Linking in Geko

When searching for dependencies that will link to a target, geko uses the link type to build a list.

The following dependencies are used for linking:

• Direct dynamic dependencies
• Direct and transitive static dependencies that do not link to dynamic dependencies

For example, let's take a target with tests named UnitTests. The algorithm for building a list of dependencies for linking is as follows:

• Search for all transitive dependencies of the UnitTests target
• Remove from this list all static dependencies that are included transitively through dynamic dependencies. For example, let's take the following chain: UnitTests -> DynamicFramework -> StaticFramework. Only DynamicFramework will be linked in UnitTests, since otherwise StaticFramework will be duplicated. - Remove all transitive dynamic dependencies that are not directly linked from the link list. For example, for the chain UnitTests -> DynamicFramework1 -> DynamicFramework2, UnitTests will only be linked to DynamicFramework1, since DynamicFramework2 is a transitive dynamic dependency.
• Remove all transitive static apphost dependencies from the link list. That is, if a test target has an apphost, then all static dependencies that link to apphost will be removed from the test target's link list.