[Boost-build] Link order on Windows.

From: Jurko Gospodnetiæ (jurko.gospodnetic_at_[hidden])
Date: 2008-01-18 08:28:04

   Hi.

   Boost Build documentation (and implementation) infers that the order 
in which libraries are specified on the command line on Windows is not 
important as it is on Unix.

   GCC linking generator class then implements a special ordering 
algorithm to allow the developer to specify which libraries need to come 
before other libraries (<use> feature).

   However we just ran into a problem with this on Windows. We have two 
libraries which seem to require being linked in a specific order (using 
MSVC 7.1 linker). Also, we found an MSDN article 
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/148652 stating specifying 
libraries in a specific order as solution to some linking problem.

   This seems to suggest that Boost Build should allow specifying the 
linking order on Windows as well.

   Any ides on how this should be implemented? Any workarounds available 
at the moment?

   I could look into preparing a MSVC linking generator that does the 
same as the GCC one. Would that be ok? On the other hand, that smessl of 
code duplication. :-(

   Best regards,
     Jurko Gospodnetiæ