On Wed, Aug 11, 2021 at 3:44 PM Alexei Podtelezhnikov <apodt...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > > >> And as I prefer DLL compared to static lib, I know what to do :-) > > > > I have the distinct impression that static libraries are rarely used under > > Windows any more. > > Perhaps I am off base here. Isn’t this why DLL comes paired with a LIB > wrapper, while static is just LIB. VC links with LIB regardless.
Visual Studio uses indeed .lib by default for the import library (what you call the lib wrapper) and for the static library. libtool, meson and cmake (not sure for cmake) are using .dll.a for the import lib Note that having an import lib is not necessary, it's perfectly possible to link against the DLL. The GNU linker allows this. See https://sourceware.org/binutils/docs/ld/WIN32.html, section "direct linking to a DLL" for more information. Vincent Torri
