What appcert Checks

The appcert utility examines your applications for:

• Private symbol usage

• Static linking

• Unbound symbols

Private Symbol Usage

Private symbols are functions or data that is used by Solaris libraries to call each other. The semantic behavior of private symbols might change, and symbols might sometimes be removed. Such symbols are called demoted symbols. The mutable nature of private symbols introduces the potential for instability in applications that depend on private symbols.

Static Linking

The semantics of private symbol calls between Solaris libraries might change between releases. Therefore, the creation of static links to archives degrades an application's binary stability. Dynamic links to the archive's corresponding shared object file avoid this problem.

Unbound Symbols

The appcert utility uses the dynamic linker to resolve the library symbols that are used by the application being examined. Symbols that the dynamic linker cannot resolve are called unbound symbols. Unbound symbols might be caused by environment problems, such as an incorrectly set LD_LIBRARY_PATH variable. Unbound symbols might also be caused by build problems, such as omitting the definitions of the -llib or -z switches at compile time. While these examples are minor, unbound symbols that are reported by appcert might indicate a more serious problem, such as a dependency on a private symbol that no longer exists.