Building GDAL with all libraries static

Question

I want to develop a small program that checks which polygons from a shapefile intersect a given rectangle. This program is to be used in a website (with PHP's exec() command). The problem is, my webserver cannot install GDAL, for reasons unknown to me. So I can't link to the shared libraries. Instead, I must link to static libraries, but these aren't given.

I've downloaded the GDAL source code from here (2.3.2 Latest Stable Release - September 2018), and followed the build instructions from here. Since I already have GDAL working on my Debian, and don't want to mess with it, I followed the "Install in non-root directory" instructions, with some adjusts from the last item in the "Some caveats" section:

cd /home/rodrigo/Downloads/gdal232/gdal-2.3.2
mkdir build
./configure --prefix=/home/rodrigo/Downloads/gdal232/gdal-2.3.2/build/ --without-ld-shared --disable-shared --enable-static
make
make install
export PATH=/home/rodrigo/Downloads/gdal232/gdal-2.3.2/build/bin:$PATH
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/home/rodrigo/Downloads/gdal232/gdal-2.3.2/build/lib:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH
export GDAL_DATA=/home/rodrigo/Downloads/gdal232/gdal-2.3.2/build/share/gdal
/usr/bin/gdalinfo --version
build/bin/gdalinfo --version

The first /usr/bin/gdalinfo --version gives 2.1.2 (the previous installed version). The second, build/bin/gdalinfo --version, gives 2.3.2 (the version just built).

By now, my program only uses the ogrsf_frmts.h header, which is in /usr/include/gdal/ or /home/rodrigo/Downloads/gdal232/gdal-2.3.2/build/include/ directory, depending on the build. There's no ogrsf_frmts.a file, but only a libgdal.a. Is this the file I should be linking against? If so, how? I've tried so far:

gcc geofragc.cpp -l:libgdal.a
gcc geofragc.cpp -Wl,-Bstatic -l:libgdal.a
gcc geofragc.cpp -Wl,-Bstatic -l:/home/rodrigo/Downloads/gdal232/gdal-2.3.2/build/lib/libgdal.a
gcc geofragc.cpp -Wl,-Bstatic -l/home/rodrigo/Downloads/gdal232/gdal-2.3.2/build/lib/libgdal.a
gcc geofragc.cpp /home/rodrigo/Downloads/gdal232/gdal-2.3.2/build/lib/libgdal.a
gcc geofragc.cpp -l/home/rodrigo/Downloads/gdal232/gdal-2.3.2/build/lib/libgdal.a
gcc geofragc.cpp -l:/home/rodrigo/Downloads/gdal232/gdal-2.3.2/build/lib/libgdal.a

but nothing works. What am I missing?

EDIT

The second trial (gcc geofragc.cpp -Wl,-Bstatic -l:libgdal.a) is giving the following error:

/usr/bin/ld: cannot find -lgcc_s
/usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-linux-gnu/6/../../../../lib/libgdal.a(gdalclientserver.o): In function `GDALServerSpawnAsync()':
(.text+0x1f5e): warning: Using 'getaddrinfo' in statically linked applications requires at runtime the shared libraries from the glibc version used for linking
/usr/bin/ld: cannot find -lgcc_s
collect2: error: ld returned 1 exit status

Answer 1

You can use the gdal-config program to get correct options for compilation and linking. This program is a part of the GDAL library and it has its own options:

hekto@ubuntu:~$ gdal-config --help
Usage: gdal-config [OPTIONS]
Options:
    [--prefix[=DIR]]
    [--libs]
    [--dep-libs]
    [--cflags]
    [--datadir]
    [--version]
    [--ogr-enabled]
    [--gnm-enabled]
    [--formats]

You have to make sure this program is on your search path, or you can create an alias - for example:

alias gdal-config='/home/rodrigo/Downloads/gdal232/gdal-2.3.2/bin/gdal-config'

Now your compilation and linking command becomes the following one:

g++ `gdal-config --cflags` geofragc.cpp  `gdal-config --libs` `gdal-config --dep-libs`

You have to use the g++ compiler to link with C++-built libraries.

Another option is to create a Makefile with these lines:

CXXFLAGS += ${shell gdal-config --cflags} 
LDLIBS += ${shell gdal-config --libs} 
LDLIBS += ${shell gdal-config --dep-libs} 
geofragc: geofragc.cpp

and just call make with this Makefile.

I hope, it'll help.