ct-build-static-library¶

Generate a static library from a root source file in one shot¶

Author:: drgeoffathome@gmail.com
Date:: 2025-11-26
Version:: 10.0.6
Manual section:: 1
Manual group:: developers

SYNOPSIS¶

ct-build-static-library SOURCE [CT-CREATE-MAKEFILE OPTIONS]

DESCRIPTION¶

ct-build-static-library bundles the discovery + Makefile + build sequence needed to produce a traditional .a archive from a designated translation unit. The script performs the following steps:

Treat the first argument as the root implementation file (SOURCE).
Use ct-filelist --filter=source --style flat to enumerate every source file that must be compiled to satisfy that root target.
Run ct-create-makefile --static with the root file, the discovered file list, and all remaining user arguments.
Invoke make -j$(ct-jobs) to build the archive using the recommended level of parallelism.

All additional positional or option arguments after SOURCE are passed unchanged to ct-create-makefile so the same variant, compiler flag, output directory, or cache settings you normally rely on continue to work.

OPTIONS¶

SOURCE: Required first argument. Points to the canonical implementation file whose include graph determines which translation units belong in the archive.
Remaining options: Every subsequent flag is forwarded to ct-create-makefile. Commonly used options include --variant, --cas-objdir, --bindir, --magic, and the various --append-*FLAGS switches. See ct-create-makefile (1) for the full option list.

ENVIRONMENT¶

CT_JOBS: Overrides the job count returned by ct-jobs for the final make run.
ct.conf: Provides shared defaults for variants, include paths, caches, and toolchain settings used during Makefile generation.

EXAMPLES¶

Build libmath.a from library/math.cpp using the release variant:

ct-build-static-library library/math.cpp --variant=release

Place intermediate files under out/ while appending custom flags:

ct-build-static-library src/core.cpp --cas-objdir=out/obj --bindir=out/lib \
    --append-CXXFLAGS="-fvisibility=hidden"