#2: To be fair it is reasonably easy to make a cc_static_library_binary-ish rule which merges all transitive .a-s (just generate an ar script and call archiver)

#2: To be fair it is reasonably easy to make a cc_static_library_binary-ish rule which merges all transitive .a-s (just generate an ar script and call archiver). But I have to admit that I spent non-trivial time on maintaining our "CROSSTOOL in skylark" (forgot the term) for 20+ target platforms before and it helped a lot on understanding the (still incomplete) C++ sandwich.