Why do I have to define LD_LIBRARY_PATH with an export every time I run my application?

You should avoid setting LD_LIBRARY_PATH in your .bashrc. See "Why LD_LIBRARY_PATH is bad" for more information.

Use the linker option -rpath while linking so that the dynamic linker knows where to find libsync.so during runtime.

gcc ... -Wl,-rpath /path/to/library -L/path/to/library -lsync -o sync_test

EDIT:

Another way would be to use a wrapper like this

#!/bin/bashLD_LIBRARY_PATH=/path/to/library sync_test "$@"

If sync_test starts any other programs, they might end up using the libs in /path/to/library which may or may not be intended.

Use

export LD_LIBRARY_PATH="/path/to/library/"

in your .bashrc otherwise, it'll only be available to bash and not any programs you start.

Try -R/path/to/library/ flag when you're linking, it'll make the program look in that directory and you won't need to set any environment variables.

EDIT: Looks like -R is Solaris only, and you're on Linux.

An alternate way would be to add the path to /etc/ld.so.conf and run ldconfig. Note that this is a global change that will apply to all dynamically linked binaries.

You can just put this all on one line:

LD_LIBRARY_PATH="$LD_LIBRARY_PATH:/path/to/library" ./sync_test

Should make things a little easier, even if it doesn't change anything fundamental