Meson: Add linker args for specific dependencies

[Abdullah-AlAttar]

Lets say I have library X , and library Y (both are not mine)
and in my executable , I want to add some linker args only for X.
I did a workaround by modifying build.ninja file.
is there a proper way to do so.

[xclaesse]

I don't understand what you're doing. Can you share an example snippet of your meson.build ?

[Abdullah-AlAttar]

cmplr = meson.get_compiler('cpp')  
library_X  = cmplr.find_library('X')
library_Y = cmplr.find_library('Y') 
executable('my_project',
        sources : ['main.cpp'],
        dependencies : [library_X, library_Y],
        link_args : ['-Wl,--allow-multiple-definition', '-Wl,--whole-archive'])

I want my build.ninja to be like this

LINK_ARGS = -Wl,--no-undefined -Wl,--as-needed -Wl,-O1 -Wl,--start-group -llibrary_X -Wl,--allow-multiple-definition -Wl,--whole-archive  -llibrary_Y .... 

instead of

LINK_ARGS = -Wl,--no-undefined -Wl,--as-needed -Wl,-O1 -Wl,--start-group -Wl,--allow-multiple-definition -Wl,--whole-archive -llibrary_X -llibrary_Y .... 

[xclaesse]

How do you get library_Y? You should pass it to link_whole: library_Y instead I guess.

[Abdullah-AlAttar]

I have updated the comment above.
I have tried linke_whole it tells me that <ExternalLibrary X: True> is not a static library.
although I'm sure it's static

[xclaesse]

You want library_Y to be static linked with -Wl,--whole-archive and library_X to be dynamic linked, right? Sadly find_library() doesn't have a static : true keyword argument. Don't you have a pkg-config file for that library to get it with dependecy('library_Y', static : true) instead?

[Abdullah-AlAttar]

Okay I've found a solution .

cmplr = meson.get_compiler('cpp')  
library_X  = cmplr.find_library('X')
library_Y = cmplr.find_library('Y') 

dep_1 = declare_dependency(link_args : ['-Wl,--allow-multiple-definition', '-Wl,--whole-archive'],
                           dependencies : [library_X])
executable('my_project',
        sources : ['main.cpp'],
        dependencies : [library_Y, dep_1])

[xclaesse]

I think that works by chance. It looks like meson just cannot link-whole on external static libraries, only on internal libraries. That would be an interesting feature to add.

[dzhang-b]

Can meson link-whole external static libraries now?

[dzhang-b]

ERROR: <ExternalLibrary edit: True> is not a static library.
Get the same error when I try to add a static external library to be linked whole into my shared libraries.
I think there should have a way to convert external static library into a static_library target in meson..
Do we have any workaround for this now?

[dzhang-b]

okay. here it is a work around for me.

dep = declare_dependency(link_args : 
             [ '-Wl,--whole-archive'
             , get_option('prefix')/'lib/libedit.a'
             , '-Wl,--no-whole-archive'
             ],
             dependencies : [libedit_deps]
)