No pdb files generated in release mode

[aboelens]

In the process of getting openssl to build with the MSVC toolchain I ran into a problem where there are no pdb files produced in release mode:

microsoft/vcpkg#41796 (comment)

Would you agree with this statement from one of the maintainers I have been communicating with that this should be enabled in the toolchain?

"/DEBUG /OPT:REF is expected to come from the cmake toolchain.
From the gmp port (error logs), I know this value:

set(VCPKG_DETECTED_CMAKE_SHARED_LINKER_FLAGS_RELEASE "-machine:x64 -nologo -DEBUG -INCREMENTAL:NO -OPT:REF -OPT:ICF")
So -OPT:REF -DEBUG is already there."

[MarkSchofield]

CMake "Release" builds typically don't have PDB files, "RelWithDebInfo" builds do. That's configured by (I think) the logic in Modules/Platform/Windows-MSVC.cmake, which sets (for example) CMAKE_EXE_LINKER_FLAGS_<CONFIG>_INIT. So the default behavior comes from CMake, not a toolchain.

Since VCPkg typically just builds two configurations 'dbg' and rel', then it's not unreasonable for the 'rel' builds to have PDB's incase they're consumed from 'RelWithDebInfo' builds, but I'd have thought that that would be something that VCPkg would handle in, say, vcpkg_cmake_configure.

TBH, I'm not sure what you're trying to do. If you're just building openssl using 'WindowsToolchain', I'm not sure why you'd file a vcpkg issue...? If you're building openssl as a VCPkg port, then VCPkg hooks-up it's own toolchain that (IIRC) depends on environment variables that vcpkg.exe sets (much like a Visual Studio command prompt), so you shouldn't be using WindowsToolchain?

[aboelens]

I am trying to build the vcpkg port of openssl using the VCPKG_CHAINLOAD_TOOLCHAIN_FILE option in the triplet file. That way both my code and its dependencies are build with the same SDK and compiler versions.

[MarkSchofield]

Rather than switching Vcpkg to use WindowsToolchain, can you use properties that WindowsToolchain has set to influence the behavior of the Vcpkg toolchain...? That seems like a slightly less intrusive approach.

[aboelens]

I like the idea, but that is generally difficult. To provide consistent builds, vcpkg sets up a clean build environment for every port by default.