About three years ago, I wrote a post about wrangling dynamic libraries for Mac applications. I recently faced the same challenge on Linux, so I figured I’d write a follow up.
If you’re new to dealing with dynamic libraries, I’d recommend reviewing the previous post first - it covers some fundamentals that I won’t rehash here. Linux and Mac handle dynamic libraries in similar ways - but as you might guess, the tools used and some details vary.
[Read More]G-Engine uses various third-party libraries: ffmpeg for video playback, fmod for audio playback, zlib for decompression, etc. In all these cases, the library is included as a “dynamic library” (as opposed to a “static library”).
On Windows, when an executable needs a dynamic library, it searches for it in a few predefined locations, such as “the same directory as the executable”. On Mac and Linux, however, the situation is different and requires some consideration and explanation.
I was recently learning how macOS loads dynamic libraries, and it is not as intuitive or well documented as you might hope. This post attempts to lay things out in a clear and easy to digest way.
[Read More]