libtool を Homebrew でインストール

プロジェクトリンク

• ホームページ

コマンドとエイリアス

• glibtool
• glibtoolize
• libtool
• libtool-next-version
• libtoolize

プロジェクトの歴史

The Libtool manual describes the project as a response to a mid-1990s portability problem in GNU packages: shared-library support mattered, but each Unix and Unix-like platform had different compiler flags, linker behavior, filename conventions, runtime search paths, and dynamic loading rules. Libtool standardized those mechanics for package authors and was designed to integrate with Autoconf and Automake while remaining usable outside the GNU build system.

By 1999, Libtool 1.3 had added maintainers, a GNU-hosted home page, portable dlopen support through libltdl, convenience archives, export-symbol controls, and many platform fixes. The old GNU news page also notes that March 15, 1999 was treated by the team as Libtool's third birthday, placing the project origin in March 1996.

採用の歴史

Libtool became a standard part of Autotools-era source distributions, especially for C and C++ libraries that needed to build both static and shared artifacts across GNU/Linux, BSD systems, commercial Unix variants, Cygwin, and macOS/Darwin. Its adoption is visible less as a user-facing application than as generated build infrastructure embedded in countless source tarballs.

On macOS through Homebrew, GNU Libtool is installed with prefixed executable names such as glibtool and glibtoolize to avoid colliding with Apple's system libtool command.

使われ方

Package maintainers use libtool through make rules, Autoconf macros, and libtoolize-generated support files. End users usually encounter it indirectly when compiling source packages: it creates libtool object files, links libtool archives, manages PIC/non-PIC builds, and emits platform-specific install or runtime-linking commands.

パッケージ好きにとっての重要性

Libtool is package-nerd famous because it solved a real portability mess and also became a recognizable source of noisy build logs, relinking steps, .la files, and platform edge cases. Understanding it explains a large slice of classic Unix packaging, Autotools conventions, and why Homebrew exposes GNU Libtool as glibtool.

タイムライン

• 1996: GNU Libtool project origin, inferred from the GNU news page's March 15, 1999 third-birthday note.
• 1998: GNU Libtool 1.1-era documentation described the tool as generic shared-library support for GNU packages.
• 1999: GNU Libtool 1.3 added libltdl and broader platform support.
• 2000: GNU's old news page recorded continued 1.3.x maintenance releases.
• 2024: GNU Libtool 2.5.4 documentation described the maintained manual edition.

Related projects

• GNU Autoconf and GNU Automake are the companion build-system tools with which Libtool was designed to integrate.
• GNU libltdl is distributed with Libtool to abstract dynamic module loading.
• slibtool is a later independent implementation in the same problem space.

ソース

• https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/libtool.git
• https://www.gnu.org/software/libtool/
• https://www.gnu.org/software/libtool/manual/libtool.html
• https://www.gnu.org/software/libtool/news-old.html