[netCDF #PUN-322109]: nc-config issue when installing both shared and static libraries

Hi Davide,

> We've installed netcdf in Yellowstone with both shared and static
> libraries. When querying nc-config for the libraries, one gets what follows:
> 
> $ nc-config --libs
> -L/glade/apps/opt/netcdf/4.2/gnu/4.7.2/lib -lnetcdf
> 
> 
> Which is perfectly fine for an user compiling programs against the
> shared library (our RPATH takes care of the HDF5 dependency). However,
> if the user is compiling statically, this output is incomplete: it let
> them resolve the static archive which we installed in the same
> directory, but it does not let them resolve the HDF5 dependencies.
> 
> I believe a --static-libs or something of that flavor should be added to
> nc-config to cover this use case, but maybe there is already a way.
> Please advice.

We distribute recent versions of the netCDF C and Fortran libraries
with support for "pkg-config", which is a general version of
package-specific scripts like nc-config and nf-config that outputs
information for shared libraries by default, but can optionally output
library information suitable for static linking.

You would use pkg-config much like nc-config, to help compile and link
an application, for example:

  $ export PKG_CONFIG_PATH=/opt/lib/pkgconfig
  $ gcc -o test test.c $(pkg-config --libs --cflags netcdf)

Note: "cflags" here means "compiler flags" not "C flags", so you could
use the same command for gfortran as gcc:

  $ gfortran -o test test.c $(pkg-config --libs --cflags netcdf-fortran)

You may want to check if you have the pkg-config command installed and
look at the documentation to make sure it supports the --static
option.

Here's examples of the output of pkg-config with and without --static
on my platform, resulting from a standard "sudo make install":

  $ pkg-config --cflags --libs netcdf
  -I/usr/local/include  -L/usr/local/lib -L/machine/russ/installs/hdf5_1811/lib 
-L/opt/lib -lnetcdf -lhdf5_hl -lhdf5 -lm -lz -lcurl  
  $ pkg-config --static --cflags --libs netcdf
  -I/usr/local/include  -L/usr/local/lib -L/machine/russ/installs/hdf5_1811/lib 
-L/opt/lib -lnetcdf -lhdf5_hl -lhdf5 -lm -lz -lcurl  
  you have mail in /var/spool/mail/russ
  $ pkg-config --cflags --libs netcdf-fortran
  -I/usr/local/include  -L/usr/local/lib -lnetcdff  
  $ pkg-config --static --cflags --libs netcdf-fortran
  -I/usr/local/include  -L/usr/local/lib -L/machine/russ/installs/hdf5_1811/lib 
-L/opt/lib -lnetcdff -lnetcdf -lhdf5_hl -lhdf5 -lm -lz -lcurl  

--Russ

> Regards,
> Davide Del Vento,
> NCAR Computational & Information Services Laboratory
> Consulting Services Software Engineer
> http://www2.cisl.ucar.edu/uss/csg/
> SEA Chair http://sea.ucar.edu/
> 
> 
Russ Rew                                         UCAR Unidata Program
address@hidden                      http://www.unidata.ucar.edu



Ticket Details
===================
Ticket ID: PUN-322109
Department: Support netCDF
Priority: Normal
Status: Closed