Shared libraries [LWN.net]

Shared libraries

Posted Nov 25, 2025 23:20 UTC (Tue) by intelfx (subscriber, #130118)
In reply to: Shared libraries by jhoblitt
Parent article: APT Rust requirement raises questions

> That is a very C without batteries included point of view.

> For example, most go programs use the core flags package and don't require a a runtime dependency for parsing arguments.

And this is a very "I-don't-see-further-than-my-lang's-shiny-abstractions" point of view.

What is the "core flags package", exactly? It is a library. So if it's a library, where does it exist? Do we dynamically or statically link it? The GP's question stands unanswered.

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Shared libraries

Posted Nov 26, 2025 3:24 UTC (Wed) by jhoblitt (subscriber, #77733) [Link] (1 responses)

It means that the flags package is part of go and it is always available. Since parsing cli arguments is extremely common, it is a no brainer for it to be included as part of the language. The rust equivalent is std::env::args.

Shared libraries

Posted Nov 26, 2025 9:28 UTC (Wed) by taladar (subscriber, #68407) [Link]

std::env::args is the Rust equivalent of the C argc and argv parameters, nothing more. The Rust CLI parsing functionality most commonly used is the clap crate which is not part of the standard library because there is no good reason to put something in the standard library when it doesn't have close ties to the language version.