[llvm-dev] r250501 adds dependancy to ole32.dll on MSVC

[Jakob Bornecrantz via llvm-dev]

On Wed, Dec 23, 2015 at 9:38 PM, Aaron Ballman <aaron at aaronballman.com> wrote:
> On Wed, Dec 23, 2015 at 3:28 PM, Reid Kleckner <rnk at google.com> wrote:
>> On Wed, Dec 23, 2015 at 11:25 AM, Aaron Ballman via llvm-dev
>> <llvm-dev at lists.llvm.org> wrote:
>>>
>>> On Wed, Dec 23, 2015 at 1:55 PM, Jakob Bornecrantz <wallbraker at gmail.com>
>>> wrote:
>>> > On Wed, Dec 23, 2015 at 5:49 PM, Aaron Ballman <aaron at aaronballman.com>
>>> > wrote:
>>> >> On Wed, Dec 23, 2015 at 11:29 AM, Jakob Bornecrantz via llvm-dev
>>> >> <llvm-dev at lists.llvm.org> wrote:
>>> >>> I'm building on Windows x64 using cmake, Ninja and VS 2013 express on
>>> >>> Windows 7.
>>> >>>
>>> >>> So I have been using the LLVMSharp method on getting a usable loadable
>>> >>> LLVM.dll[1][2].
>>
>>
>> One day, I would like to make it easier to make LLVM.dll...

We (not I) have rewritten the powershell script into a python
script[1] and where hoping that we could commit that to LLVM and have
it make a DLL during regular MSVC builds. And if possible shipping
that DLL with the Windows package (and Windows snapshot builds[2]).

>>
>>>
>>> > Further investigation show that for the MinGW build OLE32 is added to
>>> > the dependencies for LLVMSupport.lib in the CMakeLists.txt file, there
>>> > are a couple of other libraries added as well. This lead me to find
>>> > that those where added for the MSVC build with a pragma(lib, xx), so I
>>> > added such a pragma for OLE32 and that fixes my script that is
>>> > generating LLVM.dll, will also fix other peoples problems with OLE32
>>> > missing as well.
>>>
>>> Generally speaking, static libraries like LLVMSupport are just an
>>> archive of a bunch of compiled object files, and whatever ultimately
>>> consumes that library is responsible for providing external
>>> definitions. So, for instance, clang.exe consumes LLVMSupport.lib and
>>> so it also links in OLE32. I believe that we usually only use
>>> #pragma(lib) to signal that non-standard libraries need to be linked
>>> in, otherwise every source file in an archive would wind up with an
>>> unwieldy number of pragmas for all its imports, or you would have to
>>> manually maintain that list in some common header file. I don't think
>>> that the pragma(lib) for advapi32.lib should be there either, FWIW,
>>> but I don't know that we've ever had a hard-and-fast rule for this
>>> sort of thing.
>>
>>
>> Sure, but the fact that static libraries can't encode their dependencies has
>> always been an annoying missing feature, not something that we want to
>> follow if we can avoid it.
>
> Agreed.
>
>>>
>>> I'm not opposed to this patch, per se, but it feels like a slippery
>>> slope as to what makes the cut and what does not. I would rather see
>>> *less* non-standard pragma usage instead of more.
>>
>>
>> For these kinds of DLLs that are available on all modern versions of
>> Windows, I think it's perfectly reasonable to use the 'pragma comment lib'
>> auto linking mechanism. Realistically, no consumer of LLVMSupport.lib is
>> going to be surprised if it needs ole32.dll.
>
> I think we're making the same point -- no consumer of LLVMSupport.lib
> should expect to work if it doesn't use the stock set of library
> dependencies. So use #pragma(lib) for everything that's not in that
> set, but expect consumers to at least be using the stock set. Unless
> you're suggesting we stick a #pragma(lib, user32) (et al) somewhere as
> well?

So ole32 and friends are added by default by cmake[3] which is why you
are seeing them on the executables.

Looking through the source I find advapi32.lib, psapi.lib, shell32.lib
and dbghelp.lib are added via pragmas. Of these psapi.lib and
dghelp.lib are not added to the default libs by cmake[3]. So just
removing the pragmas would break the build without adding them back
into the linking libs in cmake. Tho it would break all non-cmake based
builds (that are using LLVM components) out there that don't happen to
also link those libs. That is for versions < 3.8 non-cmake builds
worked magically thanks to the pragmas.

I have no real say in what path you should take here. Pragmas for me
would be the easiest for me, since they just magically works, tho I
appreciate the technical ugliness they present. That said if you
remove the pragmas the list of libraries needed should be documented
somewhere and probably also be returned by llvm-config.exe.

If we keep the pragmas I guess we could have does link.exe add the
libs by default as a basis for which pragmas we should add in. I can't
experiment right now but user32, kernel32 and friends seems be
included by default by link.exe or they are pragmas in the MSVC
headers that the LLVM build picks.

Thanks again for your time.

Cheers, Jakob.

[1] https://github.com/VoltLang/GenLLVMDLLPy/blob/master/GenLLVMDLL.py
[2] http://llvm.org/builds/
[3] https://cmake.org/gitweb?p=cmake.git;a=blob;f=Modules/Platform/Windows-MSVC.cmake