As I understand it, the linux linker is single pass, and when scanning objects/libraries, it looks for the symbols it knows it needs. If a library is included before another that requires it, the linker will not yet know that it requires the symbol, and thus not include it.
Interesting, thanks for clarifying that!
(very minor point, but If lua was GPL, I wouldn't be reading this mailing list, and I wouldn't have answered that question)
You're right to point that out although if it weren't for the GCC being GPL'd and free software I probably wouldn't have had the question in the first place. :)
Dimitris
