[bug] `MesonToolchain` -LIBPATH is ignored?

to be honest, I currently don’t understand it conan client issue or even meson issue (I mean meson-build project iself).

migrating Glib to MesonToolchain in https://github.com/conan-io/conan-center-index/pull/11053, I had to put the following workaround:

        ldflags = tc.vars().get("LDFLAGS")
        ldflags = ldflags.replace("-LIBPATH", "/LIBPATH")
        tc.environment.define('LDFLAGS', ldflags)

which appears to be working normally.

so, if I try without a workaround, I get Library gnuintl found: NO (while with old Meson build helper it’s found). digging into the logs I can see (in meson-log.txt):

Command line:  cl /LIBPATH:C:\Users\sse4\.conan\data\zlib\1.2.12\_\_\package\d057732059ea44a47760900cb5e4855d2bea8714\lib /LIBPATH:C:\Users\sse4\.conan\data\libffi\3.4.2\_\_\package\d057732059ea44a47760900cb5e4855d2bea8714\lib /LIBPATH:C:\Users\sse4\.conan\data\pcre\8.45\_\_\package\7a162084f5550c625a8950e9b1175d1474d2fbab\lib /LIBPATH:C:\Users\sse4\.conan\data\libgettext\0.21\_\_\package\e0c22822cdf05b624135e1696ae5cb784a23aeb3\lib /LIBPATH:C:\Users\sse4\.conan\data\bzip2\1.0.8\_\_\package\589a23dff5fdb23a7fb851223eb766480ead0a9a\lib /LIBPATH:C:\Users\sse4\.conan\data\libiconv\1.16\_\_\package\d057732059ea44a47760900cb5e4855d2bea8714\lib -IC:\Users\sse4\.conan\data\zlib\1.2.12\_\_\package\d057732059ea44a47760900cb5e4855d2bea8714\include -IC:\Users\sse4\.conan\data\libffi\3.4.2\_\_\package\d057732059ea44a47760900cb5e4855d2bea8714\include -IC:\Users\sse4\.conan\data\pcre\8.45\_\_\package\7a162084f5550c625a8950e9b1175d1474d2fbab\include -IC:\Users\sse4\.conan\data\libgettext\0.21\_\_\package\e0c22822cdf05b624135e1696ae5cb784a23aeb3\include -IC:\Users\sse4\.conan\data\bzip2\1.0.8\_\_\package\589a23dff5fdb23a7fb851223eb766480ead0a9a\include -IC:\Users\sse4\.conan\data\libiconv\1.16\_\_\package\d057732059ea44a47760900cb5e4855d2bea8714\include C:\.conan\96ccea\1\build_subfolder\meson-private\tmpx47m1x8r\testfile.c /FeC:\.conan\96ccea\1\build_subfolder\meson-private\tmpx47m1x8r\output.exe /nologo /showIncludes /utf-8 /MDd -DFFI_BUILDING -DPCRE_STATIC=1 /nologo /showIncludes /utf-8 /Od /Oi- gnuintl.lib /link /nologo /release /nologo 

Code:
 int main(void) { return 0; }

Compiler stdout:
 testfile.c
LINK : fatal error LNK1181: cannot open input file 'gnuintl.lib'

Compiler stderr:
 cl : Command line warning D9002 : ignoring unknown option '/LIBPATH:C:\Users\sse4\.conan\data\zlib\1.2.12\_\_\package\d057732059ea44a47760900cb5e4855d2bea8714\lib'
cl : Command line warning D9002 : ignoring unknown option '/LIBPATH:C:\Users\sse4\.conan\data\libffi\3.4.2\_\_\package\d057732059ea44a47760900cb5e4855d2bea8714\lib'
cl : Command line warning D9002 : ignoring unknown option '/LIBPATH:C:\Users\sse4\.conan\data\pcre\8.45\_\_\package\7a162084f5550c625a8950e9b1175d1474d2fbab\lib'
cl : Command line warning D9002 : ignoring unknown option '/LIBPATH:C:\Users\sse4\.conan\data\libgettext\0.21\_\_\package\e0c22822cdf05b624135e1696ae5cb784a23aeb3\lib'
cl : Command line warning D9002 : ignoring unknown option '/LIBPATH:C:\Users\sse4\.conan\data\bzip2\1.0.8\_\_\package\589a23dff5fdb23a7fb851223eb766480ead0a9a\lib'
cl : Command line warning D9002 : ignoring unknown option '/LIBPATH:C:\Users\sse4\.conan\data\libiconv\1.16\_\_\package\d057732059ea44a47760900cb5e4855d2bea8714\lib'

we can see -LIBPATH arguments are passed into command line, but in a wrong order (they have to be passed at the end, after the /link):

The /link option and its linker options must appear after any file names and CL options.

