Static libraries are used when calls to the library components are satisfied at link time by copying text from the library into the executable. To create a static library, use the ar(1), or an archiver command.

To use a static library, include the library name on the compiler's command line. If the library is not in a standard library directory, be sure to use the -L option to specify the directory and the -l option to specify the library filename.

To build an appplication to have all static versions of standard libraries in the application binary, use the -static option on the compiler command line.

Dynamic libraries are linked into the program at run time and when loaded into memory can be accessed by multiple programs. Dynamic libraries are formed by creating a Dynamic Shared Object (DSO).

Use the link editor command (ld(1)) to create a dynamic library from a series of object files or to create a DSO from an existing static library.

To use a dynamic library, include the library on the compiler's command line. If the dynamic library is not in one of the standard library directories, use the -rpath compiler option during linking. You must also set the LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable to the directory where the library is stored before running the executable.

The following C/C++ libraries are provided with the Intel compiler:

The Shared Memory Access Library (libsma) is part of the Message Passing Toolkit (MPT) product on SGI Altix systems. The SHMEM programming model consists of library routines that provide low-latency, high-bandwidth communication for use in highly parallelized, scalable programs. The routines in the SHMEM application programming interface (API) provide a programming model for exchanging data between cooperating parallel processes. The resulting programs are similar in style to Message Passing Interface (MPI) programs. The SHMEM API can be used either alone or in combination with MPI routines in the same parallel program.

A SHMEM program is SPMD (single program, multiple data) in style. The SHMEM processes, called processing elements or PEs, all start at the same time, and they all run the same program. Usually the PEs perform computation on their own subdomains of the larger problem, and periodically communicate with other PEs to exchange information on which the next computation phase depends.

The SHMEM routines minimize the overhead associated with data transfer requests, maximize bandwidth, and minimize data latency. Data latency is the period of time that starts when a PE initiates a transfer of data and ends when a PE can use the data.

SHMEM routines support remote data transfer through put operations, which transfer data to a different PE, get operations, which transfer data from a different PE, and remote pointers, which allow direct references to data objects owned by another PE. Other operations supported are collective broadcast and reduction, barrier synchronization, and atomic memory operations. An atomic memory operation is an atomic read-and-update operation, such as a fetch-and-increment, on a remote or local data object.

For details about using the SHMEM routines, see the intro_shmem(3) man page or the Message Passing Toolkit (MPT) User's Guide.