Can't link static library in /usr/local/lib

[dragostis]

I'm trying to build a library with a #[link]ed static library which lies in /usr/local/lib, but rustc can't seem to find it. I haven't been able to find the default paths that it looks through.

The command is this:

rustc src/lib.rs --crate-name mrusty --crate-type lib -g --out-dir
/Users/dragos/Documents/Rust/mrusty/target/debug --emit=dep-info,link -L
dependency=/Users/dragos/Documents/Rust/mrusty/target/debug -L
dependency=/Users/dragos/Documents/Rust/mrusty/target/debug/deps --extern
libc=/Users/dragos/Documents/Rust/mrusty/target/debug/deps/liblibc-47e3aae331d291a4.rlib

The error is this:

error: could not find native static library `mruby`, perhaps an -L flag is missing?

[dragostis]

If I link it dynamically by not providing any kind, it seems to use ld instead of rustc to link it which is working.

[retep998]

kind=static means that rustc is responsible for finding the library and bundling it in, which means it completely ignores the standard paths where the linker would look for libraries. I really ought to write an RFC to add a kind for non-bundled static libraries.

[retep998]

And I wrote an RFC. rust-lang/rfcs#1489

[dragostis]

The question is, is there a way to link an external library statically so I can have a portable executable?

[alexcrichton]

Ah yes this happens because the lookup paths for the compiler aren't initialized to have system directories (as they vary widely between systems). To get rustc to pick it up you'll want to pass -L native=/usr/lib (or wherever else it is).

This is intended behavior, however, so I'm going to close this. Thanks for the report @dragostis!