VS2010: Link in a single library statically

visual-studio-2010 static-linking
Ben picture Ben · Dec 20, 2011 · Viewed 17.8k times · Source

Situation:

I'm building a library with VS2010, and it has a dependency on LibraryA. I am only using one of many features that LibraryA offers, so I want to link it in statically.

Everything I'm reading about this tells me to set the whole project to link statically against MFC, which is something I don't want to do. I'm just fine with my library dynamically linking against windows DLLs; I just want to statically link against LibraryA only.

Fooling around with the options windows, I don't seem to see such an option. Is it really all or nothing?

Thanks, -Ben

Answer

Ben picture Ben · Jan 5, 2012

Answering my own question here:

All you need to do to statically link a library in VS is:

1) Add the .lib file to the list found in properties -> linker -> input : Additional Dependencies.

2) Add the directory that the .lib file is located at to the properties -> linker -> general : Additional Library Directories.

If the .lib file is a statically linked library, then that is all you have to do.

The main reason I was confused was that a .lib file could also be a companion file alongside a dll, and not a static library itself.

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