What library does ld option -lrt refer to (Bionic libc)?

Question

What does this option to ld mean?

-lrt

I know to some degree it means that ld is looking for the library with real-time extensions, but after searching extensively, I couldn't find an exact definition (or which library) this is referring to.

With Bionic (android) libc, the android NDK docs detail that this (along with pthreads) has been integrated.

I ask because it seems to be implicit (ie when I invoke the compiler, a custom-compiled gdc, directly, I get a message saying that ld cannot find -lrt)

EDIT

From the Bionic Overview

Bionic's C library comes with its own pthread implementation bundled in. This is different from other historical C libraries which:

- place it in an external library (-lpthread)
- play linker tricks with weak symbols at dynamic link time

The support for real-time features (a.k.a. -lrt) is also bundled in the C library.

The problem is that collect2 is passing the option -lrt (and also -lpthreads) to ld.

dan@devbox:~/projects/gdc_test/jni/src$ $DC gdc_test.d -v -mthumb
Using built-in specs.
Target: arm-linux-androideabi
Configured with: /arm/ndk-git/src/build/../gcc/gcc-4.4.3/configure --prefix=/arm/ndk-git/ndk/toolchains/arm-linux-androideabi-4.4.3/prebuilt/linux-x86 --target=arm-linux-androideabi --host=x86_64-linux-gnu --build=x86_64-linux-gnu --with-gnu-as --with-gnu-ld --enable-languages=c,c++ --with-gmp=/arm/ndk-git/build_run/temp-install --with-mpfr=/arm/ndk-git/build_run/temp-install --disable-libssp --enable-threads --disable-nls --disable-libmudflap --disable-libgomp --disable-libstdc__-v3 --disable-sjlj-exceptions --disable-shared --disable-tls --enable-languages=c,d,c++ --enable-lto --with-float=soft --with-fpu=vfp --with-arch=armv5te --enable-target-optspace --enable-shared--prefix=/arm/ndk-git/ndk/toolchains/arm-linux-androideabi-4.4.3/prebuilt/linux-x86 --enable-initfini-array --disable-nls --prefix=/arm/ndk-git/ndk/toolchains/arm-linux-androideabi-4.4.3/prebuilt/linux-x86 --with-sysroot=/arm/ndk-git/ndk/toolchains/arm-linux-androideabi-4.4.3/prebuilt/linux-x86/sysroot --with-binutils-version=2.19 --with-mpfr-version=2.4.1 --with-gmp-version=4.2.4 --with-gcc-version=4.4.3 --with-gdb-version=6.6 --with-arch=armv5te --enable-libstdc__-v3 --disable-werrors --enable-languages=c,d,c++ --enable-shared --enable-multilib --disable-threads --program-transform-name='s,^,arm-linux-androideabi-,'
Thread model: single
gcc version 4.4.3 20100121 (gdc hg, using dmd 1.067) (GCC) 
COLLECT_GCC_OPTIONS='-v' '-mthumb' '-shared-libgcc' '-pthread' '-march=armv5te' '-mfloat-abi=soft' '-mfpu=vfp'
 /home/dan/projects/arm-linux-androideabi-4.4.3/bin/../libexec/gcc/arm-linux-androideabi/4.4.3/cc1d gdc_test.d -mbionic -fpic -quiet -dumpbase gdc_test.d -mthumb -march=armv5te -mfloat-abi=soft -mfpu=vfp -auxbase gdc_test -version -imultilib thumb -iprefix /home/dan/projects/arm-linux-androideabi-4.4.3/bin/../lib/gcc/arm-linux-androideabi/4.4.3/ -isysroot /home/dan/projects/arm-linux-androideabi-4.4.3/bin/../sysroot -fmultilib-dir=thumb -o /tmp/cc2yu97y.s
GNU D (GCC) version 4.4.3 20100121 (gdc hg, using dmd 1.067) (arm-linux-androideabi)
    compiled by GNU C version 4.5.2, GMP version 4.2.4, MPFR version 2.4.1.
GGC heuristics: --param ggc-min-expand=100 --param ggc-min-heapsize=131072
GNU D (GCC) version 4.4.3 20100121 (gdc hg, using dmd 1.067) (arm-linux-androideabi)
    compiled by GNU C version 4.5.2, GMP version 4.2.4, MPFR version 2.4.1.
GGC heuristics: --param ggc-min-expand=100 --param ggc-min-heapsize=131072
COLLECT_GCC_OPTIONS='-v' '-mthumb' '-shared-libgcc' '-pthread' '-march=armv5te' '-mfloat-abi=soft' '-mfpu=vfp'
