I have a Visual Studio c++ project where I use the linker Settings
/WX (TreatWarningsAsLinkerErrors=true)
In Debug, I compile with /Zi (Debug Database), which works fine.
Now I have a 3rd party SDK which comes with a static library, but no .pdb file. As soon as I link this file in Debug, I get
LNK4099: 3rd-party.lib(3rd-party.obj) : warning LNK4099: PDB "vc90.pdb" was not found "3rd-party.lib(3rd-party.obj)" or with "C:\OutDir\vc90.pdb"
Please note that this message is misleading, as placing vc90.pdb next to 3rd-party.lib does not solve the problem, because the source code and pdb of that 3rd-party lib is not available, so the linker would then still complain.
In order to get rid of this linker warning, what are my options here?
Easiest way if you use a VS post 2010 (so 2012/2013/2015) is to add the /ignore:4099 option to the linker. Should ignore this specific warning. Sure that before 2012 this warning was specifically ignored... It existed but was a kind of "yeah but we do not care" warning.
More complex way... If you have the "energy/motivation/advanced user courage/Visual studio 2010 or before [2008/VC6/...]"
You can actually extract the symbols used during linking using the lib command lib /list obj.lib.
You will obtain a lit of the obj included in the lib, that you can extract with the lib /extact ../path/to/my/obj command.
THEN you have to extract the debug section using the dumpbin /section:.debug$ And there you will find the pdb problem... using /fd command you can relink correctly the pdb.
It is somehow a lot of work. This is the short summary of what you can find here : https://cldoten.wordpress.com/2009/07/01/vs2008-fixing-the-warning-pdb-vc90-pdb-not-found/
Follow the link I gave carefully.
Obviously the ignore method is probably the easiest and less problematic, especially if you use a lot of third-party libraries.