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cconstructorattributesstatic-libraries

Why doesn't __attribute__((constructor)) work in a static library?

In the following example, the program should print "foo called\n":

// foo.c
#include <stdio.h>

__attribute__((constructor)) void foo()
{
    printf("foo called\n");
}

// main.c
int main()
{
    return 0;
}

If the program is compiled like this, it works:

gcc -o test main.c foo.c

However, if foo.c is compiled into a static library, the program prints nothing.

gcc -c main.c
gcc -c foo.c
as rcs foo.a foo.o
gcc -o test foo.a main.o

Why does this happen?

Solution

  • The linker does not include the code in foo.a in the final program because nothing in main.o references it. If main.c is rewritten as follows, the program will work:

    //main.c

void foo();

int main()
{
    void (*f)() = foo;
    return 0;
}

    Also, when compiling with a static library, the order of the arguments to gcc (or the linker) is significant: the library must come after the objects that reference it.

    gcc -o test main.o foo.a