 /home/dan/projects/arm-linux-androideabi-4.4.3/bin/../lib/gcc/arm-linux-androideabi/4.4.3/../../../../arm-linux-androideabi/bin/as -v -march=armv5te -mfloat-abi=soft -mfpu=vfp -meabi=5 -o /tmp/ccuFGEfj.o /tmp/cc2yu97y.s
GNU assembler version 2.19 (arm-linux-androideabi) using BFD version (GNU Binutils) 2.19
COMPILER_PATH=/home/dan/projects/arm-linux-androideabi-4.4.3/bin/../libexec/gcc/arm-linux-androideabi/4.4.3/:/home/dan/projects/arm-linux-androideabi-4.4.3/bin/../libexec/gcc/:/home/dan/projects/arm-linux-androideabi-4.4.3/bin/../lib/gcc/arm-linux-androideabi/4.4.3/../../../../arm-linux-androideabi/bin/
LIBRARY_PATH=/home/dan/projects/arm-linux-androideabi-4.4.3/bin/../lib/gcc/arm-linux-androideabi/4.4.3/thumb/:/home/dan/projects/arm-linux-androideabi-4.4.3/bin/../lib/gcc/arm-linux-androideabi/4.4.3/../../../../arm-linux-androideabi/lib/thumb/:/home/dan/projects/arm-linux-androideabi-4.4.3/bin/../lib/gcc/arm-linux-androideabi/4.4.3/:/home/dan/projects/arm-linux-androideabi-4.4.3/bin/../lib/gcc/:/home/dan/projects/arm-linux-androideabi-4.4.3/bin/../lib/gcc/arm-linux-androideabi/4.4.3/../../../../arm-linux-androideabi/lib/:/home/dan/projects/arm-linux-androideabi-4.4.3/bin/../sysroot/usr/lib/
COLLECT_GCC_OPTIONS='-v' '-mthumb' '-shared-libgcc' '-pthread' '-march=armv5te' '-mfloat-abi=soft' '-mfpu=vfp'
 /home/dan/projects/arm-linux-androideabi-4.4.3/bin/../libexec/gcc/arm-linux-androideabi/4.4.3/collect2 --sysroot=/home/dan/projects/arm-linux-androideabi-4.4.3/bin/../sysroot --eh-frame-hdr -dynamic-linker /system/bin/linker -X -m armelf_linux_eabi /home/dan/projects/arm-linux-androideabi-4.4.3/bin/../sysroot/usr/lib/crtbegin_dynamic.o -L/home/dan/projects/arm-linux-androideabi-4.4.3/bin/../lib/gcc/arm-linux-androideabi/4.4.3/thumb -L/home/dan/projects/arm-linux-androideabi-4.4.3/bin/../lib/gcc/arm-linux-androideabi/4.4.3/../../../../arm-linux-androideabi/lib/thumb -L/home/dan/projects/arm-linux-androideabi-4.4.3/bin/../lib/gcc/arm-linux-androideabi/4.4.3 -L/home/dan/projects/arm-linux-androideabi-4.4.3/bin/../lib/gcc -L/home/dan/projects/arm-linux-androideabi-4.4.3/bin/../lib/gcc/arm-linux-androideabi/4.4.3/../../../../arm-linux-androideabi/lib -L/home/dan/projects/arm-linux-androideabi-4.4.3/bin/../sysroot/usr/lib /tmp/ccuFGEfj.o -lgphobos -lm -lrt -lgcc_s -lgcc -lpthread -lc -ldl -lgcc_s -lgcc /home/dan/projects/arm-linux-androideabi-4.4.3/bin/../sysroot/usr/lib/crtend_android.o
/home/dan/projects/arm-linux-androideabi-4.4.3/bin/../lib/gcc/arm-linux-androideabi/4.4.3/../../../../arm-linux-androideabi/bin/ld: cannot find -lrt
collect2: ld returned 1 exit status

Is there a way to override this behavior?

Answer 1

When you see a -lsomething, the library name is libsomething. Doing a man librt says the following:

NAME
     librt, libposix4 - POSIX.1b Realtime Extensions library

SYNOPSIS
     cc [ flag... ] file... -lrt [ library... ]

DESCRIPTION
     Functions in this library provide  most  of  the  interfaces
     specified  by  the  POSIX.1b  Realtime Extension.  See stan-
     dards(5). Specifically, this includes the interfaces defined
     under   the   Asynchronous  I/O,  Message  Passing,  Process
     Scheduling, Realtime Signals Extension,  Semaphores,  Shared
     Memory  Objects,  Synchronized  I/O, and Timers options. The
     interfaces defined under the Memory  Mapped  Files,  Process
     Memory  Locking,  and  Range Memory Locking options are pro-
     vided in libc(3LIB)

     See the man pages for the individual interfaces  in  section
     3RT for information on required headers.

     The name libposix4 is maintained for backward  compatibility
     and  should be avoided. librt is the preferred name for this
     library.