PCL_EXPORTS seems to be implemented wrong

[SunBlack]

I currently still trying to compile everything with MSVC. I could fix already a lot of issues, but there is an error I couldn't fix:

LNK2001 unresolved external symbol "public: static struct QMetaObject const pcl::cloud_composer::PropertiesModel::staticMetaObject" (?staticMetaObject@PropertiesModel@cloud_composer@pcl@@2UQMetaObject@@B)    pcl_cc_tool_fpfh_estimation

In general I could fix all linker errors, except where we export a target with Q_OBJECT:

    class PCL_EXPORTS AbstractTool : public QObject
    {
      Q_OBJECT
      //...
    }

If you search the web for this issue you always find, that we need __declspec(dllimport). But PCL_EXPORTS expand always to __declspec(dllexport) or empty.

Further issue: PCL_ADD_LIBRARY always add symbol PCLAPI_EXPORTS. This seems at first look correct, but I believe this is partially wrong.

• Case 1: Someone build PCL and use installed libraries. In this case everything is fine, because PCLAPI_EXPORTS is not defined
• Case 2: A PCL library (LibA) is using another PCL library (LibB). In this case PCLAPI_EXPORTS should be true for all header files part of LibB but no defined for LibA during building LibB. So I believe it would be correct if define PCL_LibA_EXPORTS and PCL_LibB_EXPORTS instead of just PCL_EXPORTS.

And we use should CMake::GenerateExportHeader.

[stale[bot]]

Marking this as stale due to 30 days of inactivity. It will be closed in 7 days if no further activity occurs.

[kunaltyagi]

Shall we revive the discussion here again @SunBlack ?

[SunBlack]

Yep, I still have this in mind, as I don't know maybe this could be the reason why some libs are so big under windows.

But in general I'm currently waiting for CMake changes as I think the best order would be:

• Reorder code (e.g. move tools out of module directories into tools directory): Wait for decision in #3837 therefore to prevent unnecessary git rename actions
• Add a macro like PCL_ADD_MODULE so all modules have a better CMake structure as it is currently really ugly with different list for each type

After this cleanup we may start with issues like this, but currently it is to much copy & paste between all CMake files, even we could do it also now without CMake cleanup before.

[stale[bot]]

Marking this as stale due to 30 days of inactivity. It will be closed in 7 days if no further activity occurs.

[stale[bot]]

Marking this as stale due to 30 days of inactivity. It will be closed in 7 days if no further activity occurs.