visual studio - C++ - Can you build one static library into another?

Question

I ran into a strange problem with a Visual Studio 2008 project I was working with recently.

I am trying to compile a new static library that uses functions from another static library. (Let's say Lib1 is my static library project, and Lib2 is the lib file that Lib1 depends on).

I am able to build lib1 without issue; It includes the header files for lib2 and calls its functions, and there are no problems.

The problem is when I build a separate test project that has Lib1 as a dependency; it won't build and I get linker errors. The unresolved externals are the functions I am trying to call within Lib1 that are from Lib2.

This is all fixed when I include Lib2 in my test project as well.

This all makes sense to me of course; I can test that Lib2 is not being built into Lib1..

My question is: is there a way to do this? I would ideally like to be able to deploy Lib1 as a standalone lib without requiring Lib2. (Lib2 is actually just a Lib from the Windows Platform SDK, so it's not really a big deal...)

Is this not allowed because it would allow people to "hide" third party libraries in their own, or something?

What would be a professional approach to this problem?

Thanks!

--R

Answer 1

You need to use a tool called a librarian to do this. A librarian allows you to create and modify library (.lib) files. In visual studio check under the Librarian section of your project properties. A command line version also comes with visual studio (lib.exe).