Linux Program can't find Shared Library at run-time

I'm trying to compile a linux program, id3v2, and it says it is can't find the appropriate library:

id3v2: error while loading shared libraries: libid3-3.8.so.3: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

I'm guessing that this is the part that pulls in the lidid3 library?

The file DOES exist, however, what they are looking for is actually a symbolic link to:

"ibid3-3.8.so.3.0.0"

I'm wondering if it is an issue with it not being able to follow symbolic links? Perhaps I could manually change it to look for 0.0 if I knew where I was looking to change it.

I'm happy to clarify any details.

It looks like the includes are done in the following manner:

id3v2:  convert.o list.o id3v2.o genre.o
        ${CXX} ${LDFLAGS} -pedantic -Wall -g -o $@ $^ -lz -lid3

I was able to use Simon's advice to figure out that there were multiple spots where one might expect a library. I create a symbolic link where the program was linking to the ACTUAL file.

Thank you Simon!

Symlinks on libraries work fine, as long as the final target they trace to exists and is accessible.

You have built a dynamically-linked executable, that wishes to be linked against libid3-3.8.so.3 at execution time. This was likely linked during the build phase with something like -L/path/to/libid3/directory -lid3.

You have a few options to make libid3 available, in generally decreasing order of preference (since you didn't mention where the file was, I can only be general):

• Create a symlink to libid3* in a directory listed in /etc/ld.so.conf (or /lib or /usr/lib)
• Copy libid3* to a directory listed in /etc/ld.so.conf (or /lib or /usr/lib) (defaults)
• Add the directory containing libid3* to /etc/ld.so.conf
• Set LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/directory/path/to/libid3* before running your id3v2 executable.
• Recompile id3v2 statically. (It will work, but don't bother.)

After any of the first 3, rerun ldconfig so the linker cache is updated. (You can then run ldconfig -v to verify it's resolvable.)

Note those aren't steps, they're options. You only need to do 1 of them.

Glad you updated the title. #include directives have nothing to do with linking.

I got the same error you did, and after reading the solutions mentioned here, I resolved the problem (on Ubuntu 8) with:

sudo ln -s /usr/local/lib/libid3-3.8.so.3 /usr/lib/libid3-3.8.so.3

This solved the issue Just add /usr/local/lib to /etc/ld.so.conf (unless it's already in there; only put it once), then run ldconfig.