title: Visual Studio cannot load symbols from a static library used on a module of the main application
body: <p>I have a static library L used in a module M (a static library too) and the module is linked against the main application A. If I debug the main application A, I can't step into the code or see symbols of the library L because Visual Studio doesn't load its symbols. (I am using VS 2013)</p>
  
  <p>The library L is built on another machine, with a local path like D:\thirdparty\L\... and I can debug fine on this machine, see the symbols and step into the code, but not on a machine getting this library separately.
  The library has to be built on a separate machine.</p>
  
  <p>What I have tried (without success):</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li>putting the L.pdb next the A.exe</li>
  <li>adding a symbol path in Visual Studio to a folder containing the .pdb</li>
  <li>uploading the .pdb to a symbol server (which works for other libraries)</li>
  <li>adding the directory to the "Library Directories" in the project options </li>
  <li>Removing the symbol path in the final exe using PDBALTPATH, but that doesn't apply to static libraries.</li>
  </ul>
  
  <p>The only things that worked are:</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li>linking L.lib directly to the main application, but that's not a solution as A shouldn't have to know about libraries used in the module M</li>
  <li>put the .pdb into a local folder using the exact same path as the original machine, i.e. D:\thirdparty\L\... This is obviously not a solution but shows that Visual Studio can load the symbols using the hard coded path in the PDB.</li>
  </ul>
  
  <p>It looks like there is something wrong with using a static library inside an other one, or maybe it's a VS bug.</p>
  
  <p>Has anyone encountered something like this and know how to solve it?</p>
  
  <p>Cheers</p>