/usr/bin/ld: cannot find -ll

Question

I am trying to build a LIBS from the Thai Computational Linguistics Laboratory from source.

I am following the instructions as per their readme, which states

2. Installation
---------------

2.1) In the libs base directory, type:

$ ./configure
$ make

However, ld complains about 'cannot find -ll'.

if gcc -DHAVE_CONFIG_H -I. -I. -I../..  -W -Wall -I../../src/libs   -g -O2 -MT libs-predict.o -MD -MP -MF ".deps/libs-predict.Tpo" -c -o libs-predict.o libs-predict.c; \
        then mv -f ".deps/libs-predict.Tpo" ".deps/libs-predict.Po"; else rm -f ".deps/libs-predict.Tpo"; exit 1; fi
mode=link g++  -g -O2  -o libs-predict  libs-predict.o -L../../src/libs -llibs -lm -ll
/usr/bin/ld: cannot find -ll
collect2: ld returned 1 exit status
make[3]: [libs-predict] Error 1 (ignored)

What library is this and what package do I need to install to have it?

Answer 1

The library libl.a is classically the support library for AT&T Lex - it provides a dummy version of yywrap() and main(), and some other support functions. If you are using Flex, then I don't think any library is needed - the code is self-contained (as long as you provide your own version of yywrap; if you don't, use -lfl). So, you probably just need to arrange to remove the '-ll' from the command line.

If that is too hard, then create yourself a file garbage.c containing:

int podunk = 0;

Compile it to garbage.o and create a dummy libl.a:

gcc -c garbage.c
ar r libl.a garbage.o

The linker should pick up this dummy library, find nothing of relevance in it, and continue its merry way onwards.

Answer 2

what if you run \which ld\ (notice the backticks) instead of just ld?

If that helps then type in 'alias -p' and see if you have an alias' set for the ld command which is causing the -ll switch to be sent.