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GNU Libtool

  1. Introduction ===============

GNU Libtool is a generic library support script. Libtool hides the complexity of using shared libraries behind a consistent, portable interface.

Libtool's home page is:

https://www.gnu.org/software/libtool/libtool.html

See the file NEWS for a description of recent changes to Libtool.

Please note that you can build GNU Libtool from this directory using a vendor Make program as long as this is an official release tarball; otherwise you will need GNU Make for sane VPATH support. See the file INSTALL for complete generic instructions on how to build and install Libtool. Also, see the file doc/notes.txt for some platform- specific information.

See the info node (libtool)Tested Platforms. (or the file doc/PLATFORMS) for a list of platforms that Libtool already supports.

Please try it on all the platforms you have access to:

  • If it builds and passes the test suite (gmake check), please send a short note to the libtool mailing list with a subject line including the string [PLATFORM], and containing the details from the end of ./libtool --help in the body.
  • Otherwise, see Reporting Bugs below for how to help us fix any problems you discover.

To use Libtool, add the new generic library building commands to your Makefile, Makefile.in, or Makefile.am. See the documentation for details.

  1. Reporting Bugs =================

If this distribution doesn't work for you, before you report the problem, at least try upgrading to the latest released version first, and see whether the issue persists. If you feel able, you can also check whether the issue has been fixed in the development sources for the next release (see Obtaining the Latest Sources below).

Once you've determined that your bug is still not fixed in the latest version, please send a full report to the libtool bug mailing list, including:

  1. the information from the end of the help message given by ./libtool --help, and the verbose output of any failed tests (see The Test Suites immediately below);
  2. complete instructions for how to reproduce your bug, along with the results you were expecting, and how they differ from what you actually see;
  3. a workaround or full fix for the bug, if you have it;
  4. a copy of tests/testsuite.log if you are experiencing failures in the Autotest testsuite.
  5. new test cases for the testsuite that demonstrate the bug are especially welcome, and will help to ensure that future releases don't reintroduce the problem - if you're not able to write a complete testsuite case, a simple standalone shell script is usually good enough to help us write a test for you.

If you have any other suggestions, or if you wish to port Libtool to a new platform, please send email to the mailing list.

Please note that if you send us an non-trivial code for inclusion in a future release, we may ask you for a copyright assignment (for brief details see the 'Copyright Assignment' section on our Contributing webpage.

  1. The Test Suite =================

Libtool comes an integrated sets of tests to check that your build is sane. You can run like this, assuming that gmake refers to GNU make:

gmake check

The new, Autotest-driven testsuite is documented in:

info Autoconf 'testsuite Invocation'

but simple help may also be obtained through:

gmake check TESTSUITEFLAGS='--help'

For verbose output, add the flag '-v', for running only a subset of the independent tests, merely specify them by number or by keyword, both of which are displayed with the '--list' flag. For example, the 'libtool' keyword is used for the tests that exercise only this script. So it is possible to test an installed script, possibly from a different Libtool release, with:

gmake check \
    TESTSUITEFLAGS="-k libtool LIBTOOL=/path/to/libtool"

Some tests, like the one exercising max_cmd_len limits, make use of this to invoke the testsuite recursively on a subset of tests. For these tests, the variable INNER_TESTSUITEFLAGS may be used. It will be expanded right after the -k libtool, without separating whitespace, so that further limiting of the recursive set of tests is possible. For example, to run only the template tests within the max_cmd_len, use:

gmake check TESTSUITEFLAGS="-v -x -k max_cmd_len \
            INNER_TESTSUITEFLAGS=',template -v -x'"

If you wish to report test failures to the libtool list, you need to send the file tests/testsuite.log to the bug mailing list.

  1. Obtaining the Latest Sources ===============================

  • With the exception of ancient releases, all official GNU Libtool releases have a detached GPG signature file. With this you can verify that the corresponding file (i.e. without the .sig suffix) is the same file that was released by the owner of it's GPG key ID. First, be sure to download both the .sig file and the corresponding release, then run a command like this:

    gpg --verify libtool-x.y.z.tar.gz.sig

    If that command fails because you don't have the required public key, then run this command to import it:

    gpg --keyserver keys.gnupg.net --recv-keys 2983D606

    and then rerun the gpg --verify command.

  • Official stable releases of GNU Libtool, along with these detached signature files are available from:

    ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/libtool

    To reduce load on the main server, please use one of the mirrors listed at:

    https://www.gnu.org/order/ftp.html

  • Alpha quality pre-releases of GNU Libtool, also with detached signature files are available from:

    ftp://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/libtool

    and some of the mirrors listed at:

    https://www.gnu.org/order/ftp.html

  • The master libtool repository is stored in git.

    Development and testing is primarily done on the 'development' git branch. 'master' is used for release ready code. Periodically, commits are cherry-picked from 'development' to 'master'.

    If you are a member of the savannah group for GNU Libtool, a writable copy of the libtool repository can be obtained by:

    git clone <savannah-user>@git.sv.gnu.org:/srv/git/libtool.git

    If you are behind a firewall that blocks the git protocol, you may find it useful to use

    git config --global url.https://git.sv.gnu.org/r/.insteadof \
  git://git.sv.gnu.org/

    to force git to transparently rewrite all savannah git references to use http.

    If you are not a member of the savannah group for GNU Libtool, you can still fetch a read-only copy with either:

    git clone git://git.sv.gnu.org/libtool.git

    or using the CVS pserver protocol:

    cvs -d:pserver:anonymous@pserver.git.sv.gnu.org:/srv/git/libtool.git \
    co -d libtool HEAD

  • Before you can build from git, you need to bootstrap. This requires:

    • Autoconf 2.64 or later
    • Automake 1.11.1 or later
    • Help2man 1.29 or later
    • Xz 4.999.8beta or later (from tukaani.org)
    • Texinfo 4.8 or later
    • Any prerequisites of the above (such as m4, perl, tex)

    Note that these bootstrapping dependencies are much stricter than those required to use a distributed release for your own packages. After installation, GNU Libtool is designed to work either standalone, or optionally with:

    • Autoconf 2.59 or later
    • Automake 1.9.6 or later

  • The bootstrap script sets up the source directory for you to hack.

  1. Version Numbering ====================

People have complained that they find the version numbering scheme under which libtool is released confusing... so we've changed it!

It works like this:

<major-number>.<minor-number>

Releases with a major-number less than 1 were not yet feature complete. Releases with a major-number of 1 used the old numbering scheme that everyone disliked so much. Releases with a major-number of 2 us the new scheme described here. If libtool ever undergoes a major rewrite or substantial restructuring, the major-number will be incremented again.

If we make a patch release to fix bugs in a stable release, we use a third number, so:

2.4.2

If we make an alpha quality prerelease, we use a fourth number for the number of changsets applied since the version it's based on:

2.4.2.418

And finally, if you build an unreleased version it will have a short git revision hash string in hexadecimal appended to all of that:

2.4.2.418.3-30eaa

-- Copyright (C) 2004-2010, 2015-2019, 2021-2024 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

Written by Gary V. Vaughan, 2004

This file is part of GNU Libtool.

Copying and distribution of this file, with or without modification, are permitted in any medium without royalty provided the copyright notice and this notice are preserved. This file is offered as-is, without warranty of any kind.

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