15.10.1.9 Linking with C object files

A Mercury implementation should allow you to link with object files or libraries that were produced by compiling C code. The exact mechanism for linking with C object files is implementation-dependent. The following text describes how it is done for the Melbourne Mercury implementation.

To link an existing object file or archive of object files into your Mercury code, use the command line option ‘--link-object’. For example, the following will link the object file ‘my_function.o’ from the current directory when compiling the program ‘prog’:

mmc --link-object my_functions.o prog

The command line option ‘--library’ (or ‘-l’ for short) can be used to link an existing library into your Mercury code. For example, the following will link the library file libfancy_library.a, or perhaps the shared version libfancy_library.so, from the directory /usr/local/contrib/lib, when compiling the program ‘prog’:

mmc -R/usr/local/contrib/lib -L/usr/local/contrib/lib -lfancy_library prog

As illustrated by the example, the command line options ‘-R’, ‘-L’ and ‘-l’, have the same meaning as they do with the Unix linker.

For more information, see the “Libraries” chapter of the Mercury User’s Guide.