Keep multi-version of a static-lib like what we do for shared-libs

Question

I'm maintaining two branches of two projects:

Projcect LeonLog:
  master(version: 2.0.0)
  producing(version: 1.0.0)

Projcect Octopus:
  master(version: 6.0.0, depending on LeonLog:master)
  producing(version:5.0.0, depending on LeonLog:producing)

The projcect LeonLog yields a static library libLeonLog.a into /usr/local/lib/, and when I building Octopus:master, the version 2.0.0 of libLeonLog.a should be linked against, and when Octopus:producing being built, the v1.0.0 of libLeonLog.a should be used.

So I want to save two versions of libLeonLog.a at same time, and add a symbolic link to current version, like what we do for shared libs(libLeonLog.so links to libLeonLog.so.1.0.0).

My questions:

1. Why is there not any symbolic linking convention for static-libs?

   I think that the requirements like mine are very common, there must be a widely used solution.

2. How do you deal with problems like mine(to keep multiple versions of static-lib)?

3. How to gracefully add symbolic links for static-libs like what we have done for shared-libs with CMake?

I'm trying to do it by myself, like followings:

add_library( leonlog_static STATIC LogToFile.cpp )
set_target_properties( leonlog_static PROPERTIES
    OUTPUT_NAME_RELEASE  LeonLog
    OUTPUT_NAME_DEBUG    LeonLog
    PUBLIC_HEADER        LeonLog.hpp
    VERSION              ${PROJECT_VERSION}
    SUFFIX               ".a.${PROJECT_VERSION}"
)

install( TARGETS leonlog_static
    ARCHIVE DESTINATION ${CMAKE_INSTALL_LIBDIR}
    PUBLIC_HEADER DESTINATION ${CMAKE_INSTALL_INCLUDEDIR}
)

And then, I’m trying to add a symbolic link by running a shell command when installing:

get_target_property( MY_NAME leonlog_static ARCHIVE_OUTPUT_NAME_RELEASE )
message( STATUS "MY_NAME:\"${MY_NAME}\"" )
install( CODE "execute_process(
  COMMAND ln -fs ${MY_NAME}.${PROJECT_VERSION} ${MY_NAME}
  WORKING_DIRECTORY ${CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX}/${CMAKE_INSTALL_LIBDIR} )" )

But I can NOT get the value of PROPERTY ARCHIVE_OUTPUT_NAME_RELEASE, I got a empty string. I have also tried many other properties, but all failed. like this:

get_target_property( MY_NAME leonlog_static LIBRARY_OUTPUT_NAME_RELEASE )
message( STATUS "LIBRARY_OUTPUT_NAME_RELEASE:\"${MY_NAME}\"" )
get_property( MY_NAME TARGET leonlog_static PROPERTY OUTPUT_NAME )
message( STATUS "OUTPUT_NAME:\"${MY_NAME}\"" )

Finally, I have to compose it by myself, like this:

get_target_property( MY_NAME leonlog_static OUTPUT_NAME_RELEASE )
# compose it with adding a prefix, but it's hard coding!
set( MY_NAME "lib${MY_NAME}.a" )
message( STATUS "MY_NAME:\"${MY_NAME}\"" )
install( CODE "execute_process(
  COMMAND ln -fs ${MY_NAME}.${PROJECT_VERSION} ${MY_NAME}
  WORKING_DIRECTORY ${CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX}/${CMAKE_INSTALL_LIBDIR} )" )

I think it is very ugly, and hard to be maintained.

Is there an “Official” way to do this? Sorry for my English!