Can AC_CHECK_LIB be used for unconventionally named libraries?

Question

AC_CHECK_LIB accepts as an argument the base name of the shared library that you want to check for. So for a library named "libxyz.so" you would specify the base name of the library "xyz" as an argument to AC_CHECK_LIB. If I have a library named xyz.so (Note: Not libxyz.so), how do I check for the availability/usability of this library with autoconf ?

Answer 1

Its not the task that can be done with means of autoconf, which simply passes the library name via "-lxyz" to the linker. And in your case the linker will not find it. The best solution is to create a symbolic/hardlink libxyz.so -> xyz.so.