On Jan 5, 2004, at 7:42 AM, Nathan J. Williams wrote:

> Matthieu Herrb <matthieu.herrb@laas.fr> writes:
>
>>> ./usr/X11R6/lib/modules/libxf8_32bpp.a
>>>
>>> If not perhaps we shouldn't install them and remove them from the set
>>> lists? xfree really isn't my thing so I don't know.
>>
>> They are loaded by the XFree86 X server at runtime if the X server
>> needs on of them.
>
> The X server is loading .a files (ar archives, confirmed by file(1) on
> my machine) at runtime? Not .so files? That's pretty unusual. Is it
> invoking ld(1) at runtime to do it?

The module loading code does its own loading of the .o's and handles the
binding of the relocations itself.