Anaconda Enterprise: Documentation

# Using shared libraries

Shared libraries are libraries that are loosely coupled to the programs and extensions that depend on them. When loading an executable into memory, an operating system will find all dependent shared libraries and link them to the executable so that it can run.

The major operating systems Linux, macOS, and Windows all provide a way to build executables and libraries that contain links to the shared libraries they depend on, instead of directly linking the libraries themselves. We’ll discuss Linux and macOS first, then Windows because it is quite a bit different.

## Shared libraries in Linux and macOS

In Linux and macOS, dynamic links are discovered in a similar manner to the way that Python modules are discovered via `PYTHONPATH`, and executables are discovered via `PATH`. A list of search locations is made, then the library objects are searched for in the search locations. By default, as well as by design, the system dynamic linker does not have any special preference for the conda environment `lib` directories.

Both absolute links and relative links may be specified. If the links were absolute paths like `/Users/jsmith/my_build_env` then the library would only work on a system where that exact path exists. Therefore, relative links are preferred in conda packages.

To use relative links, we need to use a special variable in the link itself. In Linux, the $ORIGIN variable allows you to say “relative to this file as it’s being executed”. On macOS, there are `@rpath`, `@loader_path`, `@executable_path`. `@rpath` allows you to set relative links from the system load paths, while `@loader_path` is equivalent to `$ORIGIN`, and `@executable_path` supports the Apple ”.app” directory approach, where libraries know where they live relative to their calling application.

Conda build uses `$ORIGIN` on Linux and `@loader_path` on macOS since we install into a common root directory and can assume that other libraries will also be installed into that root. The use of the variables allows us to build relocatable binaries that can be built on one person’s system and sent everywhere.

On Linux, `conda-build` modifies any shared libraries or generated executables to use a relative dynamic link by calling the `patchelf` tool. On macOS, the `install_name_tool` tool is used.

CAUTION: setting `LD_LIBRARY_PATH` (on Linux) or `DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH` (on macOS) can interfere with this because the dynamic linker short-circuits link resolution by first looking at `LD_LIBRARY_PATH`.

For example, let’s assume that you decided to install an old version of `libcurl` into your conda environment due to some compatibility issues with the code you’re using. Then, you set `export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/home/jsmith/envs/curl_env/lib`. From now on, every program you execute in that session will favor this libcurl to your system libcurl, since it’s now effectively at the “front” of the dynamic load path.

Therefore, we discourage the inclusion of conda environment paths in `LD_LIBRARY_PATH` or `DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH`.

## Shared libraries in Windows

Windows does not have the same concept of embedding links into binaries. Instead, Windows depends primarily on searching directories for matching filenames, as documented at https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/7d83bc18.aspx.

There is an alternate configuration, called side-by-side assemblies, that requires specification of DLL versions in either an embedded manifest, or an appropriately named xml file alongside the binary in question. Conda does not currently use side-by-side assemblies, but may turn towards that in the future to resolve complications with multiple versions of the same library on one system.

For now, most DLLs are installed into (install prefix)\Library\bin. As of 2015 November 9, this path is added to os.environ[“PATH”] for all Python processes, so that DLLs can be located, regardless of the value of the system’s PATH environment variable.

Note that PATH is searched from left to right, with the first DLL name match being picked up (in the absence of a manifest specifying otherwise). This means that installing software with other matching DLLs may give you a system that crashes in unpredictable ways. When troubleshooting or asking for support on Windows, always consider PATH as a potential source of issues.