What is proper naming convention for MSVC dlls, static libraries and import libraries

Question

What is standard or "most-popular" naming convention for MSVC library builds.

For example, for following platforms library foo has these conventions:

Linux/gcc:

shared: libfoo.so
import: ---
static: libfoo.a

Cygwin/gcc:

shared: cygfoo.dll
import: libfoo.dll.a
static: libfoo.a

Windows/MinGW:

shared: libfoo.dll
import: libfoo.dll.a
static: libfoo.a

What should be used for MSVC buidls? As far as I know, usually names are foo.dll and foo.lib, but how do you usually distinguish between import library and static one?

Note: I ask because CMake creates quite unpleasant collision between them naming both import and static library as foo.lib. See bug report. The answer would help me to convince the developers to fix this bug.

Answer 1

As mentioned by others, there are no standards, but there are popular conventions. I'm unsure how to unambiguously judge what is the most popular convention. In addition the nomenclature for static vs. import libraries, which you asked about, there is also an analogous distinction between the naming of Release libraries vs. Debug libraries, especially on Windows.

Both cases (i.e. static vs. import, and debug vs. release) can be handled in one of two ways: different names, or different directory locations. I usually choose to use different names, because I feel it minimizes the chance of mistaking the library type later, especially after installation or other file moving activities.

I usually use foo.dll and foo.lib for the shared library on Windows, and foo_static.lib for the static library, when I wish to have both shared and static versions. I have seen others use this convention, so it might be the "most popular".

So I would recommend the following addition to your table:

Windows/MSVC:

shared: foo.dll
import: foo.lib
static: foo_static.lib

Then in cmake, you could either

add_library(foo_static STATIC foo.cpp)

or

add_library(FooStatic STATIC foo.cpp)
set_target_properties(FooStatic PROPERTIES OUTPUT_NAME "foo_static") 

if for some reason you don't wish to use "foo_static" as the symbolic library name.

Answer 2

You distinguish between a library and a .dll by the extension. But you distinguish between a import library and a static library by the filename, not the extension.

There will be no case where an import library exists for a set of code that was built to be a static library, or where a static library exists for a dll. These are two different things.

There is no single MSVC standard filename convention. As a rule, a library name that ends in "D" is often a debug build of library code, msvcrtd.dll vs msvcrt.dll but other than that, there are no standards.