[Caml-list] Building a mixed C / OCaml static library to be used from C

[John Whitington <john@coherentgraphics.co.uk>]

Hi,

I have the following recipe to build a static library of C functions 
from a mixed ocaml / c codebase. The idea is that the final linking step 
to build target 'test' won't require any special flags:


CAMLBASE = /Users/john/.opam/4.00.1/lib/

mklib: cpdflib.mli cpdflib.ml cpdflibwrapper.c
	ocamlfind ocamlc -package cpdf cpdflib.mli;
	ocamlfind ocamlopt -package cpdf -c cpdflib.ml;
	ocamlfind ocamlc cpdflibwrapper.c;
	ocamlfind ocamlopt -I $(CAMLBASE)cpdf -I $(CAMLBASE)camlpdf \
           -output-obj -o cpdflib.o \
           unix.cmxa bigarray.cmxa camlpdf.cmxa cpdf.cmxa cpdflib.cmx;
	ar -x $(CAMLBASE)camlpdf/libcamlpdf_stubs.a;
	ar -x $(CAMLBASE)ocaml/libasmrun.a;
	ar cr cpdflib.a *.o

test:   cpdflib.a cpdflibtest.c
	cc cpdflibtest.c cpdflib.a -o test\
           -L $(CAMLBASE)ocaml -lbigarray -lunix

clean:
	rm __.SYMDEF\ SORTED *.o *.cmx *.cmi *.a test


(Here, cpdflib.ml, cpdflib.mli and cpdflibwrapper.c form the C interface 
to the OCaml functions. cpdflibtest.c calls caml_startup and then any 
caml functions it likes).

This works. However, I'm having trouble getting rid of "-L 
$(CAMLBASE)ocaml -lbigarray -lunix" -- i'd like the person linking with 
my cpdflib.a not to need any dependencies at all.

When I add two more lines

         ar -x $(CAMLBASE)ocaml/bigarray.a;
         ar -x $(CAMLBASE)ocaml/unix.a;

in the obvious place and remove "-L $(CAMLBASE)ocaml -lbigarray -lunix" 
when building the example, the linking fails, not being able to find the 
symbols for unix and bigarray. ar -t confirms that bigarray.o, unix.o 
and unixlabels.o are in the created cpdflib.a

Any ideas, or another recipe altogether?

Thanks,

-- 
John Whitington
Director, Coherent Graphics Ltd
http://www.coherentpdf.com/