Can't change name_suffix/prefix for only static library in both_libraries()

[nacho]

This is what I get from the library I just ported:

Installing lmdb.dll to C:\gtk-build\gtk\x64\release\bin
Installing lmdb.pdb to C:\gtk-build\gtk\x64\release\bin
Installing lmdb.lib to C:\gtk-build\gtk\x64\release\lib
Installing lmdb.pdb to C:\gtk-build\gtk\x64\release\lib
Installing liblmdb.a to C:\gtk-build\gtk\x64\release\lib

I would expect the following:
lmdb.dll, lmdb.pdb in bin and lmdb.lib in lib for the shared library and this seems fine.

Instead for the static library I would expect:
liblmdb.lib and liblmdb.pdb both in lib

[nirbheek]

libfoo.lib is not understood by GCC or Clang as a valid syntax for static libraries, so -lfoo won't resolve to that. OTOH, MSVC has no short-cut syntax for libraries, and it accepts libfoo.a as a static library, so we always use libfoo.a.

You can override this with name_suffix: 'lib' on each target.

[nacho]

how about the pdb file? should we make it match the same file name?

[nacho]

BTW, is there any way to override only the static library one?

[nirbheek]

Hum, you're right the interaction b/w name_suffix: and both libraries is broken. I would recommend that for now you don't use that, and use two separate static_library() and shared_library() invocations. You can use foo_static.extract_all_objects() in the shared_library() instead of the sources to ensure that the objects aren't built twice.

[xclaesse]

Does this means we need all those kwargs for library(): static_name_prefix, static_name_suffix, shared_name_prefix, and shared_name_suffix ?

Note that even when not build both libraries, current API is weird, because when you're using library() you don't know if you're going to build the static or shared library. Wondering if this is another case of passing different args for static and shared, just like for `c_args'. I once proposed to add an extra_args kwarg that would take a dict like:

library('foo', extra_args : {
  'static_library' : {'name_suffix' : 'lib',
                            'c_args' : '-DSTATIC_COMPILATION'},
  'shared_library' : {'name_suffix' : 'dll'},
})

[nirbheek]

dictionaries, yes, but I prefer this syntax: name_suffix : {'static': 'lib', 'shared': 'notdll'}

[xclaesse]

My idea about extra_args dictionary is to have a generic solution, and allow having a single dictionary you could pass to all/most your build targets. It would be accepted by executable(), library(), build_target(), etc.

{
  '<tagettype>' : {
    '<kwarg>' : <value>,
  },
}

[xclaesse]

I guess solution here is really similar to what @nirbheek suggested in issue #4019.

[nirbheek]

The target_spec solution would be ideal, yes, and if we can agree on the need for it and the syntax we should do it.