Static library contains private symbols

[emersion]

Follow-up issue for swaywm/sway#4677

Potential solutions:

• Find a way to strip our private symbols for the static library, just like the version script we have for the dynamic library
• Prefix our private functions (but then the version script won't work anymore, at least if we prefix with wlr_)

cc @sheenobu

---

wlroots has migrated to gitlab.freedesktop.org. This issue has been moved to:

https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/wlroots/wlroots/-/issues/1892

[kennylevinsen]

• We can't strip private symbols from a static library. While shared libraries are linked binaries with a global symbol table that can be adjusted/filtered, static libraries aren't linked at all, and are just object files stuffed in an archive. Hiding a symbol also hides it from the other parts of wlroots that might need it.
  • Fixing this would require a tool that could "link" object files so that internal dependencies could be resolved and turned static, and output a new bare object file. Haven't found such tool so far.
• Renaming symbols to hide them seems to imply using objcopy to modify the library first, which seems a little nasty.
• Prefixing is possible, but either requires a different prefix or a changed version script as mentioned.

[progandy]

Prefix our private functions (but then the version script won't work anymore, at least if we prefix with wlr_)

Isn't it common to prefix private symbols with an underscore, i.e. _wlr_?

[emersion]

I'd be fine with a _wlr prefix FWIW.