[CMake] static libs and more

[clinton at elemtech.com]

I also noticed that dumpbin /exports mylib.lib printed symbols out if it was 
an import library, but didn't if it was a static library.

Clint

On Thursday 17 July 2008 3:03:02 pm David Cole wrote:
> If you do...:
> dumpbin /symbols mylib.lib
>
> ...then:
> The output will contain "_IMPORT_DESCRIPTOR" if the .lib is an import
> library for a .dll file.
> It will (most likely) not contain this output if it is a static .lib file.
>
> It's a heuristic as I'm pretty sure the static .lib file will contain that
> output if you have, for example, a function named "PRINT_IMPORT_DESCRIPTOR"
> in your library... But the absence of that string tells you that it is
> *not* an import library for a .dll.
>
> You could easily write a CMake macro that calls dumpbin with
> EXECUTE_PROCESS and capture its output into a variable and analyze it.
>
> (dumpbin.exe is usually available in the "VC\bin" directory of a Visual
> Studio installation... easily accessible from a VC command prompt...)
>
>
> HTH,
> David
>
> On Thu, Jul 17, 2008 at 4:09 PM, Philip Lowman <philip at yhbt.com> wrote:
> > ...... Original Message .......
> > On Thu, 17 Jul 2008 22:10:11 +0400 "Yuri Timenkov"
> >
> > <ytimenkov at parallels.com> wrote:
> > >On Thursday 17 July 2008 23:00:15 Alin M Elena wrote:
> > >The main problem AFAIK for VS is that static and dynamic libraries are
> > >indistinguishable by extension. They both have a .lib one. And you don't
> >
> > know
> >
> > >in advance is some library is static one or just import library for some
> > >dynamic one.
> >
> > I would be quite frankly amazed if someone couldn't write a 10-line CMake
> > macro that can determine if a .LIB file is static or shared.  I wonder if
> > simply keying on certain ASCII keywords in the .LIB file wouldn't be good
> > enough (this would need some testing though, unless someone can find a
> > detailed .LIB file specification).
> >
> > --
> > Philip Lowman
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