open failed: No such file or directory

Question

I have built a standalone executable which references my .so object. both are in the same directory. when I try to run executable it gives me the following error:

ld.so.1: myExec: fatal: libMine.so: open failed: No such file or directory

what am I doing wrong?

Answer 1

Yes, as Alok says, the lib load path doesn't have the directory in which the .so is contained. Not even the current working directory is assumed; it must be explicitly listed in LD_LIBRARY_PATH.

Answer 2

Try executing the following line before running your application:

export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=.

Answer 3

Unix systems don't look in the current directory for .so files automatically.

You can get around this for development by setting LD_LIBRARY_PATH, but during the normal installation they should be installed in the appropriate place on the system.

See also why you shouldn't make your users use LD_LIBRARY_PATH