LinkAllSymbols

When linking a static library against an executable, unreferenced symbols are normally discarded. Under Unix where we use gcc, we can pass the flag --whole-archive to the linker ld, which makes ld not discard any objects.

When under Windows Visual Studio, there is no equivalent to GNU ld option --whole-archive. The linker option /OPT:NOREF also doesn't work.

There are two ways to force link specify symbols from static library。

• Linker Option use /INCLUDE xxx
• Add code : #pragma comment(linker, "/include:xxx")

Use #pragma is more flexible. So we can use dumpbin tool to list all symbols, then generate Header File use #pragma comment(linker, "/inculde:xxx") to inlude all symbols.

Make sure dumpbin.exe be executed in Developer Command Prompt

Or write a batch command file, with the code(if installed Visual Studio 2013):

@echo off
if defined VS120COMNTOOLS (
    call "%VS120COMNTOOLS%\vsvars32.bat")

The main GenSymbolsHeader.py execute dumpbin.exe, use regex expression to match all symbols, then generate Header File.

To automated generate LinkAllSymbols.h, in static library Post-Build Event, add this:

python ..\GenSymbolsHeader.py $(OutDir)$(TargetName)$(TargetExt) ..\Include\LinkAllSymbols.h