[dtzWill]

This is actually an area of very current research. We have implemented a form of software multiplexing that achieves the code size benefits of dynamically linked libraries, without the associated complications (missing dependencies, slow startup times, security vulnerabilities, etc.) My approach works even where build systems support only dynamic and not static linking.

Our tool, allmux, merges independent programs into a single executable and links an IR-level implementation of application code with its libraries, before native code generation.

I would love to go into more detail and answer questions, but at the moment I'm entirely consumed with completing my prelim examination. Instead, please see our 2018 publication "Software Multiplexing: Share Your Libraries and Statically Link Them Too" [1].

1: https://wdtz.org/files/oopsla18-allmux-dietz.pdf

[acqq]

How does your tool handle the dynamic libraries loaded on demand during the life of the program? Specifically, where the application depending of the user input dynamically loads only one out of the set of shared libraries which all are made to be linked with the main application and use the same interface but are designed to be "the only one" loaded? That is, both the application and each in the set of the libraries expect to have only 1-1 relation (only one library loaded at the time)? Edit: OK, reading further your article, I've found: "our approach disables explicit symbol lookup and other forms of process introspection such as the use of dlsym, dlopen, and others."

If you'd manage to implement that too then it seems that really big projects could be packed together.