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Link all libs in a folder

Petwoip | 23 Dec 2011

Hey, quick question.

If given a path to a folder of libraries, what would be the best way to link all of them? Is there a premake command that already does this, or will I have to do some directory manipulation in lua? The reason I'm asking this is because it's annoying to write links(lib1,lib2,...,libn) when they are all in the same directory to begin with.

‹ Multiple projects in a solution (program and tests) each have own copies of object files reverse conversation from .sln and .vcxproj to premake4.lua ›
annulen | 24 Dec 2011 10:10

Hi,

You can try to use pattern (e.g., links "mydir/*.lib"), or use os.matchfiles if it doesn't work (e.g., links(os.matchfiles("mydir/*.lib")))

Petwoip | 24 Dec 2011 10:39

Thanks a lot, this mostly works (using your second approach). My issue now is premake attaches .lib to the files automatically, meaning all my links now say: "thing1.lib.lib, thing2.lib.lib, etc" inside visual studio. Is there a way to easily fix this in the script file?

annulen | 24 Dec 2011 11:01

In my opinion, it's a bug. Feel free to add it into tracker.

Possible workaround (untested):

function matchlibs(dir)
  local libs = os.matchfiles(dir .. "/*.lib")
  for i=1, #libs do
    libs[i]:gsub(".lib$", "")
  end
  return libs
end
 
-- In your project
links(matchlibs("mydir"))
starkos | 24 Dec 2011 13:21

I agree, Premake should be smart enough to detect the existing extension. You can file a bug here.

Petwoip | 24 Dec 2011 20:10

Filed a bug. Also, your script worked well annulen. The only thing I had to change was this line:
libs[i] = string.gsub(libs[i],".lib$", "")

annulen | 25 Dec 2011 10:43

My bad, gsub does not modify string. This code will work as well:

libs[i] = libs[i]:gsub(".lib$", "")
Anonymous | 29 Dec 2011 15:33

@starkos ref bug. This seems the defined behaviour:
"When linking against system libraries, do not include any prefix or file extension. Premake will use the appropriate naming conventions for the current platform."
http://industriousone.com/links-0

Liam | 23 Mar 2012 00:31

I see the latest commits[1] add this functionality yet the previous behaviour and the current do not take all possibilities into consideration, this being that foo.bar or just foo are perfectly valid names for libraries. Premake could maybe follow the windows function LoadLibrary behaviour [2], this being if the name has a suffix of "." the default extension is not added. Or it could maybe be documented that the behaviour is to add it and in this instance you need to use possibly linkoptions.

[1] https://bitbucket.org/premake/premake-dev/changeset/484dda4362eb/
[2] http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ms684175(v=vs.85).aspx