I have a set of statically-compiled libraries, with fairly deep-running dependencies between the libraries. For example, the executable X uses libraries A and B, A uses library C, and B uses libraries C and D:
X -> A
A -> C
X -> B
B -> C
B -> D
When I link X with A and B, I don't want to get errors if C and D were not also added to the list of libraries—the fact that A and B use these libraries internally is an implementation detail that X should not need to know about. Also, when new dependencies are added anywhere in the dependency tree, the project file of any program that uses A or B would have to be reconfigured. For a deep dependency tree, the list of required libraries can become really long and hard to maintain.
So, I am using the "Additional Dependencies" setting of the Librarian section in the A project, adding C.lib. And in the same section of B's project, I add C.lib and D.lib. The effect of this is that the librarian bundles C.lib into A.lib, and C.lib and D.lib into B.lib.
When I link X, however, both A.lib and B.lib contain their own copy of C.lib. This leads to tons of warnings along the lines of
A.lib(c.obj) : warning LNK4006 "symbol" (_symbol) already defined in B.lib(c.obj); second definition ignored.
How can I accomplish this without getting warnings? Is there a way to simply disable the warning, or is there a better way?
EDIT: I have seen more than one answer suggesting that, for the lack of a better alternative, I simply disable the warning. Well, this is part of the problem: I don't even know how to disable it!
As far as I know you can't disable linker warnings. However, you can ignore some of them, using command line parameter of linker eg. /ignore:4006
Put it in your project properties under linker->command line setting (don't remember exact location).
Also read this:
MSDN Forum - hiding LNK warnings
Wacek