How to create a static library with g++?

Question

Create a .o file:

g++ -c header.cpp

add this file to a library, creating library if necessary:

ar rvs header.a header.o

use library:

g++ main.cpp header.a

You can create a .a file using the ar utility, like so:

ar crf lib/libHeader.a header.o

lib is a directory that contains all your libraries. it is good practice to organise your code this way and separate the code and the object files. Having everything in one directory generally looks ugly. The above line creates libHeader.a in the directory lib. So, in your current directory, do:

mkdir lib

Then run the above ar command.

When linking all libraries, you can do it like so:

g++ test.o -L./lib -lHeader -o test  

The -L flag will get g++ to add the lib/ directory to the path. This way, g++ knows what directory to search when looking for libHeader. -llibHeader flags the specific library to link.

where test.o is created like so:

g++ -c test.cpp -o test.o 

Can someone please tell me how to create a static library from a .cpp and a .hpp file? Do I need to create the .o and the the .a?

Yes.

Create the .o (as per normal):

g++ -c header.cpp

Create the archive:

ar rvs header.a header.o

Test:

g++ test.cpp header.a -o executable_name

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Note that it seems a bit pointless to make an archive with just one module in it. You could just as easily have written:

g++ test.cpp header.cpp -o executable_name

Still, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt that your actual use case is a bit more complex, with more modules.

Hope this helps!