Linux error while loading shared libraries: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

Your library is a dynamic library. You need to tell the operating system where it can locate it at runtime.

To do so, we will need to do those easy steps:

Find where the library is placed if you don't know it. sudo find / -name the_name_of_the_file.so Check for the existence of the dynamic library path environment variable(LD_LIBRARY_PATH) echo $LD_LIBRARY_PATH If there is nothing to be displayed, add a default path value (or not if you wish to) LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/local/lib We add the desired path, export it and try the application. Note that the path should be the directory where the path.so.something is. So if path.so.something is in /my_library/path.so.something, it should be: LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$LD_LIBRARY_PATH:/my_library/ export LD_LIBRARY_PATH ./my_app

Reference to source

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Here are a few solutions you can try:

ldconfig

As AbiusX pointed out: If you have just now installed the library, you may simply need to run ldconfig.

sudo ldconfig

ldconfig creates the necessary links and cache to the most recent shared libraries found in the directories specified on the command line, in the file /etc/ld.so.conf, and in the trusted directories (/lib and /usr/lib).

Usually your package manager will take care of this when you install a new library, but not always, and it won't hurt to run ldconfig even if that is not your issue.

Dev package or wrong version

If that doesn't work, I would also check out Paul's suggestion and look for a "-dev" version of the library. Many libraries are split into dev and non-dev packages. You can use this command to look for it:

apt-cache search <libraryname>

This can also help if you simply have the wrong version of the library installed. Some libraries are published in different versions simultaneously, for example, Python.

Library location

If you are sure that the right package is installed, and ldconfig didn't find it, it may just be in a nonstandard directory. By default, ldconfig looks in /lib, /usr/lib, and directories listed in /etc/ld.so.conf and $LD_LIBRARY_PATH. If your library is somewhere else, you can either add the directory on its own line in /etc/ld.so.conf, append the library's path to $LD_LIBRARY_PATH, or move the library into /usr/lib. Then run ldconfig.

To find out where the library is, try this:

sudo find / -iname *libraryname*.so*

(Replace libraryname with the name of your library)

If you go the $LD_LIBRARY_PATH route, you'll want to put that into your ~/.bashrc file so it will run every time you log in:

export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$LD_LIBRARY_PATH:/path/to/library

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Update
While what I write below is true as a general answer about shared libraries, I think the most frequent cause of these sorts of message is because you've installed a package, but not installed the -dev version of that package.

Well, it's not lying - there is no libpthread_rt.so.1 in that listing. You probably need to re-configure and re-build it so that it depends on the library you have, or install whatever provides libpthread_rt.so.1.

Generally, the numbers after the .so are version numbers, and you'll often find that they are symlinks to each other, so if you have version 1.1 of libfoo.so, you'll have a real file libfoo.so.1.0, and symlinks foo.so and foo.so.1 pointing to the libfoo.so.1.0. And if you install version 1.1 without removing the other one, you'll have a libfoo.so.1.1, and libfoo.so.1 and libfoo.so will now point to the new one, but any code that requires that exact version can use the libfoo.so.1.0 file. Code that just relies on the version 1 API, but doesn't care if it's 1.0 or 1.1 will specify libfoo.so.1. As orip pointed out in the comments, this is explained well at here.

In your case, you might get away with symlinking libpthread_rt.so.1 to libpthread_rt.so. No guarantees that it won't break your code and eat your TV dinners, though.

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You need to ensure that you specify the library path during linking when you compile your .c file:

gcc -I/usr/local/include xxx.c -o xxx -L/usr/local/lib -Wl,-R/usr/local/lib

The -Wl,-R part tells the resulting binary to also look for the library in /usr/local/lib at runtime before trying to use the one in /usr/lib/.

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Try adding LD_LIBRARY_PATH, which indicates search paths, to your ~/.bashrc file

LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$LD_LIBRARY_PATH:/path_to_your_library

It works!

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The linux.org reference page explains the mechanics, but doesn't explain any of the motivation behind it :-(

For that, see Sun Linker and Libraries Guide

In addition, note that "external versioning" is largely obsolete on Linux, because symbol versioning (a GNU extension) allows you to have multiple incompatible versions of the same function to be present in a single library. This extension allowed glibc to have the same external version: libc.so.6 for the last 10 years.

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cd /home/<user_name>/
sudo vi .bash_profile

add these lines at the end

LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/local/lib:<any other paths you want>
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH

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Another possible solution depending on your situation.

If you know that libpthread_rt.so.1 is the same as libpthread_rt.so then you can create a symlink by:

ln -s /lib/libpthread_rt.so /lib/libpthread_rt.so.1

Then ls -l /lib should now show the symlink and what it points to.

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I had a similar error and it didn't fix with giving LD_LIBRARY_PATH in ~/.bashrc . What solved my issue is by adding .conf file and loading it. Go to terminal an be in su.

gedit /etc/ld.so.conf.d/myapp.conf

Add your library path in this file and save.(eg: /usr/local/lib). You must run the following command to activate path:

ldconfig

Verify Your New Library Path:

ldconfig -v | less

If this shows your library files, then you are good to go.

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I had this error when running my application with Eclipse CDT on Linux x86. To fix this:

In Eclipse: Run as -> Run configurations -> Environment Set the path LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/my_lib_directory_path

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running:

sudo ldconfig

was enough to fix my issue.

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Wanted to add, if your libraries are in a non standard path, run ldconfig followed by the path.

For instance I had to run:

sudo ldconfig /opt/intel/oneapi/mkl/2021.2.0/lib/intel64

to make R compile against Intel MKL

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All I had to do was run:

sudo apt-get install libfontconfig1

I was in the folder located at /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu and it worked perfectly.

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Try to install lib32z1:

sudo apt-get install lib32z1

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If you are running your application on Microsoft Windows, the path to dynamic libraries (.dll) need to be defined in the PATH environment variable.

If you are running your application on UNIX, the path to your dynamic libraries (.so) need to be defined in the LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable.

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The error occurs as the system cannot refer to the library file mentioned. Take the following steps:

Running locate libpthread_rt.so.1 will list the path of all the files with that name. Let's suppose a path is /home/user/loc. Copy the path and run cd home/USERNAME. Replace USERNAME with the name of the current active user with which you want to run the file. Run vi .bash_profile and at the end of the LD_LIBRARY_PATH parameter, just before ., add the line /lib://home/usr/loc:.. Save the file. Close terminal and restart the application. It should run.

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I got this error and I think its the same reason of yours

error while loading shared libraries: libnw.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

Try this. Fix permissions on files:

cd /opt/Popcorn (or wherever it is) 
chmod -R 555 * (755 if not ok) 

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I use Ubuntu 18.04

Installing the corresponding -dev package worked for me,

sudo apt install libgconf2-dev

Before installing the above package, I was getting the below error:

turtl: error while loading shared libraries: libgconf-2.so.4: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

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I got this error and I think its the same reason of yours

error while loading shared libraries: libnw.so: cannot open shared object 
file: No such file or directory

Try this. Fix permissions on files:

sudo su
cd /opt/Popcorn (or wherever it is) 
chmod -R 555 * (755 if not ok) 
chown -R root:root *

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A similar problem can be found here. I've tried the mentioned solution and it actually works.

The solutions in the previous questions may work. But the following is an easy way to fix it. It works by reinstalling the package libwbclient in fedora:

dnf reinstall libwbclient

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You can read about libraries here: https://domiyanyue.medium.com/c-development-tutorial-4-static-and-dynamic-libraries-7b537656163e

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