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Directory Search for Link Libraries

Directory search applies in a special way to libraries used with the linker. This special feature comes into play when you write a dependency whose name is of the form `-lname'. (You can tell something strange is going on here because the dependency is normally the name of a file, and the file name of the library looks like `libname.a', not like `-lname'.)

When a dependency's name has the form `-lname', make handles it specially by searching for the file `libname.a' in the current directory, in directories specified by matching vpath search paths and the VPATH search path, and then in the directories `/lib', `/usr/lib', and `prefix/lib' (normally `/usr/local/lib').

For example,

foo : foo.c -lcurses
        cc $^ -o $@

would cause the command

cc foo.c /usr/lib/libcurses.a -o foo

to execute when `foo' is older than `foo.c' or `/usr/lib/libcurses.a'.


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