# Compiling libigl As A Static Library¶

Warning

Compiling libigl as a static library is considerably more difficult than using it as a header-only library (see installation instruction instead). Do it only if you are experienced with C++, cmake and make, and you want to improve your compilation times.

Libigl is developed most often on Mac OS X, though has current users in Linux and Windows.

### Linux/Mac OS X/Cygwin¶

Libigl may also be compiled to a static library. This is advantageous when building a project with libigl, since when used as an header-only library can slow down compile times.

To build the entire libigl library producing at least lib/libigl.a and possible other (automatically detected) extras, e.g. lib/libiglcgal.a issue:

cmake ../ -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release\
-DLIBIGL_USE_STATIC_LIBRARY=ON\
-DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/path/to/custom/installation

make
make install

This will install libigl into the directory specified by CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX, which is set to /usr/local by deafault on macOS and Linux. The installation process does not only create ${CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX}/lib/libigl.a, it copies the libigl headers into ${CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX}/include/igl/ too.

Or if you base your project on the libigl-example-project you can add

option(LIBIGL_USE_STATIC_LIBRARY     "Use libIGL as static librarie" ON)


before the following line

find_package(LIBIGL REQUIRED QUIET)


in the CMakeLists.txt to always build libigl as static library for your project. See example-project aswell.

Tip

If you have changed the value for LIBIGL_USE_STATIC_LIBRARY in your CMakeLists.txt make sure to remove or update the CMakeCache.txt in your build directory.

Warning

You should expect to see a few linker warnings of the form:

/opt/local/bin/ranlib: file: libigl.a(*.cpp.o) has no symbols


These are (admittedly unpopular) functions that have never been used by us statically so we haven’t explicit instantiations (yet).

## Development¶

Further documentation for developers is listed in style-guidelines.

See LICENSE.txt

## Zipping¶

Zip this directory without .git litter and binaries using:

git archive -prefix=libigl/ -o libigl.zip master


## Explicit Instantiations Of Templated Functions¶

Special care must be taken by the developers of each function and class in the libigl library that uses C++ templates. If this function is intended to be compiled into the statically linked libigl library then function is only compiled for each explicitly instantiated declaration. These should be added at the bottom of the corresponding .cpp file surrounded by a

#ifdef IGL_STATIC_LIBRARY


Of course, a developer may not know ahead of time which instantiations should be explicitly included in the igl static lib. One way to find out is to add one explicit instantiation for each call in one’s own project. This only ever needs to be done once for each template.

The process is somewhat mechanical using a linker with reasonable error output.

Supposed for example we have compiled the igl static lib, including the cat.h and cat.cpp functions, without any explicit instantiation. Say using the makefile in the libigl directory:

cd $LIBIGL make  Now if we try to compile a project and link against it we may get an error like: Undefined symbols for architecture x86_64: "Eigen::Matrix<int, -1, -1, 0, -1, -1> igl::cat<Eigen::Matrix<int, -1, -1, 0, -1, -1> >(int, Eigen::Matrix<int, -1, -1, 0, -1, -1> const&, Eigen::Matrix<int, -1, -1, 0, -1, -1> const&)", referenced from: uniform_sample(Eigen::Matrix<double, -1, -1, 0, -1, -1> const&, Eigen::Matrix<int, -1, -1, 0, -1, -1> const&, int, double, Eigen::Matrix<double, -1, -1, 0, -1, -1>&)in Skinning.o "Eigen::SparseMatrix<double, 0, int> igl::cat<Eigen::SparseMatrix<double, 0, int> >(int, Eigen::SparseMatrix<double, 0, int> const&, Eigen::SparseMatrix<double, 0, int> const&)", referenced from: covariance_scatter_matrix(Eigen::Matrix<double, -1, -1, 0, -1, -1> const&, Eigen::Matrix<int, -1, -1, 0, -1, -1> const&, ArapEnergy, Eigen::SparseMatrix<double, 0, int>&)in arap_dof.o arap_rhs(Eigen::Matrix<double, -1, -1, 0, -1, -1> const&, Eigen::Matrix<int, -1, -1, 0, -1, -1> const&, ArapEnergy, Eigen::SparseMatrix<double, 0, int>&)in arap_dof.o  This looks like a mess, but luckily we don’t really need to read it all. Just copy the first part in quotes Eigen::Matrix<int, -1, -1, 0, -1, -1> igl::cat<Eigen::Matrix<int, -1, -1, 0, -1, -1> >(int, Eigen::Matrix<int, -1, -1, 0, -1, -1> const&, Eigen::Matrix<int, -1, -1, 0, -1, -1> const&)  , then append it to the list of explicit template instantiations at the end of cat.cpp after the word template and followed by a semi-colon. Like this: #ifdef IGL_STATIC_LIBRARY // Explicit template instantiation template Eigen::Matrix<int, -1, -1, 0, -1, -1> igl::cat<Eigen::Matrix<int, -1, -1, 0, -1, -1> >(int, Eigen::Matrix<int, -1, -1, 0, -1, -1> const&, Eigen::Matrix<int, -1, -1, 0, -1, -1> const&); #endif  Then you must recompile the IGL static library. cd$LIBIGL
make


And try to compile your project again, potentially repeating this process until no more symbols are undefined.

Note

It may be useful to check that you code compiles with no errors first using the headers-only version to be sure that all errors are from missing template instantiations.

If you’re using make then the following command will reveal each missing symbol on its own line:

make 2>&1 | grep "referenced from" | sed -e "s/, referenced from.*//"


### Benefits Of Static Library¶

• Faster compile time: Because the libigl library is already compiled, only the new code in ones project must be compiled and then linked to IGL. This means compile times are generally faster.

• Debug or optimized: The IGL static library may be compiled in debug mode or optimized release mode regardless of whether one’s project is being optimized or debugged.

### Drawbacks Of Static Library¶

• Hard to use templates: Special care (by the developers of the library) needs to be taken when exposing templated functions.