Using rpath?

[thedevilsjester]

In an attempt to keep my application self contained, I am putting all of its required libs in the applications install directory ( which is, usually, /opt/<appname>/system )

To force ld to look there I have to pass g++ the rpath flag like:
-Wl,--rpath,./system

And this is fine if they are in the programs directory when they run it, because ld will look in ./system for the files, however if they are in another directory and just typed in the full path, or if they clicked a link to the app, etc..., then ld will not find the libs (because the . 'current directory', is not the same as the apps directory.)

Basically my quesion is, is there another way to have ld dynamically look for the libs? Or another flag I can pass to have it use the apps directory, not the current directory? I would hate to force my app to be installed in a specific directory, simply because ld cant find the libs otherwise....

On a side note, although I appreciate any help and suggestions, please dont give me a lecture on dynamic libs and their purpose ;) I know that they should be installed into a public directory and not sit with the app itself, but this is a situation where that is not a good option.

[LordHunter317]

Use a script and LD_LIBRARY_PATH. Be wary of security issues. It's far more flexible than -rpath will ever be.

[thedevilsjester]

I dont know if I like the idea of having to run a script that runs my program...although I guess it would make it a bit more dynamic...although I would really prefer a built in method...

Security issues? Care to elaborate?

[LordHunter317]

Well, it's how everything does it, so I don't see a better option. Your other option is to use dlopen()/dlsym() and do the pathing yourself.

Security issues? Well, if the path is set correctly, you could call some function you didn't expect to.

For example, if your script does this:LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$LD_LIBRARY_PATH:/opt/myapp/lib and LD_LIBRARY_PATH contained '/home/user/hackm/' or something else malicious, you could call an authentication function that would record the password you passed in, if you were asking for a password. Google around, plently of details available I think.

[thedevilsjester]

I will google around and look into it a bit more, however my inital attempts using a script to change the path variable were unsuccessfull (it says that the lib cannot be found). However pointing -fpath to the same directory, works.

My script is simple:

#!/bin/bash
LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$LD_LIBRARY_PATH:/home/mylogin/Desktop/myapp/system/
/home/mylogin/Desktop/myapp/myapp

Using dlopen really isnt a solution in this case, mainly because of the object orientated gui framework the app is using, would be a pain to setup with dlopen. (or else I would probably do it).

[LordHunter317]

You need to export LD_LIBRARY_PATH

[thedevilsjester]

ah I missed that, I dont really script very often, thanks.

[k33n3r]

or use $ORIGIN haha

7 years late

[howefield]

Old thread closed.