Hi,

I have a relatively simple project I'm trying to compile.

I can compile it easily by hand, but I cannot convince KDevelop to compile it for me.
I have narrowed the error down to problems involving dumping the .o files created by g++ into a "library" with ar.

Below are two scripts which illustrate the problem. The first script works, the second one doesn't... why?

----------------- SCRIPT 1 -- WORKS!!! ---------------------------

g++ -Iscanner/ -Iparser/ -Icommon/ -Isemantics/ -c common/*cpp
g++ -Iscanner/ -Iparser/ -Icommon/ -Isemantics/ -c parser/*cpp
g++ -Iscanner/ -Iparser/ -Icommon/ -Isemantics/ -c scanner/*cpp
g++ -Iscanner/ -Iparser/ -Icommon/ -Isemantics/ -c semantics/*cpp
g++ -Iscanner/ -Iparser/ -Icommon/ -Isemantics/ *o mincc.cpp -o mincc


------------------ SCRIPT 2 -- BROKEN ---------------------------

cd common
g++ -I../scanner/ -I../parser/ -I../semantics/ -c *cpp
ar cru libcommon.a *o
ranlib libcommon.a
cd ..
cd parser
g++ -I../scanner/ -I../common/ -I../semantics/ -c *cpp
ar cru libparser.a *o
ranlib libparser.a
cd ..
cd scanner
g++ -I../parser/ -I../common/ -I../semantics/ -c *cpp
ar cru libscanner.a *o
ranlib libscanner.a
cd ..
cd semantics
g++ -I../scanner/ -I../parser/ -I../common/ -c *cpp
ar cru libsemantics.a *o
ranlib libsemantics.a
cd ..
g++ -Iscanner/ -Iparser/ -Icommon/ -Isemantics/ -c mincc.cpp
g++ semantics/libsemantics.a parser/libparser.a scanner/libscanner.a common/libcommon.a mincc.o -o mincc

My understanding was that ar would just "tar" the .o files together, thus the two should be equivalent... this is not the case.

Why?

I haven't used ar manually/explicitly, but wouldn't
it require the file to ar together be in the same directory?
If you keep changing directories without mv'ing the
file as you walk along, how can it ar it?



Cheers,
Tink

nope
the ar command is working since it cd's into each directory before the ar.
I am basically mimicking the effect of autotools as managed by KDevelop.

What I don't understand is why an ar file containing .o files is different from the compiler's perspective than just the .os.

I can, for instance, keep the .o files in the sub-directories and end the compile with

g++ common/*o scanner/*o parser/*o semantics/*o mincc.o -o mincc

and all is good... but the equivalent with ar'd .o files doesn't work

g++ common/libcommon.a scanner/libscanner.a parser/libparser.a semantics/libsemantics.a mincc.o -o mincc

causes unresolved references.