> However, if I don't to this, and link a program which calls f1, ld
> will NOT complain about this. ld.so will, when trying to execute the
> program, of course ("Unreferenced symbol f2 in library l1"). Shouldn't ld
> already be complaining about this at (static) linktime?
> 
Yes, it should. It's one of the things marked "TODO" (I think in the code even).
But note, the `-L' switch for ld will have no bearing on ld.so's actions. All
shared library directories must either be configured using ldconfig, or be
mentioned in your LD_LIBRARY_PATH variable.

-pk

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