How do static libraries do linking to dependencies?

Question

Say I have libA. It depends on, for example, libSomething for the simple fact that a non-inline method of libA makes a call to a method in libSomething.h. How does the depen

Answer 1

During the build process the compiler translates code into a temporary format, let's call it an object file. In the object file, there is a list of symbols that the compiler could not resolve, usually definitions elsewhere. The linking phase is in charge of resolving these symbols.

The build process feeds files to the linker until all symbols are resolved. There is no physical dependency lists, just lists of symbols to resolve. This allows for symbols to be resolved by using different libraries. For example, one may want to use a Windows library for Windows specific issues; a linux library for linux specific issues. This does not explicitly state that a program is dependent on a Windows library; it could also be dependent on the Linux one.

Some compilers can generate dependency lists, usually for usage in a build process. However, the ultimate responsibility is up to the programmer.