error while loading shared libraries: libsecp256k1.so.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory #542

I've compiled and run $ sudo make install and the files were installed under /usr/local/lib in Ubuntu 16.04:

drwxr-xr-x  5 root root  4.0K Jul 27 13:22 .
drwxr-xr-x 10 root root  4.0K Aug  1  2017 ..
-rw-r--r--  1 root root  543K Jul 27 13:22 libsecp256k1.a
-rwxr-xr-x  1 root root   968 Jul 27 13:22 libsecp256k1.la
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root    21 Jul 27 13:22 libsecp256k1.so -> libsecp256k1.so.0.0.0
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root    21 Jul 27 13:22 libsecp256k1.so.0 -> libsecp256k1.so.0.0.0
-rwxr-xr-x  1 root root  414K Jul 27 13:22 libsecp256k1.so.0.0.0

Then, I included the library in my project:

g++ -std=c++11 -Wall -g -I./src -o bin/btc_wallet_tests tests/runner.cpp build/keypair_tests.o build/key.o -L./lib -L/usr/local/lib -lboost_unit_test_framework -lsecp256k1

But, when I run the final binary, it says

error while loading shared libraries: libsecp256k1.so.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

I finally got it working, but I had to do:

$ LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/local/lib $ export LD_LIBRARY_PATH

Is this a non-standard installation location? Just wondering if this is something on my end or in the autotools scripts that might need to be adjusted?

This is the standard installation directory for custom-compiled software, in order to avoid clashing with libraries installed by the package manager.

If you want to install things in a default location for your distribution, you need to configure it to do so (for example ./configure --prefix=/usr).