Why is the startup of an App on linux slower when using shared libs?

Question

On the embedded device I\'m working on, the startup time is an important issue. The whole application consists of several executables that use a set of libraries. Because space

Answer 1

Interesting.. typically loading time for a shared library is unnoticeable from a fat app that is statically linked. So I can only surmise that the system is either very slow to load a library from flash memory, or the library that is loaded is being checked in some way (eg .NET apps run a checksum for all loaded dlls, reducing startup time considerably in some cases). It could be that the shared libraries are being loaded as-needed, and unloaded afterwards which could indicate a configuration problem.

So, sorry I can't help say why, but I think its an issue with your ARM device/OS. Have you tried instrumenting the startup code, or statically linking with 1 of the most commonly-used libraries to see if that makes a large difference. Also put the shared libs in the same directory as the app to reduce the time it takes to search the FS for the lib.