A lib file name typically ends with .a or .lib. A .a suffix lib is a static lib but a .lib suffix lib is either a static lib or an import lib of a dynamic library. How to check if a .lib library is static or dynamic?
Use the lib tool which is accompanied by Visual Studio. Open a command prompt for Visual Studio and run:
lib /list yourlibfile.lib
If it outputs a list of .o files(object files), you can know yourlibfile.lib is a static lib. If it outputs a list of .dll files, you can tell yourlibfile.lib is a dynamic lib.
dumpbin -all yourlibfile.lib > yourlibfile.txt
findstr “Archive member name” yourlibfile.txt
If it shows .dll files, yourlibfile.lib is a dynamic lib. If it shows .o files, yourlibfile.lib is a static lib.