# Linking a shared library to an executable with cpp-application plugin

**URL:** <https://discuss.gradle.org/t/linking-a-shared-library-to-an-executable-with-cpp-application-plugin/41642>\
**Category:** Help/Discuss\
**Created:** [December 10, 2021, 11:45pm UTC](https://discuss.gradle.org/t/linking-a-shared-library-to-an-executable-with-cpp-application-plugin/41642 "2021-12-10T23:45:58Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![hnine999](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/bc8723/32.png) [@hnine999](https://discuss.gradle.org/u/hnine999)\
**Post date:** [December 10, 2021, 11:45pm UTC](https://discuss.gradle.org/t/linking-a-shared-library-to-an-executable-with-cpp-application-plugin/41642/1 "2021-12-10T23:45:58Z")

</div>

I’m using the `cpp-application` plugin of gradle 7.3 to compile a native executable on Ubuntu Linux.

I was able to get the executable to compile and link. However, when I try to run it, it gives the error:

`<executable-path>: error while loading shared libraries: lib<my-library>.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory`

Normally, one solution to this problem is to use the `LD_LIBRARY_PATH` environment variable and set to to include the directory that contains lib\<my-library\>.so.

However, lib.so is actually in an artifact in a maven repo that was built using the gradle `cpp-library` plugin and published to the maven repo using the `maven-publish` plugin.

So, using `LD_LIBRARY_PATH` isn’t a good solution.

In the `cpp-application` plugin documentation `https://docs.gradle.org/current/userguide/cpp_application_plugin.html`, several dependency configurations are described, in particular `implementation`, but also `mainDebugImplementation` and `nativeRuntimeDebug`

When I use the `implementation` configuration:  
`application { dependencies { ... implementation(group="<mygroup>", name="<my-library>_debug", version="<version>") ... } }`

I get the following error:

`FAILURE: Build failed with an exception.

- What went wrong:  
Execution failed for task ‘:\<project\>:compileDebugCpp’.

> Could not resolve all files for configuration ‘:\<project\>:cppCompileDebug’.  
> Could not resolve :\_debug:.  
> Required by:  
> project :\<project\>  
> No matching variant of :\_debug::20211209.055658-1 was found. The consumer was configured to find attribute ‘org.gradle.usage’ with value ‘cplusplus-api’, attribute ‘org.gradle.native.debuggable’ with value ‘true’, attribute ‘org.gradle.native.optimized’ with value ‘false’, attribute ‘org.gradle.native.operatingSystem’ with value ‘linux’, attribute ‘org.gradle.native.architecture’ with value ‘x86-64’ but:  
> - Variant ‘debugLink’ capability :\_debug: declares attribute ‘org.gradle.native.architecture’ with value ‘x86-64’, attribute ‘org.gradle.native.debuggable’ with value ‘true’, attribute ‘org.gradle.native.operatingSystem’ with value ‘linux’, attribute ‘org.gradle.native.optimized’ with value ‘false’:  
> - Incompatible because this component declares attribute ‘org.gradle.usage’ with value ‘native-link’ and the consumer needed attribute ‘org.gradle.usage’ with value ‘cplusplus-api’  
> - Variant ‘debugRuntime’ capability :\_debug: declares attribute ‘org.gradle.native.architecture’ with value ‘x86-64’, attribute ‘org.gradle.native.debuggable’ with value ‘true’, attribute ‘org.gradle.native.operatingSystem’ with value ‘linux’, attribute ‘org.gradle.native.optimized’ with value ‘false’:  
> - Incompatible because this component declares attribute ‘org.gradle.usage’ with value ‘native-runtime’ and the consumer needed attribute ‘org.gradle.usage’ with value ‘cplusplus-api’`

However, the other configurations, e.g. `mainDebugImplementation` and `nativeRuntimeDebug` appear not to be available. Using them results in the error:

`Script compilation error:

Line 91: nativeRuntimeDebug(group=“”, name=“\_debug”, version=“”)  
^ Unresolved reference: nativeRuntimeDebug`

So, my question is: How can you get the `cpp-application` plugin to link against an artifact in a maven repo that was built by the `cpp-library` plugin and uploaded by the `maven-publish` plugin?