How to create a shared object file from static library

Question

How to create a shared object file from a static library? I am using Cygwin.

Is the following syntax correct?

gcc -shared -o libexample.so libexample.a

Answer 1

gcc -shared -o libexample.so -Wl,--whole-archive libexample.a

Pay attention that often you'll want the objects combined in your .so to be compiled as PIC, something you don't often want for a static library.