Problems Compiling Shared HDF5 Objects

Symptom: When trying to compile C project that used the ​HDF5 library as a ​shared object (i.e., an .so file) I received the following message:

ld: /usr/local/hdf5_intel_9.0/lib/libhdf5.a(H5.o): relocation R_X86_64_32 against `a local symbol' can not be used when making a shared 
object; recompile with -fPIC

Problem: The ​HDF5 library to which I was linking was not compiled using the -fPIC option, which is used when compiling a shared object.

Solution: Either recompile your system's ​HDF5 library or ​obtain the source code and build a new local copy. The latter is recommended, other applications will be using the system's ​HDF5 library. Either way, the library should be compiled using the -fPIC flag:

cd HDF5_SOURCE_DIR
CFLAGS=-fPIC ./configure --prefix=TARGET_DIR
make install