Simplest way to build a DMD compatible C lib, and how to link using DUB.

[Mike Parker via Digitalmars-d-learn]

On Wednesday, 14 December 2016 at 23:08:30 UTC, hardreset wrote:
> I built Freetype with MSVC13 and tried to link it but DMD didnt 
> like the format, so what should compiler (free) should I use 
> for building DMD compatible static libs?

The MS linker produces COFF format. By default, DMD uses the 
OPTLINK linker, which only understands OMF. Assuming DMD is 
configured to find your MSVC installation, you can link directly 
with COFF libraries and objects by passing -m64 or -m32mscoff on 
the DMD command line. With DUB, use -ax86_64 on the command line 
to make it use -m64. Unfortunately, there is currently no such 
option for it to use -m32mscoff, so you need to configure it in 
your dub configuration with a "dflags" directive and make sure 
any dependencies are compiled that way as well.

>
> Once I've build the lib, made a di file, where do I put these 
> things in the dub directory structure?

Where ever you want. If you put the di file in your source 
directory, DUB will pick it up automatically. For libraries, I 
usually put them in a 'lib' subdirectory and add this in the 
module with my main method:

version(Windows) pragma(lib, `lib\foo.lib`);

As Basile recommended, DerelictFT[1] will save you from the 
hassle of object formats. It's a dynamic binding, so you don't 
need to link with FreeType at all during compilation. You simply 
call DerelictFT.load during initialization and it will load the 
FreeType DLL for you. However, if your goal is to use DLLs, then 
you either have to use the MS linker as I described above or get 
FreeType into the OMF format (either by compiling with DMC or 
using an object converter).

[1] https://github.com/DerelictOrg/DerelictFT