Unable to link with Bazel using VC++2022

[eugeneo]

I have a project setup with Bazel, it builds fine except for VC++. VC++ complains it can't find hwy::Abort(char const *,int,char const *,...):

primitives.lib(primitives.obj) : error LNK2019: unresolved external symbol "__declspec(dllimport) void __cdecl hwy::Abort(char const *,int,char const *,...)" (__imp_?Abort@hwy@@YAXPEBDH0ZZ) referenced in function "public: static float __cdecl hwy::N_SSE2::Dot::Compute<1,struct hwy::N_SSE2::Simd<float,4,0>,float>(struct hwy::N_SSE2::Simd<float,4,0>,float const * __restrict const,float const * __restrict const,unsigned __int64)" (??$Compute@$00U?$Simd@M$03$0A@@N_SSE2@hwy@@M@Dot@N_SSE2@hwy@@SAMU?$Simd@M$03$0A@@12@QEIBM1_K@Z)
bazel-out\x64_windows-fastbuild\bin\test\math\primitives_test.exe : fatal error LNK1120: 1 unresolved externals

Same project compiles/links fine with GCC and Clang on Mac and Linux.

I import Highway as a Bazel module:

bazel_dep(name = "highway", version = "1.2.0")

Dependencies:

cc_library(
    name = "primitives",
    srcs = ["primitives.cc"],
    hdrs = ["primitives.h"],
    deps = [
        "@abseil-cpp//absl/log:log",
        "@highway//:dot",
        "@highway//:hwy",
    ],
)

[eugeneo]

I tried the latest version, does not work.

[jan-wassenberg]

Interesting.. I see that abort.cc is in the "hwy" target, and that we have HWY_DLLEXPORT annotations on both the declaration and definition, which are the usual causes of this.

We actually ask for a DLL build in the open source version: https://github.com/google/highway/blob/master/BUILD#L139C25-L139C42
But internally and in CI, this is disabled. Removing the HWY_SHARED_DEFINE should avoid the problem.

hm, I suspect DLL builds are not worth the trouble for Highway, but it's probably worse to disable them now everywhere and cause confusion for projects already using them.

[eugeneo]

Does this need a fix in highway or can I configure build in my project? My project is a library itself so I would rather link Highway statically.

[jan-wassenberg]

You should be able to get a static build by setting the CMake variable HWY_FORCE_STATIC_LIBS, see

highway/CMakeLists.txt

Line 460 in 62c0a79

if (NOT BUILD_SHARED_LIBS OR HWY_FORCE_STATIC_LIBS)

:)

[eugeneo]

I'm using Bazel... I will see if I can set that flag somehow in Bazel.

[chinwobble]

I'm getting the same issue when installing highway using vcpkg as well.

I tried adding the following to my CMakeLists.txt but it didn't work.

find_package(hwy CONFIG REQUIRED)
set(HWY_FORCE_STATIC_LIBS ON)
set(HWY_LIBRARY_TYPE "STATIC")

[build] sequence.cpp.obj : error LNK2019: unresolved external symbol "__declspec(dllimport) void __vectorcall hwy::FreeAlignedBytes(void const *,void (__vectorcall*)(void *,void *),void *)" (__imp_?FreeAlignedBytes@hwy@@YQXPEBXP6QXPEAX1@Z1@Z) referenced in function "public: void __cdecl hwy::AlignedFreer::operator()<unsigned char>(unsigned char *)const " (??$?RE@AlignedFreer@hwy@@QEBAXPEAE@Z)