gcc linker finding both .so and .a in the library path which is chosen?

Question

If I run

gcc a.c -L /usr/lib -lexpat 

and both libexpat.a and libexpat.so are in /usr lib which one is used by the linker?

Answer 1

By default the shared library (.so) will be chosen.

If you want to change this behavior, -static gcc option may be used

-static

On systems that support dynamic linking, this prevents linking with the shared libraries. On other systems, this option has no effect.