/lib/libpthread.so? Does it point to /lib/libpthread.so.N? Oh wait, I see something now that I wrote it out: notice the (likely) absence of $FILESYS_DIR there: so it's possible that your linker is looking for libpthread transitively needed by libGLESv2, but not finding it, since $FILESYS_DIR/lib is not on the library include path. Add -L $FILESYS_DIR/lib to your linker flags and try again.
All, this was related to the following question: set global gcc default search paths
The problem here is related to the pthread.so (also glib.so). /usr/lib/pthread.so on a lot of systems is an ASCII script which then further links to the system's /lib/pthread.so.0 (which is a soft link). When compiling, my $(FILESYS_DIR) was correct, however the the libpthread.so there pointed to the host systems pthread.so
I made a HUGE mistake here which could have been easily avoided with correct cross compilation management. When compiling for a target system, do not use files on the target system filesystem (if it's a NFS as mine was.) Use local libraries compiled for that target system. FURTHERMORE, specify -Wl,-rpath-link=/[local location where your *.so reside]
That compiler/linker flag allows for the runtime path to be on the local system during compile and link, but maintain the standard runtime path during runtime.... Hope that made sense.

How can I link with my own pthread library

I want to make some modifications to the pthread library used for my program. That is why I want to link with my own modified pthread library. I can take the source code in glibc for pthread, modify it and use that for my programs.
Normally you use the flag -pthread for linking with the original pthread library. How do I specify in my makefile to link with my own library.
Just use the -L option to specify the directory where your custom lib is present and use -l option to specify the name of your library.
For Ex:
-L/root/x/mylib -lmypthread
In this case your lib name should libmypthread.so
Refer to http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Link-Options.html for more details.
To ensure that the library is found for loading when you execute your program, do
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH = $(LD_LIBRARY_PATH):/root/x/mylib
-pthread is equivalent to -lpthread -D_REENTRANT with gcc/glibc. You can do the same, but with a different link argument (-lname-of-library).
Don't use -pthread. It is an undocumented GCC option, probably for compatibility with some other (Solaris?) compilers.
The -D_REENTRANT definition which it -pthread enables is completely unnecessary in glibc; none of the headers depend on this macro for thread safety. (The last of such mechanisms were removed from the glibc headers in 1998!) Simply linking in -lpthread is enough to switch glibc functions to thread safe mode, and -lpthread can be substituted with your own library, like the other answer says.
Compile the library in a different name, e.g., libmypthread.so and put it in one of the directories contained in your LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable (or add a new directory). Now you can use -lmypthread to link to your library.

how does a linker functions?

In static linking, how does the linker knows which library file to link the user's compiled object code against? I mean the header only contains the function protoytpes that may be used in the source code, not the library file name.. isn't it?
That's why you provide the linker with a list of libraries to link against!
e.g. for GCC, you might do something like:
gcc my_prog.o -lm -lpthread -o my_prog
Here, the -l flag is used to tell the linker to link against libm and libpthread.
It gets a list of libraries from the command line. The specifics will depend on the OS and the compiler.

Undefined reference to _sbrk

I am having a problem with _sbrk. In a link phase of compilation i use below comand to link my objects and i get undefined reference to _sbrk.
arm-none-eabi-ld -static -T linkerscript.ld -o exe timer_example.o /home/ziga/projects/cs_lite/arm-none-eabi/lib/libc.a /home/ziga/projects/cs_lite/lib/gcc/arm-none-eabi/4.5.1/libgcc.a
I am compiling for arm926ej-s and in ARM mode so i think i have chosen the right multilib (libc.a and libgcc.a) which is located in folder home/ziga/projects/cs_lite/arm-none-eabi/lib/.
I have been searching internet for _sbrk function and it is some sort of a memory managment call which isnt included in standard C libraries as it is dependant on microprocessor. So do I have to write _sbrk function on my own? How do I do it? Do you have any example for arm926ej-s? After writing this function I intend to compile it into an object file and link it together with other objects, libraries.
This helps:
-mcpu=cortex-m4 -mthumb -specs=nano.specs -specs=nosys.specs -mfpu=fpv4-sp-d16 -mfloat-abi=hard
The important switches "seem" to be:
-specs=nano.specs -specs=nosys.specs
I was having the same problem, and adding those to the linker flags helped:
-specs=nano.specs -specs=nosys.specs
Also, just with the nosys.specs fixed the issue, but the code size was a lot bigger.
The problem has little to do with _sbrk itself, but rather your attempt to invoke the linker directly, bypassing the compiler driver. Instead, use the gcc command to invoke the linker and the -Wl,-linkeroptionhere syntax to pass extra options to the linker.
One possible solution, if you must invoke the linker yourself.. Try repeating both libc.a and libgcc.a a second time at the end of the command line. There's also some "as group" linker option you could use to achieve this but I don't know it right off.
recently I also ran into this(again). the easiest solution which worked for me was to provide/redirect "malloc" and "free" apis to the one available from the SDK on which I was building my application.
Basically it happens because of mem management apis missing while linking. like the above answer mentions its not that _sbrk is specifically missing here. brk/sbrk syscall intenrally is used for heap management. hence the _sbrk ,missing link when it comes to mem management apis.
I noticed that adding -lnosys (i.e libnosys.a) also helped a this to a degree in some integrations.
with visualgdb (using gcc), and nanolib, I had to add the linker flag
-specs=nosys.specs
I solved this problem and will post solution here so i give something back to comunity. The function _sbrk is located inside NXP CDL package for ARM. Package is available for download (link is for all who dont know this already) here in subfolder CDL_v005/csps/lpc313x/bsps/ea3131/source you will find source file named libnosys_gnu.c which should be added to the project and compiled to object file and after that linked to executable file alongside other objects and libraries.
Best wishes and a lot of success.

