[CMake] Executable project creating an import library

[Stefan Buschmann]

Robert Dailey schrieb:
> I've specified a very complex CMake script that generates an 
> executable project. When I use this CMake script to generate a Visual 
> Studio 2008 project, the "Import Library" property located in Project 
> Settings >> Linker >> Advanced property page in Visual Studio 2008 has 
> a value, specifically the absolute path to the LIB file that will be 
> generated. I have no idea why this value is being filled in when I 
> specifically called CMake's add_executable() on this project.
It is possible to create an executable and export symbols from it, which 
can be convenient e.g. to export an API from an application to a plugin. 
In this case you have an .EXE and can link to it the same way you would 
do it with a DLL, using an import library (.LIB). So if you get a .LIB 
from your executable, I would guess that you are accidentally exporting 
symbols in you project (especially if it's a complex project as you 
said). Do you use any EXPORT macros that evaluate to 
__declspec(dllexport)? If yes, check that those macros are undefined 
when you compile your executable, so that no symbols are exported. If no 
symbols are exported from your project, no .LIB file will be created.

That said: Is that .LIB-file actually generated during the build? If not 
(if you are not exporting any symbols), you can safely ignore that 
setting in the project. I guess that CMake enters this option 
automatically for every project, because it can not know at generation 
time if this project will export any symbols or not. But if no symbols 
are exported, there is also no .LIB file generated.

Stefan