[Mingw-users] how to build .lib format static libraries?

[Steven G. J. <st...@al...>]

First, thanks to the MinGW team for making a great tool.  I'm using it 
to cross-compile Windows DLLs for our FFTW library (fftw.org/windows), 
and it's a huge help -- no longer do I have to assist third parties to 
build our software using VC++, since I can just use our Makefiles on Linux.

In addition to DLLs, however, I would like to be able to provide 
.lib-format static libraries, and I haven't been able to figure out how 
to do this under MinGW.  MinGW produces static libraries in .a format, 
but this seems to be different from .lib and therefore unusable to VC++ 
users etcetera.

Google etc. hasn't turned up anything, so I'd be grateful for any 
pointers on using MinGW to produce .lib-format libraries.  (Note that 
I'm cross-compiling so I can't use MS tools like lib.exe.)

Thanks!
Steven G. Johnson