[fpc-pascal] Can FPC link a program with static (.a) libraries on Windows

[tony.whyman]

Thanks. Easy to forget that there are 3 ways to link to external libraries. 
-------- Original message --------From: Sven Barth via fpc-pascal <fpc-pascal at lists.freepascal.org> Date: 17/02/2024  00:29  (GMT+00:00) To: FPC-Pascal users discussions <fpc-pascal at lists.freepascal.org> Cc: Sven Barth <pascaldragon at googlemail.com> Subject: Re: [fpc-pascal] Can FPC link a program with static (.a) libraries on Windows Tony Whyman via fpc-pascal <fpc-pascal at lists.freepascal.org> schrieb am Sa., 17. Feb. 2024, 00:50:I have a Pascal program, compiled with FPC 3.2.2 and which appears to 
happily link and run with a static library compiled with gcc and having 
a ".a" prefix on linux. The functions in the static library and declared 
as external functions using the "external <libname> name <function 
name>" directive. The "".a" library is copied to the same directory as 
the program unit before compiling and linking.

However, compiling the same program on Windows always seems to result in 
the loader complaining that the corresponding <libname>.dll is not 
present, indicating that instead of linking with the static library, the 
program is attempting to "statically" load the correspoinding dll at 
initialisation time.

I have tried to force it to link with the static library (e.g. using the 
-Xt command line switch) but no luck.

Hence the question, does FPC 3.2.2 support linking with static libraries 
on windows?"external <libname> name <funcname>" is for dynamic linking. For static linking you need to leave out the <libname> and instead use "{$linklib <libname>}" or even "{$linklib <libname>, static}" . That will also work on Linux. Regards, Sven 

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