status/Jamfile VC++ link question

From: Beman Dawes (bdawes_at_[hidden])
Date: 2002-04-09 09:36:41

The old Boost.Test test_tools framework was entirely contained in 
headers, so the status/Jamfile rule invocation for a program using test 
tools looked like this:

run libs/smart_ptr/smart_ptr_test.cpp ;

The new version requires library support, so I created a library build 
Jamfile in the appropriate directory and changed the test invocation to 
this:

run libs/smart_ptr/smart_ptr_test.cpp
<lib>../libs/test/build/boost_test ;

That worked just fine for all compilers except VC++, which gets an 
unresolved external on main().

What is happening is that main() is in the <lib> file rather than in 
smart_ptr_test.cpp, and VC++ can't seem to handle that.

VC++ works fine if the file (test_main.cpp) is removed from the 
library, and the rule invocation is changed to:

run libs/smart_ptr/smart_ptr_test.cpp
libs/test/src/test_main.cpp
<lib>../libs/test/build/boost_test ;

If it was just one test I wouldn't worry, but to roll out this extra 
work for every use of Boost.Test seems excessive.

Questions:

* Is there a way to force the Microsoft linker to resolve to main() 
inside a library?

* If not, is there any plan for a <obj> attribute like <lib> which 
would allow resolving to a single copy of test_main.obj instead of 
having a copy for each test using it?

* Is there some completely different way to solve the problem that I 
have overlooked?

--Beman