Re: ELF extension for starting symbol search from module dependencies

[Roland McGrath]

I think you can get the effect you need just by using -Bsymbolic.  In your
example, build the GTK+ library with -Bsymbolic.  If that causes problems
because some of the library's references should be resolved in the normal
global scope, then confine the code that uses libpng to a wrapper library
that you build with -Bsymbolic.  Then link the GTK+ library against that
shared object, and I think you will get the result you need: the GTK+
library code that uses libpng will be in a DT_SYMBOLIC object and thus
resolve according to its own dependency on the desired libpng soname,
while the application is free to link a conflicting libpng in directly.