Unnecessary globals in libraries.

[Lloyd Zusman]

I'm note sure how to solve the following problem involving libraries
and global symbols.  I'd appreciate any help any of you might be able
to provide.

I'm trying to build a library called libfoo.a consisting of three
object files: common.o, stuff.o, and junk.o.  Assume the following
routines exist in each file:

	common.o:	common1, common2, common3
	stuff.o:	stuff1, stuff2, stuff3
	junk.o:		junk1, junk2, junk3

Now, assume that the common[1-3] routines are called both by the
stuff[1-3] routines and the junk[1-3] routines, but they are never to
be explicitly called by any user of the libfoo.a library.  However,
the stuff[1-3] and junk[1-3] routines are callable by users of the
library.

If in my C source code I declare common1, common2, and common3 to be
'static', then they indeed will not be accessible by the users of
libfoo.a, but they also will not be found in the calls made in the
stuff[1-3] and junk[1-3] routines that the users *can* access.  If, on
the other hand, I don't make the common[1-3] routines 'static', they
will be found by the linker, but they will cause name clashes with any
routines of the same names that the user might have in his or her code
that is being linked with libfoo.a.

One way to solve this problem is to combine the source code for the
three modules into one module, declare the common[1-3] stuff to be
'static', compile the single module into a *.o file, and make that
file into a *.a file.  But this is impractical for a large
application.

Is there any way in BSD systems and SYSV systems for me to build my
library with the three object files as defined above and still cause
the common[1-3] routines to be unknown to the users of the library?
I'm not interested in the kinds of condescending replies that often
appear on the net to questions like mine ... such as "Who cares about
some extra symbols in your library?", or "Why would anyone want to do
this in the first place?", or "Read the manual", or something similar.
If you don't have anything useful to contribute, please refrain from
filling up the net with your insults and your ego trips.  Thank you.

Try replying by email, but our link is extremely unreliable and you
might have to post here.  Any useful information I get via email will
be summarized here.

Thanks in advance,

--
  Lloyd Zusman                  Internet:  ljz at fx.com
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