As far as I know link systemcalls are set up to look in the working directory first
Not so much but that’s easily fixed with an export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=.
Why would statically compiling it violate the GPL?
Because you’ve created something that contains compiled GPL code that can’t be untangled or swapped out. The licence for the Gnu C Compiler is basically designed so you can’t use it to build closed source software. Its a deal with a communist devil. If you want to build a binary that contains GPL code (which is what glibc is) then you have to make everything in that binary licensed under a GPL compatible license. That’s what the whole “Linux is a cancer that attaches itself in an intellectual property sense to everything it touches” quote from Steve Balmer was in aid of. And he was correct and this was literally the system operating as intended.
Dynamic linking is some looney tunes ass “see, technically not violating the GPL” shit that corporations use to get around this.
From a technical standpoint, yes. From a legal standpoint:
If you dynamically link against an LGPLed library already present on the user’s computer, you need not convey the library’s source
Welcome to “what did you think was going to happen if you told for profit corporations that if they want to distribute a library in a bundle they also have to provide the source code but if they just provide it linked against an ancient version that nobody will be using in 5 years and don’t even tell you which one they’re 100% in compliance”?
Could they? yes. Will they? probably not, that takes too much work.
This is why steam’s own linux soldier runtime environment (Which is availible from the same dropdown as proton) had to become a thing.
as long as you run it from the command line. On my system at least if there’s a library missing it will just silently fail to launch. I love linux but it does not make it easy
.so files are distro dependent. (This is theoretially a good thing. Means debian can distribute a stable version and Arch can distribute a so fresh the hen doesn’t know its missing yet version). If you’re a command line guru you can run a pacman or deb query to find out what package you have to install to add that library at a system level. But oftentimes you can’t just use a different .so because the .so was built to depend on another .so and you basically have to solve a dependency chain by hand. Its a big mess that apt or pacman or even gentoo’s famously obtuse emerge solves for you invisibly.
as to where to find the ancient version that binary was built for? well My goto is archive.archlinux.org but its an asshole of a process and not for the faint of heart. sometimes you just need to build the library from scratch which is BULLSHIT and I’m not unaware of that fact.
can you just go to a website and download the .so? yes actually. But it might just decide not to work. This is a problem that individual distros are meant to be solving and do so when distributing open source software. As for with steam games, I think valve solves this problem with the soldier runtime environment which I mentioned above.
Not so much but that’s easily fixed with an
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=.Because you’ve created something that contains compiled GPL code that can’t be untangled or swapped out. The licence for the Gnu C Compiler is basically designed so you can’t use it to build closed source software. Its a deal with a communist devil. If you want to build a binary that contains GPL code (which is what glibc is) then you have to make everything in that binary licensed under a GPL compatible license. That’s what the whole “Linux is a cancer that attaches itself in an intellectual property sense to everything it touches” quote from Steve Balmer was in aid of. And he was correct and this was literally the system operating as intended.
Dynamic linking is some looney tunes ass “see, technically not violating the GPL” shit that corporations use to get around this.
Oh, so bundling it and adding that env will work.
From a technical standpoint, yes. From a legal standpoint:
Welcome to “what did you think was going to happen if you told for profit corporations that if they want to distribute a library in a bundle they also have to provide the source code but if they just provide it linked against an ancient version that nobody will be using in 5 years and don’t even tell you which one they’re 100% in compliance”?
Could they? yes. Will they? probably not, that takes too much work.
This is why steam’s own linux soldier runtime environment (Which is availible from the same dropdown as proton) had to become a thing.
Also, your OS will tell you which library it can’t find.
as long as you run it from the command line. On my system at least if there’s a library missing it will just silently fail to launch. I love linux but it does not make it easy
Is there a site to download various .so files?
.so files are distro dependent. (This is theoretially a good thing. Means debian can distribute a stable version and Arch can distribute a so fresh the hen doesn’t know its missing yet version). If you’re a command line guru you can run a pacman or deb query to find out what package you have to install to add that library at a system level. But oftentimes you can’t just use a different .so because the .so was built to depend on another .so and you basically have to solve a dependency chain by hand. Its a big mess that apt or pacman or even gentoo’s famously obtuse emerge solves for you invisibly.
as to where to find the ancient version that binary was built for? well My goto is archive.archlinux.org but its an asshole of a process and not for the faint of heart. sometimes you just need to build the library from scratch which is BULLSHIT and I’m not unaware of that fact.
can you just go to a website and download the .so? yes actually. But it might just decide not to work. This is a problem that individual distros are meant to be solving and do so when distributing open source software. As for with steam games, I think valve solves this problem with the soldier runtime environment which I mentioned above.