gcc switches - what do these do?

I am new with using gcc and so I have a couple of questions.
What do the following switches accomplish:
gcc -v -lm -lfftw3 code.c
I know that lfftw3 is an .h file used with code.c but why is it part of the command?
I couldn't find out what -lm does in my search. What does it do?
I think I found out -v causes gcc to display programs invoked by it.
-l specifies a library to include. In this case, you're including the math library (-lm) and the fftw3 library (-lffw3). The library will be somewhere in your library path, possibly /usr/lib, and will be named something like libffw3.so
From GCC's man page:
-v Print (on standard error output) the commands executed to run the
stages of compilation. Also print the version number of the
compiler driver program and of the preprocessor and the compiler
proper.
-l library
Search the library named library when linking. (The second
alternative with the library as a separate argument is only for
POSIX compliance and is not recommended.)
It makes a difference where in the command you write this option;
the linker searches and processes libraries and object files in the
order they are specified. Thus, foo.o -lz bar.o searches library z
after file foo.o but before bar.o. If bar.o refers to functions in
z, those functions may not be loaded.
The linker searches a standard list of directories for the library,
which is actually a file named liblibrary.a. The linker then uses
this file as if it had been specified precisely by name.
The directories searched include several standard system
directories plus any that you specify with -L.
Normally the files found this way are library files---archive files
whose members are object files. The linker handles an archive file
by scanning through it for members which define symbols that have
so far been referenced but not defined. But if the file that is
found is an ordinary object file, it is linked in the usual
fashion. The only difference between using an -l option and
specifying a file name is that -l surrounds library with lib and .a
and searches several directories.
libm is the library that math.h uses, so -lm includes that library. You might want to get a better grasp of the concept of linking. Basically, that switch adds a bunch of compiled code to your program.
-lm links your program with the math library.
-v is the verbose (extra ouput) flag for the compiler.
-lfftw3 links your program with fftw3 library.
You just include headers by using #include "fftw3.h". If you want to actually include the code associated to it, you need to link it. -l is for that. Linking with libraries.
arguments starting with -l specify a library which is linked into the program. Like Pablo Santa Cruz said, -lm is the standard math library, -lfftw3 is a library for fourier transformation.
Try man when you're trying to learn about a command.
From man gcc
-v Print (on standard error output) the commands executed to run the
stages of compilation. Also print the version number of the
com-
piler driver program and of the preprocessor and the compiler
proper.
As Pablo stated, -lm links your math library.
-lfftw3 links in a library used for Fourier transforms. The project page, with more info can be found here:
http://www.fftw.org/
The net gist of all these statements is that they compile your code file into a program, which will be named the default (a.out) and is dependent on function calls from the math and fourier transform libs. The -v statement just helps you keep track of the compilation process and diagnose errors should occur.
In addition to man gcc which should be the first stop for questions about any command, you can also try the almost standard --help option. Even for commands that don't support it, an unsupported option usually causes it to print an error containing usage information that should hint at a similar option. In this case, gcc will display a terse (for gcc, its only about 50 lines long) help summary listing the small number of options that are understood by the gcc program itself rather than passed on to its component programs. After the description of the --help option itself, it lists --target-help and -v --help as ways to get more information about the target architecture and the component programs.
My MinGW GCC 3.4.5 installation generates more than 1200 lines of output from gcc -v --help on Windows XP. I'm pretty sure that doesn't get much smaller in other installations.
It would also be a good idea to read the official manual for GCC. It is also helpful to read the documentation for the linker (ld) and assembler (often gas or just as, but it may be some platform specific assembler as well); aside from a platform-specific assembler, these are documented as part of the binutils collection.
General familiarity with the command line style of Unix tools is also helpful. The idea that a single-character option's value might not be delimited from the option name is a convention that goes back essentially as far as Unix does. The modern convention (promulgated by GNU) that multiple-character option names are introduced by -- instead of just - implies that -lm might be a synonym for -l m (or the pair of options -l -m in some conventions but that happens not to be the case for gcc) but it is probably not a single option named -lm. You will see a similar pattern with the -f options that control specific optimizations or the -W options that control warnings, for example.

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