- /* Try "libfoo.dll" (preferred dll name) */
- sprintf (string, "%s/lib%s.dll", search->name, filename);
+/*
+ Try libfoo.a next. Normally, this would be interpreted as a static
+ library, but it *could* be an import library. For backwards compatibility,
+ libfoo.a needs to ==precede== libfoo.dll and foo.dll in the search,
+ or sometimes errors occur when building legacy packages.
+
+ Putting libfoo.a here means that in a failure case (i.e. the library
+ -lfoo is not found) we will search for libfoo.a twice before
+ giving up -- once here, and once when searching for a "static" lib.
+ for a "static" lib.
+*/
+ /* Try "libfoo.a" (import lib, or static lib, but must
+ take precedence over dll's) */
+ sprintf (string, "%s/lib%s.a", search->name, filename);