GNU Libtool

GNU Libtool is a software development tool, part of the GNU build system, consisting of a shell script^[3] created to address the software portability problem when compiling shared libraries from source code. It hides the differences between computing platforms for the commands which compile shared libraries.^[4] It provides a command-line interface that is identical across platforms and it executes the platform's native commands.

GNU Libtool

Developer(s)	GNU Project[1]
Initial release	July 9, 1997; 27 years ago (1997-07-09)
Stable release	2.5.3 (September 25, 2024; 7 months ago (2024-09-25)[2]) [±]
Repository	git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/libtool.git
Operating system	Cross-platform
Type	Library
License	GPLv2
Website	www.gnu.org/software/libtool/

Rationale

Different operating systems handle shared libraries differently. Some platforms do not use shared libraries at all. It can be difficult to make a software program portable: the C compiler differs from system to system; certain library functions are missing on some systems; header files may have different names.

Libtool helps manage the creation of static and dynamic libraries on various Unix-like operating systems. Libtool accomplishes this by abstracting the library-creation process, hiding differences between various systems (e.g. Linux systems vs. Solaris).

GNU Libtool is designed to simplify the process of compiling a computer program on a new system, by "encapsulating both the platform-specific dependencies, and the user interface, in a single script". ^[5] When porting a program to a new system, Libtool is designed so the porter need not read low-level documentation for the shared libraries to be built, rather just run a configure script (or equivalent). ^[5]

Use

Libtool is used by Autoconf and Automake, two other portability tools in the GNU build system. It can also be used directly. ^[6]

Clones and derivatives

Since GNU Libtool was released, other free software projects have created drop-in replacements under different software licenses.^[7] slibtool is one such implementation.^[8]

See also

• Free and open-source software portal

• GNU Compiler Collection – Free and open-source compiler for various programming languages
• pkg-config – Software development tool for querying library dependency information