[Bug]: Linker error with boost.program_options and boost.uuid on Windows

[Vertexwahn]

What happened?

Minimal Demo to reproduce linker errors:

cli.cpp:

#include "boost/uuid/uuid.hpp"
#include "boost/uuid/uuid_generators.hpp"
#include "boost/uuid/uuid_io.hpp"

int main() {
    boost::uuids::random_generator gen;
    boost::uuids::uuid id = gen();

    return 0;
}

BUILD.bazel:

cc_binary(
    name = "cli",
    srcs = ["cli.cpp"],
    deps = [
        "@boost.program_options//:boost.program_options",
        "@boost.uuid//:boost.uuid",
    ],
)

MODULE.bazel:

bazel_dep(name = "boost.uuid", version = "1.83.0.bcr.1")
bazel_dep(name = "boost.program_options", version = "1.83.0.bcr.1")

.bazelversion:

7.4.1

Build on Windows via bazel build //... gives:

ERROR: C:/dev/BUILD.bazel:1:10: Linking cli.exe failed: (Exit 1120): link.exe failed: error executing CppLink command (from target //:cli) C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\2022\Community\VC\Tools\MSVC\14.42.34433\bin\HostX64\x64\link.exe @bazel-out/x64_windows-fastbuild/bin/cli.exe-2.params
cli.obj : error LNK2019: unresolved external symbol BCryptCloseAlgorithmProvider referenced in function "private: void __cdecl boost::uuids::detail::random_provider_base::destroy(void)" (?destroy@random_provider_base@detail@uuids@boost@@AEAAXXZ)   
cli.obj : error LNK2019: unresolved external symbol BCryptGenRandom referenced in function "public: void __cdecl boost::uuids::detail::random_provider_base::get_random_bytes(void *,unsigned __int64)" (?get_random_bytes@random_provider_base@detail@uuids@boost@@QEAAXPEAX_K@Z)
cli.obj : error LNK2019: unresolved external symbol BCryptOpenAlgorithmProvider referenced in function "public: __cdecl boost::uuids::detail::random_provider_base::random_provider_base(void)" (??0random_provider_base@detail@uuids@boost@@QEAA@XZ)   
bazel-out\x64_windows-fastbuild\bin\cli.exe : fatal error LNK1120: 3 unresolved externals
Target //:cli failed to build                                                                                               
Use --verbose_failures to see the command lines of failed build steps.   

Adding

    linkopts = select({
        "@platforms//os:windows": ["-defaultlib:bcrypt.lib"],
        "//conditions:default": [],
    }),

to boost.uuid resolves the linker error - but that seems not to be the root cause, since removing the "@boost.program_options//:boost.program_options", dependencies solves the issue... (see #3278)

Maybe defines = ["BOOST_ALL_NO_LIB"], is the root cause here

Version

Development (host) and target OS/architectures:
Windows 10 x64

Output of bazel --version:
bazel 7.4.1

Version of relevant rules from the WORKSPACE or MODULE.bazel file:

Language(s) and/or frameworks involved:
C++20, Boost 1.83.0

How to reproduce

see abouve

Any other information?

No response

[Vertexwahn]

@wep21 Maybe you have an idea...

[Vertexwahn]

@wep21

If I change the program cli.cpp to:

#undef BOOST_ALL_NO_LIB  // with this extension no compile error happens

#include "boost/uuid/uuid.hpp"
#include "boost/uuid/uuid_generators.hpp"
#include "boost/uuid/uuid_io.hpp"

int main() {
    boost::uuids::random_generator gen;
    boost::uuids::uuid id = gen();

    return 0;
}