[Mono-dev] possible to dllimport linux archive library file *.a ?

[Jonathan Pryor]

On Wed, 2008-11-05 at 08:43 -0800, toshCA2008 wrote:
> I dont understand what a libfile.a (linux library archive file) really is.  I
> know it contains .so files.

This is wrong.  A .a file contains .o files, just as a Win32 static .LIB
file contains .OBJ files.  (Well, .LIB files which aren't stubs for
a .DLL...)

For most intents and purposes, .a files and "static" .LIB files serve
the same purpose, if you're familiar with Win32 development...

> but I have two sets of files, a libfile.a and libfile.so.
> I want to try to test access to both files from my C# program.
...
> I would like to test the .a file that I was provided from external vendor.
> Is that possible?

No.  A .a file isn't a shared library, it's an archive, with (1) a
completely different file format than shared libraries, and (2) is not
supported by dlopen(3).

 - Jon