> In the DCD's dub i changed targetType to "staticLibrary"

You didn't need to do that, the default was correct.

> Then i build:
> 
> ``dub build -c library`` for the library config

Just ``$ dub build`` would've done it (first configuration is default).

Now for the errors, I think its a simple case of you are not linking everything in. Use dub, don't do this manually.

Here is the output for linking the client configuration, looks a bit different ;)

```
Linking dcd-client
C:\Tools\D\ldc2-1.31.0-windows-multilib\bin\ldc2.exe -of.dub\build\client-debug-windows-x86_64-ldc_v1.31.0-DF438D1296B6C9BC0E3D50D4EFA1EC5CE1C82F4ED9169185C58440A2BD5ED999\dcd-client.exe .dub\build\client-debug-windows-x86_64-ldc_v1.31.0-DF438D1296B6C9BC0E3D50D4EFA1EC5CE1C82F4ED9169185C58440A2BD5ED999\dcd-client.obj common\.dub\build\library-debug-windows-x86_64-ldc_v1.31.0-CF8574F0D3568FA37AB3781BE5A103C1AE1678C5ECADFFF15736AAEF48C13F12\dcd_common.lib C:\Users\alpha\AppData\Local\dub\packages\msgpack-d-1.0.1\msgpack-d\.dub\build\default-debug-windows-x86_64-ldc_v1.31.0-BA2035194DC7872ACAEF6D406F56AF24986B46F8626E1B06E81C1964C374BB12\msgpack-d.lib dsymbol\.dub\build\library-debug-windows-x86_64-ldc_v1.31.0-3E3FE60C47A7B98F87E3453CE72C2FF075DB7AD708F08100D68AACD7D4A3DD87\dcd_dsymbol.lib C:\Users\alpha\AppData\Local\dub\packages\emsi_containers-0.9.0\emsi_containers\.dub\build\library-debug-windows-x86_64-ldc_v1.31.0-04B3937CA3A0BD6CBBA647E8D9AB53AB78AB124AFAD7E416E7433F06812D4D00\emsi_containers.lib C:\Users\alpha\AppData\Local\dub\packages\libdparse-0.21.1\libdparse\.dub\build\library-debug-windows-x86_64-ldc_v1.31.0-E2B54AF26AC9977B374E024724763A7CD14ED2B981E84AA640F8193906B71D90\dparse.lib -g
```

On Monday, 6 March 2023 at 01:46:22 UTC, Richard (Rikki) Andrew Cattermole wrote:
>> In the DCD's dub i changed targetType to "staticLibrary"
>
> You didn't need to do that, the default was correct.
>
>> Then i build:
>> 
>> ``dub build -c library`` for the library config
>
> Just ``$ dub build`` would've done it (first configuration is default).
>
> Now for the errors, I think its a simple case of you are not linking everything in. Use dub, don't do this manually.
>
> Here is the output for linking the client configuration, looks a bit different ;)
>
> ```
> Linking dcd-client
> C:\Tools\D\ldc2-1.31.0-windows-multilib\bin\ldc2.exe -of.dub\build\client-debug-windows-x86_64-ldc_v1.31.0-DF438D1296B6C9BC0E3D50D4EFA1EC5CE1C82F4ED9169185C58440A2BD5ED999\dcd-client.exe .dub\build\client-debug-windows-x86_64-ldc_v1.31.0-DF438D1296B6C9BC0E3D50D4EFA1EC5CE1C82F4ED9169185C58440A2BD5ED999\dcd-client.obj common\.dub\build\library-debug-windows-x86_64-ldc_v1.31.0-CF8574F0D3568FA37AB3781BE5A103C1AE1678C5ECADFFF15736AAEF48C13F12\dcd_common.lib C:\Users\alpha\AppData\Local\dub\packages\msgpack-d-1.0.1\msgpack-d\.dub\build\default-debug-windows-x86_64-ldc_v1.31.0-BA2035194DC7872ACAEF6D406F56AF24986B46F8626E1B06E81C1964C374BB12\msgpack-d.lib dsymbol\.dub\build\library-debug-windows-x86_64-ldc_v1.31.0-3E3FE60C47A7B98F87E3453CE72C2FF075DB7AD708F08100D68AACD7D4A3DD87\dcd_dsymbol.lib C:\Users\alpha\AppData\Local\dub\packages\emsi_containers-0.9.0\emsi_containers\.dub\build\library-debug-windows-x86_64-ldc_v1.31.0-04B3937CA3A0BD6CBBA647E8D9AB53AB78AB124AFAD7E416E7433F06812D4D00\emsi_containers.lib C:\Users\alpha\AppData\Local\dub\packages\libdparse-0.21.1\libdparse\.dub\build\library-debug-windows-x86_64-ldc_v1.31.0-E2B54AF26AC9977B374E024724763A7CD14ED2B981E84AA640F8193906B71D90\dparse.lib -g
> ```

Are you saying dub doesn't build a static dcd.lib?

What to do to make it so i get a static dcd.lib file that contains all the code it needs?

