Re: [Boost-build] Broken? lib bar : : <file>...

From: David Abrahams (dave_at_[hidden])
Date: 2006-02-13 08:34:59

Vladimir Prus <ghost_at_[hidden]> writes:

> On Sunday 12 February 2006 17:11, David Abrahams wrote:
>> Mark Evans <evans_mark_at_[hidden]> writes:
>> > And, what will Boost.Build do with such file? If it has no idea what's
>> > the type of the file, it has no idea if it can be linked into an
>> > executable.
>>
>> It could take the user's word for it.  Maybe you need a new target
>> type "unknown object file."
>
> And we'd need some rules what can and cannot be done with such targets. At the 
> moment, all generators complain on targets with unknown type.

Yes, but this wouldn't be an unknown type.  It would be a known type
called "unspecified object file."

>> > Well, I can change generators code so that targets with unknown type are
>> > silently consumed and passed on to the tool (like linker), but that seems
>> > very fragile.
>>
>> In this case the user is asserting that the file is not only an object
>> file, but a library file (either static or dynamic, unspecified).  I
>> don't think it would be too fragile to treat those specially.
>
> The only problem is that msvc.link, for example, will only handle targets of 
> type STATIC_LIB and IMPORT_LIB, but not just LIB. So, we need to treat
>
>    lib a : : <file>whatever.unkown-suffix ;
>
> as STATIC_LIB.

I don't see why that's a problem.  msvc's linker can't tell the
difference between static and import libraries anyway.

-- 
Dave Abrahams
Boost Consulting
www.boost-consulting.com