[Distutils] Question about DOS/Windows static libs

[Greg Ward]

On 09 March 2000, James C. Ahlstrom said:
> Well, no.  AFAIK "link" can create only executables or DLL's, not
> libraries.  Note that, despite the name, a Dynamic Link Library is
> very much like an executable and not much like a Unix static lib.
> 
> To create libraries under Windows, use the lib program:
>     lib.exe /OUT:libfoo.lib foo1.obj foo2.obj foo3.obj 

A-ha!  I've just had one of those minor revelations that comes only
after months of being totally blind to the painfully obvious: I named
the method wrong.  It should be 'create_static_lib()', not
'link_static_lib()'.  There... it's fixed: renamed and rewritten to use
"lib.exe", not refer to any other libraries, and be consistent with the
CCompiler API.

Here's what it's supposed to do (docstring from ccompiler.py):

        """Link a bunch of stuff together to create a static library
           file.  The "bunch of stuff" consists of the list of object
           files supplied as 'objects', the extra object files supplied
           to 'add_link_object()' and/or 'set_link_objects()', the
           libraries supplied to 'add_library()' and/or
           'set_libraries()', and the libraries supplied as 'libraries'
           (if any).

           'output_libname' should be a library name, not a filename; the
           filename will be inferred from the library name.  'output_dir'
           is the directory where the library file will be put.

           'debug' is a boolean; if true, debugging information will be
           included in the library (note that on most platforms, it is the
           compile step where this matters: the 'debug' flag is included
           here just for consistency)."""

And here's the new implementation in msvccompiler.py:

    def create_static_lib (self,
                           objects,
                           output_libname,
                           output_dir=None,
                           debug=0,
                           extra_preargs=None,
                           extra_postargs=None):

        (objects, output_dir) = \
            self._fix_link_args (objects, output_dir, takes_libs=0)
        output_filename = \
            self.library_filename (output_libname, output_dir=output_dir)

        if self._need_link (objects, output_filename):
            lib_args = objects + ['/OUT:' + output_filename]
            if debug:
                pass                    # XXX what goes here?
            if extra_preargs:
                lib_args[:0] = extra_preargs
            if extra_postargs:
                lib_args.extend (extra_postargs)
            self.spawn ([self.link] + ld_args)
        else:
            self.announce ("skipping %s (up-to-date)" % output_filename)

    # create_static_lib ()

('self.link' is the full path to link.exe, found by scouring the
registry for DevStudio... or it's just "link.exe" if we didn't find
DevStudio in the registry, eg. if we don't have registry access modules
available.)

OK, just fixed the build_clib command... and PIL still builds fine (PIL,
and distributions like it that include a C library, is the whole point
of this exercise).

        Greg
-- 
Greg Ward - "always the quiet one"                      gward@python.net
http://starship.python.net/~gward/
UFO's are for real: the Air Force doesn't exist.