BazelCon 2024

It took me a while to understand how cc_shared_library works in Bazel. After fighting the system and having reached every possible error message, I took a deep dive into the underlying logic and discovered how powerful that rule is once you understand its opinionated view on shared libraries and the mindset behind the design of the rule. I was also surprised to discover that it relies on Bazel aspects. To the best of my knowledge it is the only core rule that does so. In this presentation I will convey my insights using diagrams depicting how one should reason about cc_shared_library. This will cover how shared libraries are assembled from cc_libraries, how they interact as dependencies of other cc_* rules, and some interesting aspects of the implementation based on… aspects!