[SOLVED] gcc works well with lex, but cannot find a libl.so on hard disk

Issue

I can work using lex like below:

lex my.l && gcc lex.yy.c -ll

No problem, it works. From gcc link option, I guess there's a library named libl.so which indicates lex runtime library.

cd /
find ./ -name "libl.so"

But I don't get any find result. So is there really a library called libl.so? What's the realy library name used by gcc to link with lex?

Solution

It depends on how you installed (f)lex; the library might be an archive rather than a shared object (i.e. libl.a). Flex usually also provides libfl.a and libfl.so

If you have a debian or ubuntu system, the (f)lex libraries are in the libfl-dev package, which (on an x86_64 platform) includes the following libraries:

/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libfl.a
/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libfl_pic.a
/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libfl.so
/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libl.a

as well as some other files.

Answered By - rici

Answer Checked By - Willingham (WPSolving Volunteer)