This comfort me in my desire to no longer use dub ever

>  Use dub, don't do this manually.

i build DCD with DUB, not manually


i ask dub to give me a static lib, dcd.lib is the file he gave me, that should be all i


yet i get the errors

On 06/03/2023 2:52 PM, ryuukk_ wrote:
> Are you saying dub doesn't build a static dcd.lib?

It did, but it doesn't contain any of the dependencies.

> What to do to make it so i get a static dcd.lib file that contains all the code it needs?

$ dub build --combined

That may work. No guarantees. Dub isn't setup for distribution like this.

On Monday, 6 March 2023 at 01:52:06 UTC, ryuukk_ wrote:
6B71D90\dparse.lib -g
>> ```
>
> Are you saying dub doesn't build a static dcd.lib?
>
> What to do to make it so i get a static dcd.lib file that contains all the code it needs?
>
> This comfort me in my desire to no longer use dub ever

This is not dub's fault. When building a shared library, there's a link step, so any external dependencies are linked into the shared library just as they are with an executable. There is no link step with a static library. That means when you build your executable, you need to also link the static library's dependencies along with it.

Most of the symbols in your list appear to come from the packages listed in the dependencies section of DCD's dub.json:

https://github.com/dlang-community/DCD/blob/master/dub.json

So if you want to do this manually, with DCD as a static library, then you also need to build all of those dependencies and link them with your executable.

On Monday, 6 March 2023 at 02:00:16 UTC, Mike Parker wrote:
> On Monday, 6 March 2023 at 01:52:06 UTC, ryuukk_ wrote:
> 6B71D90\dparse.lib -g
>>> ```
>>
>> Are you saying dub doesn't build a static dcd.lib?
>>
>> What to do to make it so i get a static dcd.lib file that contains all the code it needs?
>>
>> This comfort me in my desire to no longer use dub ever
>
> This is not dub's fault. When building a shared library, there's a link step, so any external dependencies are linked into the shared library just as they are with an executable. There is no link step with a static library. That means when you build your executable, you need to also link the static library's dependencies along with it.
>
> Most of the symbols in your list appear to come from the packages listed in the dependencies section of DCD's dub.json:
>
> https://github.com/dlang-community/DCD/blob/master/dub.json
>
> So if you want to do this manually, with DCD as a static library, then you also need to build all of those dependencies and link them with your executable.

This is a bug in DCD in my book

Let's take this example:

Let's pretend Mr A is a developer of a widely used Editor


"A: let's build this tool D people use to get code completion, so we can support D"
"A: git clone dcd"
"A: let's install D so we can build it"
"A: dub build -c library"
"A: sweet a dcd.lib file"
"A: feed it into my ABC language compiler"
"A: hmm i am getting unresolved symbols, i thought i compiled a static library of that project"
"A: sorry guys, no D support, that's what their build too gave me but it doesn't work"

"D people: yeah sorry it doesn't give you a static library of the project, you need to individually compile each dependencies it uses, some are in the project directory, some are referenced as a DUB package so you need to lookup for the source, close it and compile it individually too, then you need to do that recursively for each dependencies each project will use"


dub should build a static library for the project i build, that includes each library it uses that are referenced as "library" since the default is "staticLibrary" according to rikki

On 06/03/2023 3:09 PM, ryuukk_ wrote:
> This is a bug in DCD in my book

This has nothing to do with DCD. This is on DUB, it was never designed for anything related to distribution.

Nobody has attempted to change this. All the information is available for it to do it.

Just a matter of adding another cli command that inherits from build.

> dub should build a static library for the project i build, that includes each library it uses that are referenced as "library" since the default is "staticLibrary" according to rikki

So the targetType library was meant to devolve into either staticLibrary or dynamicLibrary as determined at a later point in time circa 2012.

Problem is it will never be able to devolve into a shared library. That requires code to be modified to work with it.

Right now targetType library is the default, but should really be removed at some point in the future.

Its good to remember that shared library support has only really gotten to the point in ldc where we can start to see a glimmer of hope in the last 2-3 years. Back in 2012 it was practically something very few people could even hope to use.

dmd is still a complete write off, but work is being done to now resolve that and I'm on the solving the language level issues with a DIP :)

On Monday, 6 March 2023 at 01:57:21 UTC, Richard (Rikki) Andrew Cattermole wrote:
> On 06/03/2023 2:52 PM, ryuukk_ wrote:
>> Are you saying dub doesn't build a static dcd.lib?
>
> It did, but it doesn't contain any of the dependencies.
>
>> What to do to make it so i get a static dcd.lib file that contains all the code it needs?
>
> $ dub build --combined
>
> That may work. No guarantees. Dub isn't setup for distribution like this.

combined didn't work, i still get a bunch of unresolved symbols (although less long):

https://gist.github.com/ryuukk/d59eb89979f1666139ffe0ac95307f20

there needs to be a better solution than to hunt down dependencies, then how to build the dependencies and to guess what version was used to build said dependencies for the whole tree of dependencies one project will use

this is very very poor design

the fact that this is apparently an issue for this long doesn't give me hope it's going to be solved anytime soon

if someone from the D team can build a usable static library for DCD and its dependencies, then please share to me how, something that doesn't involve playing a hunting game on github

that can't be worse than other languages, can it?