Programming

Hi,
Let's say there's an application compiled with a static library. So, if the application forks processes, then the static library is copied, also? Or the static library codes are shared between the processes of the application?

Thanks in advance.

Once its made into an executable, a static library is no longer a library, but part of the code of the executable itself. If it forked, I think it'd share the code segments like any other executable would.

try the size <executable file name> command. It reports the size of executable image sections: text, data, bss, total size of the three sections.

When you link statically the text section of the image file is HUGE. Try size. This is the reason for dynamic linking. All of the contents of the image file are available to the forked child process. And to the parent - so the giant text section is mapped into memory twice.

The only time to consider static linking is the case where there are special run-time library dependencies that would not be found (or wrong version) on the unix box on which the code runs. The static link brings everything along with it.