I’m using an Xcode 15 based toolchain to build a C++ project, which links against the Intel IPP library if built for x86_64. Since switching to Xcode 15 which comes with the “New Apple Linker” I get a lot of linker warnings like

ld: warning: no platform load command found in '/Path/To/libippvm.a[x86_64][4773](vml_impl_dCtanhScalar_EXHAynn.o)', assuming: macOS

What I get here is that the object files contained in the static Intel IPP library obviously don’t specify some “platform load command”. I’ve had a hard time finding any in depth information on what that “platform load command” is.

State of my own research so far

Inspecting the library with

otool -hvl -arch all /Path/To/libippvm.a

outputs something like this for every contained object

/Path/To/libippvm.a(vml_impl_dCtanhScalar_EXHAynn.o) (architecture x86_64):
Mach header
      magic  cputype cpusubtype  caps    filetype ncmds sizeofcmds      flags
MH_MAGIC_64   X86_64        ALL  0x00      OBJECT     3        496 SUBSECTIONS_VIA_SYMBOLS
Load command 0
      cmd LC_SEGMENT_64
  cmdsize 392
  segname 
   vmaddr 0x0000000000000000
   vmsize 0x00000000000006b8
  fileoff 528
 filesize 1720
  maxprot rwx
 initprot rwx
   nsects 4
    flags (none)
Section
  sectname __text
   segname __TEXT
      addr 0x0000000000000000
      size 0x00000000000005e0
    offset 528
     align 2^5 (32)
    reloff 2248
    nreloc 24
      type S_REGULAR
attributes PURE_INSTRUCTIONS SOME_INSTRUCTIONS
 reserved1 0
 reserved2 0
Section
  sectname __const
   segname __TEXT
      addr 0x00000000000005e0
      size 0x0000000000000040
    offset 2032
     align 2^4 (16)
    reloff 0
    nreloc 0
      type S_REGULAR
attributes (none)
 reserved1 0
 reserved2 0
Section
  sectname __compact_unwind
   segname __LD
      addr 0x0000000000000620
      size 0x0000000000000020
    offset 2096
     align 2^3 (8)
    reloff 2440
    nreloc 1
      type S_REGULAR
attributes DEBUG
 reserved1 0
 reserved2 0
Section
  sectname __eh_frame
   segname __TEXT
      addr 0x0000000000000640
      size 0x0000000000000078
    offset 2128
     align 2^0 (1)
    reloff 2448
    nreloc 2
      type S_COALESCED
attributes NO_TOC STRIP_STATIC_SYMS LIVE_SUPPORT
 reserved1 0
 reserved2 0
Load command 1
            cmd LC_DYSYMTAB
        cmdsize 80
      ilocalsym 0
      nlocalsym 5
     iextdefsym 5
     nextdefsym 2
      iundefsym 7
      nundefsym 4
         tocoff 0
           ntoc 0
      modtaboff 0
        nmodtab 0
   extrefsymoff 0
    nextrefsyms 0
 indirectsymoff 2464
  nindirectsyms 0
      extreloff 0
        nextrel 0
      locreloff 0
        nlocrel 0
Load command 2
     cmd LC_SYMTAB
 cmdsize 24
  symoff 2464
   nsyms 11
  stroff 2640
 strsize 204

So I see some mention of the term load command there, but indeed no obvious reference to “macOS” which the linker seems to miss and therefore has to guess.

I inspected an locally built object file for some dummy library and when inspecting it the same way, it contains

Load command 1
      cmd LC_BUILD_VERSION
  cmdsize 24
 platform MACOS
    minos 11.0
      sdk 11.0
   ntools 0
Load command 2
     cmd LC_SYMTAB
 cmdsize 24
  symoff 440
   nsyms 3
  stroff 488
 strsize 20

So indeed, there seems to be another LC_BUILD_VERSION load command section specifying platform MACOS for that object file which the Intel library does not have.

What I’m looking for

1. Good resources that explain the meaning of those load commands and how they work so that I’m able to really understand the meaning of the warning message.
2. At best a way to fix the existing Intel library. Given that I know that the library is built for macOS, is there any way to add according LC_BUILD_VERSION load commands that specify the platform to the existing library?

I know that a lot of resources on the internet simply suggest to use the old linker to work around the warnings, but I’d really like to make it work warning free with the new linker.