Loading static libraries

[nikhilkalige]

How would you go about using .a library files in cling. I read that you can only load .so files, but in our project we have decided to use only static library files, so it would be nice if someone could point to some instructions on how to make this work..

Thanks.

[gracicot]

I second this, it would be incredibly useful to us too. We have many .a files on linux, and .lib file on windows. I did not found any info on this, sadly.

[mcraveiro]

Cling developers,

Thanks very much for a great tool. I also second the request by @nikhilkalige and @gracicot. I just tried loading a static library using .L and #pragma cling load and it was not very obvious to me this was not supported. This is what happens at present:

[cling]$ .L libmasd.dogen.utility.a
..L.L .L l.L li.L lib.L libm.L libma.L libmas.L libmasd.L libmasd..L libmasd.d.L libmasd.do.L libmasd.dog.L libmasd.doge.L libmasd.dogen.L libmasd.dogen..L libmasd.dogen.u.L libmasd.dogen.ut.L libmasd.dogen.uti.L libmasd.dogen.util.L libmasd.dogen.utili.L libmasd.dogen.utilit.L libmasd.dogen.utility.L libmasd.dogen.utility..L libmasd.dogen.utility.a.L libmasd.dogen.utility.a
In file included from input_line_3:1:
libmasd.dogen.utility.a:1:1: error: expected unqualified-id
!<arch>
^
libmasd.dogen.utility.a:3:1: warning: null character ignored [-Wnull-character]
<U+0000>
^
libmasd.dogen.utility.a:3:2: warning: null character ignored [-Wnull-character]
<U+0000><U+0000>
<snip>
libmasd.dogen.utility.a:4:58: warning: null character ignored [-Wnull-character]
  ...<U+0000><U+0003><E9>&<U+0000><U+0003><E9>&<U+0000><U+0003><E9>&<U+0000><U+0003><E9>&<U+0000><U+0003><E9>&<U+0000>...
     ^
fatal error: too many errors emitted, stopping now [-ferror-limit=]

If these are indeed not supported, it would be better to get a "static libraries not supported at present". But, all and all, it would be really nice to be able to load static libraries.

Cheers

[Axel-Naumann]

This is actually "supportable" without too much of an effort: llvm's JIT has the notion of static libs, and can load them / link them in. We "just" need a volunteer to implement his!