On Monday, 28 November 2022 at 14:19:46 UTC, NonNull wrote:
> double quotes whatsoever into the linker command line via pragma(linkerDirective,_).

linkerDirective doesn't add things to the linker command line at all.

https://dlang.org/spec/pragma.html#linkerDirective

"Implementation Defined: The string literal specifies a linker directive to be embedded in the generated object file. Linker directives are only supported for MS-COFF output. "


"embedded in the generated object file" is not "added to linker command line". Only some switches are supported for embedding and the syntax might be different. This is why the error message also says "invalid directive".

This is the Microsoft doc page for the feature the pragma uses:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/cpp/preprocessor/comment-c-cpp?source=recommendations&view=msvc-170#linker

It looks like they actually removed some options in the recent update, I know /SUBSYSTEM used to work there too but it is no longer listed and there's people on the web saying it stopped working after updating to the 2022 visual studio. So yeah I think they removed support for that.

But /LIBPATH has never been supported as far as I know.

You'll want to use a build script/makefile/dub config/whatever to set linker command line options.

On Monday, 28 November 2022 at 14:41:01 UTC, Adam D Ruppe wrote:
> This is the Microsoft doc page for the feature the pragma uses:
>
> https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/cpp/preprocessor/comment-c-cpp?source=recommendations&view=msvc-170#linker
>
> It looks like they actually removed some options in the recent update, I know /SUBSYSTEM used to work there too but it is no longer listed and there's people on the web saying it stopped working after updating to the 2022 visual studio. So yeah I think they removed support for that.
>
> But /LIBPATH has never been supported as far as I know.

Aha! Thank you: the MS doc page is very informative. So
https://dlang.org/spec/pragma.html#linkerDirective
is not simply a mechanism that via the object file can get any directive eventually to the linker as if on the command line.

I've been completely successful using pragma(lib,_) but looking carefully I see that
https://dlang.org/spec/pragma.html#lib
contains highly significant clues under "implementation defined" when compared to "implementation defined" under
https://dlang.org/spec/pragma.html#linkerDirective

--- pragma(lib,_) in effect guarantees to get the information through to the linker. It is not restricted to MS-COFF, and is not restricted to passing the information through the object file but may use "other means" left unspecified.

--- pragma(linkerDirective,_) IS restricted in these ways as you made clear.

So by comparison I should have realized, taking the hint "restricted to MS-COFF" that the documentation for the MS linker about what directives can be embedded in object files was pertinent, because who knows what MS may permit?! The clues were all there. But I didn't catch on. Sorry about the kerfuffle.

I have now successfully used pragma(lib,_) with a full path to link what's needed without resorting to external build stuff. I just need one pragma(lib,_) per library.