LSB AppChecker: GCC links against unused libraries

Question

I'm checking the portability of a shared object (.so) with the LSB AppChecker.
One of the problems it reports is that there is one external library (libm.so.6) that is not being used but is linked against anyways.

How can I prevent GCC from linking to this unneeded library?

EDIT:
The output of the ldd command against my shared object is:

    linux-gate.so.1 =>  (0x009ff000)
    libstdc++.so.6 => /usr/lib/libstdc++.so.6 (0x003dc000)
    libm.so.6 => /lib/libm.so.6 (0x00110000)
    libgcc_s.so.1 => /lib/libgcc_s.so.1 (0x00137000)
    libc.so.6 => /lib/libc.so.6 (0x0021d000)
    /lib/ld-linux.so.2 (0x0097f000)

Answer 1

Unless you're specifying -lm in your own link command, another library you're using is probably dependent on the math library. Judging by the fact that this question is tagged c++, you're probably getting it as a side effect of linking with libstdc++ and there's not much you can do.

% ldd /usr/lib/libstdc++.so.6                                                                                      
        linux-gate.so.1 =>  (0x4001e000)
        libm.so.6 => /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libm.so.6 (0x40127000)
        libc.so.6 => /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libc.so.6 (0x4014d000)
        /lib/ld-linux.so.2 (0x40000000)
        libgcc_s.so.1 => /lib/libgcc_s.so.1 (0x402b1000)

Answer 2

Pass the -Wl,-as-needed argument as part of the linker command line. This will automatically drop any direct library dependencies you're not actually using symbols from.

$ g++ -o test test.cpp -lm; readelf -d test|grep '(NEEDED)'
 0x0000000000000001 (NEEDED)             Shared library: [libstdc++.so.6]
 0x0000000000000001 (NEEDED)             Shared library: [libm.so.6]
 0x0000000000000001 (NEEDED)             Shared library: [libgcc_s.so.1]
 0x0000000000000001 (NEEDED)             Shared library: [libc.so.6]
$ g++ -o test test.cpp -lm -Wl,-as-needed; readelf -d test|grep '(NEEDED)'                                                                    
 0x0000000000000001 (NEEDED)             Shared library: [libstdc++.so.6]
 0x0000000000000001 (NEEDED)             Shared library: [libc.so.6]