that’s probably due to how meson inserts link_args into the command line. in the toolchain (conan_meson_native.ini) I see linking flags are set:

c_link_args = ['-LIBPATH:C:\Users\sse4\.conan\data\zlib\1.2.12\_\_\package\d057732059ea44a47760900cb5e4855d2bea8714\lib', '-LIBPATH:C:\Users\sse4\.conan\data\libffi\3.4.2\_\_\package\d057732059ea44a47760900cb5e4855d2bea8714\lib', '-LIBPATH:C:\Users\sse4\.conan\data\pcre\8.45\_\_\package\7a162084f5550c625a8950e9b1175d1474d2fbab\lib', '-LIBPATH:C:\Users\sse4\.conan\data\libgettext\0.21\_\_\package\e0c22822cdf05b624135e1696ae5cb784a23aeb3\lib', '-LIBPATH:C:\Users\sse4\.conan\data\bzip2\1.0.8\_\_\package\589a23dff5fdb23a7fb851223eb766480ead0a9a\lib', '-LIBPATH:C:\Users\sse4\.conan\data\libiconv\1.16\_\_\package\d057732059ea44a47760900cb5e4855d2bea8714\lib']
cpp_link_args = ['-LIBPATH:C:\Users\sse4\.conan\data\zlib\1.2.12\_\_\package\d057732059ea44a47760900cb5e4855d2bea8714\lib', '-LIBPATH:C:\Users\sse4\.conan\data\libffi\3.4.2\_\_\package\d057732059ea44a47760900cb5e4855d2bea8714\lib', '-LIBPATH:C:\Users\sse4\.conan\data\pcre\8.45\_\_\package\7a162084f5550c625a8950e9b1175d1474d2fbab\lib', '-LIBPATH:C:\Users\sse4\.conan\data\libgettext\0.21\_\_\package\e0c22822cdf05b624135e1696ae5cb784a23aeb3\lib', '-LIBPATH:C:\Users\sse4\.conan\data\bzip2\1.0.8\_\_\package\589a23dff5fdb23a7fb851223eb766480ead0a9a\lib', '-LIBPATH:C:\Users\sse4\.conan\data\libiconv\1.16\_\_\package\d057732059ea44a47760900cb5e4855d2bea8714\lib']

I’ve tried to manually insert the /link at the beginning of c_link_args/cpp_link_args, but it didn’t help. the only thing that reliably fixed it was replacing -LIBPATH with /LIBPATH, now it gets the correct command line and libintl is found:

Command line:  cl -IC:\Users\sse4\.conan\data\zlib\1.2.12\_\_\package\d057732059ea44a47760900cb5e4855d2bea8714\include -IC:\Users\sse4\.conan\data\libffi\3.4.2\_\_\package\d057732059ea44a47760900cb5e4855d2bea8714\include -IC:\Users\sse4\.conan\data\pcre\8.45\_\_\package\7a162084f5550c625a8950e9b1175d1474d2fbab\include -IC:\Users\sse4\.conan\data\libgettext\0.21\_\_\package\e0c22822cdf05b624135e1696ae5cb784a23aeb3\include -IC:\Users\sse4\.conan\data\bzip2\1.0.8\_\_\package\589a23dff5fdb23a7fb851223eb766480ead0a9a\include -IC:\Users\sse4\.conan\data\libiconv\1.16\_\_\package\d057732059ea44a47760900cb5e4855d2bea8714\include C:\.conan\96ccea\1\build_subfolder\meson-private\tmpclicrq26\testfile.c /FeC:\.conan\96ccea\1\build_subfolder\meson-private\tmpclicrq26\output.exe /nologo /showIncludes /utf-8 /MDd -DFFI_BUILDING -DPCRE_STATIC=1 /nologo /showIncludes /utf-8 /Od /Oi- gnuintl.lib /link /nologo /release /nologo /LIBPATH:C:\Users\sse4\.conan\data\zlib\1.2.12\_\_\package\d057732059ea44a47760900cb5e4855d2bea8714\lib /LIBPATH:C:\Users\sse4\.conan\data\libffi\3.4.2\_\_\package\d057732059ea44a47760900cb5e4855d2bea8714\lib /LIBPATH:C:\Users\sse4\.conan\data\pcre\8.45\_\_\package\7a162084f5550c625a8950e9b1175d1474d2fbab\lib /LIBPATH:C:\Users\sse4\.conan\data\libgettext\0.21\_\_\package\e0c22822cdf05b624135e1696ae5cb784a23aeb3\lib /LIBPATH:C:\Users\sse4\.conan\data\bzip2\1.0.8\_\_\package\589a23dff5fdb23a7fb851223eb766480ead0a9a\lib /LIBPATH:C:\Users\sse4\.conan\data\libiconv\1.16\_\_\package\d057732059ea44a47760900cb5e4855d2bea8714\lib 

Code:
 int main(void) { return 0; }

Compiler stdout:
 testfile.c

Compiler stderr:
 
Library gnuintl found: YES

/cc @ericLemanissier

Environment Details (include every applicable attribute)

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• Compiler+version:
• Conan version:
• Python version:

Steps to reproduce (Include if Applicable)

Logs (Executed commands with output) (Include/Attach if Applicable)

[ericLemanissier]

I got to the same conclusion some time ago, hence my old PR https://github.com/mesonbuild/meson/pull/6735, but I don’t think I reported the issue

[SSE4]

okay, we need to report an issue to meson itself. it means no Windows builds with MesonToolchain for some time, unless I find out how to make a workaround. /cc @ericLemanissier