dear Linux experts and gurus,

I am installing most of the Unix applications (on Linux and Solaris) by building from the source code. usually I did

# ./configure <with parameters>

and watch the response scrolling on the screen.
Sometime it shown some error when looking for the exact library.

These are the examples :
1) checking for library containing crypt... -lcrypt
2) checking for gethostbyname_r in -lnsl... yes
3) checking for floor in -lm... yes

4) checking for zlib location... /usr
adding "-lz" to LIBS

5) checking for zlib library... found
forcing MOD_DEFLATE_LDADD to "-lz"
removed "-lz" from LIBS


Is this "-l" had something to do with the ld linker ?
Is this parameter ( "-l" ) has configuration files stored somewhere ?
Are there any ways to change the configuration ?


Thank you in advance.

dear Unix experts & gurus,

Actually, I asked this because I compiled the cacti spine from source but encountered this error :

checking for mysql_init in -lmysqlclient_r... no
configure: error: MySQL libraries not found

This is what I got when I compiled cacti-spine with parameter "--with-mysql". I compiled the mysql from source with --prefix=/opt/mysql. the library is somehow stored on /opt/mysql/lib/mysql.

I tried to :
1. change the /etc/ld.conf.so.d/mysql.conf to refer into /opt/mysql/lib/mysql
2. replace the /usr/lib/mysql with the contents of /opt/mysql/lib/mysql

but both did not work at all.
My point is not about how to configure the cacti-spine. It is about this 'misterious' -l<something> .

Thank you.