[en4bz]

The logic is backwards though. I may have multiple consumers of a library some of which may want static some of which may want dynamic. You need to create/import new targets to do this even though the original target creates both static and dynamic libs by default.

[emidln]

This is just false. Bazel creates both static and dynamic libs by default for every cc_library. The default is to link static, but you can control this on a per-binary basis. You don't need parallel trees of targets or even to write custom rules to access the non-default output groups that contain the shared library. This all just works out of the box.

[emidln]

> You're assuming you have control over all the deps and can set `linkstatic` on them.

In bazel you have complete control over all of your deps. Ultimate power and ultimate responsibility. Even an external BUILD.bazel can be patched when you bring it in (bazel has provisions for patching stuff from http_archive if you supply a patch). You can even ignore an existing BUILD.bazel and write your own if you only care about part of an external thing. If it's a target in your graph, you can certainly modify it. If there is some internal process that prevents you from modifying your own code, I can't help you. Maybe fix that or go somewhere that gives you the authority to do your job.

[en4bz]

> bazel has provisions for patching stuff from http_archive if you supply a patch

That's a hack.

[en4bz]

You're assuming you have control over all the deps and can set `linkstatic` on them.