wxWidgets not linking using Cmake from VSCode (MSVC)

Problem

I am getting linker errors when building my project. The project has no trouble finding wxWidgets headers. I have looked at the wxWidgets minimal example and recreated it in order to verify that my build from source worked properly. I used cmake in VSCode to do the build using the cmake extension.

The wxWidgets cmake generated fine and the build of wxwidgets appears to have gone fine. I am using the Visual Studio 2022 amd64 toolset to do the compile. (I installed VS2022 Community Edition for the compiler only).

It looks like it is building DLL for the libraries. I would prefer static libraries but for an initial run I didnt think it mattered. I link my application to wx::net wx::core wx::base as recommended. I thought that this would take care of linking when I go to build.

When I go to build my overall application utilizing the wxWidgets library, I get these linker errors. What am I doing wrong here? Im obviously not configuring something correctly for it to find the library, but I am kind of stumped here.

Linker Errors

[build] ProjectName.obj : error LNK2001: unresolved external symbol "protected: static class wxAppConsole * (__cdecl* wxAppConsoleBase::ms_appInitFn)(void)" -snipped-
[build] ProjectName.obj : error LNK2001: unresolved external symbol "protected: static class wxAppConsole * wxAppConsoleBase::ms_appInstance" -snipped-
[build] MainWindow.obj : error LNK2001: unresolved external symbol "void (__cdecl* wxTheAssertHandler)(class wxString const &,int,class wxString const &,class wxString const &,class wxString const &)"-snipped-
[build] MainWindow.obj : error LNK2001: unresolved external symbol "bool wxTrapInAssert" (?wxTrapInAssert@@3_NA) -snipped-
[build] MainWindow.obj : error LNK2001: unresolved external symbol "class wxMBConv * wxConvLibcPtr" (?wxConvLibcPtr@@3PEAVwxMBConv@@EA) -snipped-
[build] MainWindow.obj : error LNK2001: unresolved external symbol "public: static unsigned __int64 const wxString::npos" (?npos@wxString@@2_KB)-snipped-
[build] MainWindow.obj : error LNK2001: unresolved external symbol "class wxSize const wxDefaultSize" (?wxDefaultSize@@3VwxSize@@B)-snipped-
[build] MainWindow.obj : error LNK2001: unresolved external symbol "class wxPoint const wxDefaultPosition" (?wxDefaultPosition@@3VwxPoint@@B)-snipped-
[build] MainWindow.obj : error LNK2001: unresolved external symbol "char const * const wxFrameNameStr" (?wxFrameNameStr@@3QBDB)-snipped-
[build] C:\path\to\executable\ProjectName.exe : fatal error LNK1120: 9 unresolved externals -snipped-
[build] Build finished with exit code 1

Project Layout

Pretty basic project layout. I am building a GUI application and I am logically separating out the ui source code.

This is basically a recreation of the minimal wxWidgets example where you have an entry point (Projectname.hpp and ProjectName.cpp provide this) and a main window/frame (MainWindow.hpp and MainWindow.cpp provide this). The ProjectName application will do the wxIMPLEMENT_APP(ProjectName) and will hold a pointer to a MainWindow. The MainWindow is shown using the OnInit Function.

ProjectName/
    build/
    external/
        wxWidgets-3.1.6/
        -CMakeLists.txt
    source/
        ui/
            -MainWindow.hpp
            -MainWindow.cpp
        -ProjectName.hpp
        -ProjectName.cpp
    -CMakeLists.txt

I have compiled the wxWidgets library using their cmake instructions for using a subdirectory in cmake so I could add it to my project. Here are the contents of the CMakeLists.txt's

ProjectName CMakeLists.txt

cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.23)

set(MAJOR 0)
set(MINOR 0)
set(PATCH 1)

#Setup Project
project(ProjectNameProject VERSION ${MAJOR}.${MINOR}.${PATCH}
                           DESCRIPTION "ProjectName Descrip"
                           LANGUAGES CXX)

add_executable(ProjectName WIN32 ${PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}/source/ProjectName.cpp 
                             ${PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}/source/ui/MainWindow.cpp)

target_include_directories(ProjectName PRIVATE ${PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}/source)
target_include_directories(ProjectName PRIVATE ${PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}/source/ui)

target_link_libraries(ProjectName PRIVATE wx::net wx::core wx::base)

add_subdirectory(${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/external)

ProjectName/externals CMakeLists.txt

cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.23)
add_subdirectory(${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/external/wxWidgets-3.1.6)

Update

I changed the Cmake option for building a shared library (DLL) and set it to OFF. When this is done, it builds a static library (LIB). This seemed to fix my linking issues.

Per Igor's suggestion, I took another look at the minimal sample CMakeLists.txt and noticed they used the following line for linking

target_link_libraries(${PROJECT_NAME} ${wxWidgets_LIBRARIES})

Perhaps my line (below) is the way to link statically and does not work with DLLs?

target_link_libraries(ProjectName PRIVATE wx::net wx::core wx::base)

If someone could help me understand why having it build statically fixed it, I would 100% accept that answer.

Solution

I changed the Cmake option for building a shared library (DLL) and set it to OFF. When this is done, it builds a static library (LIB). This seemed to fix my linking issues.

Unfortunately I do no see anyone able to chime in to help understand why this is the solution, but I am going to select this as an answer for others coming to this in the future.

If I see any updates that answer the question of "why" I will accept their answer.