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### Directory Search for Link Libraries

Directory search applies in a special way to libraries used with the linker. This special feature comes into play when you write a dependency whose name is of the form ``-lname'`. (You can tell something strange is going on here because the dependency is normally the name of a file, and the file name of the library looks like ``libname.a'`, not like ``-lname'`.)

When a dependency's name has the form ``-lname'`, `make` handles it specially by searching for the file ``libname.a'` in the current directory, in directories specified by matching `vpath` search paths and the `VPATH` search path, and then in the directories ``/lib'`, ``/usr/lib'`, and ``prefix/lib'` (normally ``/usr/local/lib'`, but MS-DOS/MS-Windows versions of `make` behave as if prefix is defined to be the root of the DJGPP installation tree).

For example,

    foo : foo.c -lcurses
            cc $^ -o $@

would cause the command ``cc foo.c /usr/lib/libcurses.a -o foo'` to be executed when ``foo'` is older than ``foo.c'` or than ``/usr/lib/libcurses.a'`.

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