Amalgamated build: Do some of the configure options apply?

[nata11]

Hello,
This question is related to my own question #5110 and another related question #4902 . I have successfully been able to create the amalgamation files botan_all.h and .cpp for different platforms and hardware: x86_64 Linux, Windows and MacOS and arm64 Linux and Mac and I have CMake decide which botan amalgamated files to include based on what it finds when the build happens for my custom app. I am building a static botan library first before linking that to my targets. Here is my configure command for the Linux and Windows (on Linux and/or Mac I am using a combination of Clang 18.1 and GCC 15.2 (Linux only) and Windows it is MSVC++). Everything works, builds and runs. Using Botan 3.10 source. It is a research project and I hope to release it as public repo soon and highlight how Botan has made it super easy to architect the app. Configure commands:

Linux:
./configure.py --with-build-dir=build-minimal-amalg --disable-deprecated-features --with-debug-info --no-optimizations --debug-mode --minimized-build --amalgamation --cpu=x86_64 --cc=clang --cc-bin=/usr/bin/clang++-18 --cxxflags="-stdlib=libc++ -I/usr/lib/llvm-18/include/c++/v1" --ldflags="-stdlib=libc++ -L/usr/lib/llvm-18/lib -Wl,-rpath,/usr/lib/llvm-18/lib -lc++ -lc++abi" --enable-modules=ml_kem,x25519,x448,chacha20poly1305,aes,gcm,sha2_32,sha2_64,blake2,blake2s,system_rng,hex,hkdf --disable-shared

Windows:
python ./configure.py --with-build-dir=build-minimal-amalg --disable-deprecated-features --with-debug-info --no-optimizations --debug-mode --minimized-build --amalgamation --cpu=x86_64 --enable-modules=ml_kem,x25519,x448,chacha20poly1305,aes,gcm,sha2_32,sha2_64,blake2,blake2s,system_rng,hex,hkdf --disable-shared --cc=msvc --cc-bin="C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\2022\Community\VC\Tools\MSVC\14.44.35207\bin\Hostx64\x64\cl.exe"

Two questions:

1. In amalgamated build where my cmake will build the botan static library, do the following configure.py setting matter at all?

--with-debug-info --no-optimizations --debug-mode

I am assuming they may not since I am compiling the botan_all.h and cpp into my own static library. Or will those settings depend on whether I am compiling a Debug version or a Release version and what optimizations I am setting in my Cmake build. If I am wrong, please let me know so that I can regenerate the botan files for release without those settings.

2. If I do not include "--disable-shared", I get a warning that this is an Amalgamated build request and hence that option should be turned on. Why is that? Why can I not create a shared library that can be dynamically loaded by the app as needed to keep the final binary size small? This is more of a curiosity question.

This is my first foray into crypto and C++ programming, if I have this wrong, please let me know.

Thanks
Nadeem