[CMake] building static binaries

[Michael Hertling]

On 11/02/2010 10:54 PM, Szilárd Páll wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I've been trying to implement a feature which would enable building
> static binaries with cmake, but I've got completely stuck, I hope
> someone can hint me what's the best way to do this.
> 
> What I've done is a 2 stage solution for making static binaries:
> 
> 1) Telling cmake to prefer picking up ".a"-s when searching for
> libraries (CMAKE_FIND_LIBRARY_SUFFIXES).
> 
> This works fine, but referring to file extensions/endings might not be
> general enough. Making it less platform-dependent would require
> rewriting the way external libraries are treated: instead of adding
> them with full path we'd need to add -Lpath -llibname separately. Any
> other ways for doing this?
> 
> 
> 2) Telling cmake to use static system libraries.
> 
> This should work with the target property LINK_SEARCH_END_STATIC which
> essentially should result in a the system libs linked in statically
> whenever possible (depending on the platform). Well, it seems that
> even in fairly straightforward situations (Linux + gcc) I get the a
> linker error: /usr/bin/ld: cannot find -lgcc_s.
> 
> Obviously, libgcc_s.a is not available, but by looking at the verbose
> output, the implicit gcc linker call contains the "-Wl,-Bstatic"
> argument. This AFAIK is not correct, or more precisely not enough to
> just tell ld to link statically, gcc also has to know about it
> (through the "-static" argument). Can anyone confirm this?
> 
> 
> I'd be grateful for tips on how to fix the issue with 2), but I'm open
> for other portable (and preferably elegant) solutions.

FYI: See [1], and in particular [2] and [3].

Regards,

Michael

[1] http://www.mail-archive.com/cmake@cmake.org/msg21106.html
[2] http://www.mail-archive.com/cmake@cmake.org/msg21317.html
[3] http://www.mail-archive.com/cmake@cmake.org/msg21416.html