I've got a 3d party static library built with some older version of MSVC, and I successfully link it to my application in MSVC10 (VisualStudio2010). Now I upgraded to MSVC11, and I'm unable to link it:
2>LINK : fatal error C1047: The object or library file 'MyLib.lib' was
created with an older compiler than other objects; rebuild old objects
and libraries
I guess this happens because the lib was compiled with /GL option, so the object files don't really contain COFF, but some intermediate format.
I don't have the library source-code to re-compile, and I don't want to make a dll out of it to link dynamically.
Is there a way - maybe some undocumented trick - to "re-compile" these obj's to COFF and eventually link them to MSVC11 application?
Even if this was possible, you don't want to do this: linking object files that are built against different versions of the CRT usually ends in tears. More specifically, if two such object files both use the C++ Standard Library, it is all but certain that you will violate the One Definition Rule (ODR).
If you cannot rebuild the module using Visual C++ 2012, then you should encapsulate it within a dynamic library, built with Visual C++ 2010, and avoid using any C++ Standard Library types in the interface of that DLL.
Related
I have some DLLs that I want to use in a FORTRAN Project in VISUAL STUDIO but I can't find how.
Here is a simple code I'm using to find out how.
Using visual studio I created a DLL from this
subroutine printing
!DEC$ ATTRIBUTES DLLEXPORT::printing
print*,"dll naimi created"
end subroutine printing
I added the link of the DLL to project>properties>Linker>General>Additional Library directories
Main program:
program Console11
implicit none
call printing
end program Console11
ERROR : Error 1 error LNK2019: unresolved external symbol _PRINTING referenced in function _MAIN__.
other solutions related to this suggest using the .lib created while generating the DLL, but in my real case I only have the DLLs without their .lib.
So how to use a DLL ... ?
You appear to be trying to use a DLL as an input file to the linker.
(You also appear to be trying to specify a file for a linker option that takes a directory. To specify an additional input file for the linker, either add the file to the project just like you would attach a source file, or use the "Linker > Input > Additional dependencies" project property. The property you mention in your post then tells the linker where (which directories) to search for those additional dependencies.)
Unlike the unix convention, you do not link against DLLs when building executables and other DLLs on Windows. The DLL typically does not contain the necessary information for the linker - instead that information is contained in an import library (which is just a variation of a typical .lib static library) or equivalent.
If you were able to successfully build a DLL, then you will probably find the import library for that DLL in the same directory as the DLL. Supply that import library as an additional dependency for projects that require the DLL.
When you link an EXE or other DLL using an import library on Windows, the target DLL is automatically loaded by the operating system when your executable code is loaded. This is called load time dynamic linking.
If you do not have the import library for a DLL, then your choices are:
Ask the person who built the DLL for the import library.
Reference the DLL using run time dynamic linking, rather than load time. This means that you use the Windows API functions LoadLibrary, GetProcAddress and friends in your program to explicitly tell the operating system to load a particular DLL and to obtain the address of a function pointer. If you are using Intel Fortran, then complete examples of this are installed with the compiler - see in the file "C:\Program Files (x86)\IntelSWTools\samples_2016\en\compiler_f\psxe\DLL.zip" or similar.
Generate an import library from the minimum information in the DLL, plus other information about the DLL that you may have. One approach to this is to write a module definition file (.def) for the DLL, and then use the LIB utility to turn that def file into an import library. See How to make a .lib file when have a .dll file and a header file for an example.
My visual studio project uses the dll ftcspi.dll to talk over usb/spi to the device.
I want to not to have to use the dll but to use the .lib file instead.
So in the settings I have FTCSPI.lib added to ProjectSettings->Link->Input.
I have changed the ProjectSettings->Link->General->additionLibraryDirectories t have the location of ftcspi.lib in it.
The exe still doesn't work without having the FTCSPI.dll present.
If the project (FTCSPI) is set to compile as a dynamic library, then the .lib you see there is just a file to help the compiler link to that dynamic library (dll).
You would need to compile FTCSPI as a static library to achieve what I think you want to achieve.
Configuration Properties -> General -> Configuration type.
My solution contains several c# projects.
It's easy to add "refernce" from one project to another(References-Add Reference-Project). After that I can use classes from referenced project.
How can I do the same for native c++ projects? What kind of projects should I create? Console application/DLL/Static library?
There are two things in C / C++ :
Headers file, that will tell your program what they can use (e.g. class, function prototype declaration)
Implementation, either as a
source code that you recompile with your program
static lib (.lib on windows)
dynamic lib (.dll on windows)
You need both to compile your program with parts from another project.
If you only need a class from a big library and you have the source of this library it may be easier to reference the file corresponding to this class (and its dependencies of course). But if you need more, you should add the other project's directory to the include path of your current project in VCC, and link against the library (either static or dynamic, according to your needs).
I'm trying to build my application with MSVC 2010 instead of GCC. With GCC everything works fine. My app uses boost_system and boost_thread libraries.
I built boost with VC2010 in "system" layout, that means the libraries are named just libboost_system.lib (and not libboost_system_compiler_threading_version_wtf_snafu.lib)
The libs reside in C:\Boost\lib,
the Makefile specifies
LFLAGS = /NOLOGO /INCREMENTAL:NO /SUBSYSTEM:CONSOLE
LIBS = /LIBPATH:C:/Boost/lib libboost_system.lib libboost_thread.lib Ws2_32.lib
when invoking nmake it compiles, but when trying to link it quits with
LINK : fatal error LNK1104: cannot open file 'libboost_date_time-vc100-mt-1_43.lib
I mean seriously, WTF? I told it to link libboost_systen.lib and libboost_thread.lib how come it tries to link libboost_data_time and why does it assume I built the libs in "tagged" layout??
How can I stop MSVC trying to be smart and guess what I might have wanted to link?
Thanks,
Philipp
This is a feature of the Boost libs with compatible compilers for automatic linking.
(Those convoluted library names cover the myriad of threading and linking options that are available on the platform; there are good reasons to use that convention on Windows...)
More information here:
http://www.boost.org/doc/libs/1_33_1/more/getting_started.html#auto-link
I can't find a page for a more recent version, but I believe the BOOST_ALL_NO_LIB and related options are all still valid in 1.43.
Assuming you are auto-linking (i.e. you've defined BOOST_ALL_DYN_LINK or library specific equivalents).
For layout 'system' you have to define the preprocessor macro:
BOOST_AUTO_LINK_NOMANGLE
to link to the correct library names.
For layout 'tagged' you have to define the preprocessor macro:
BOOST_AUTO_LINK_TAGGED
to link to the correct library names.
I don't know if you could do this override for some libraries and keep the default for others. That would be a very cumbersome setup I'd imagine.
I don't know if it's possible to do this, but I would like the /NODEFAULTLIB to be applied to a static library project.
I have many application projects (A.exe, B.dll, C.dll) that use a common static library D.lib.
This library has a lot of code and also has other .lib dependencies as well. One of them is the openssl library, which seems to have been built for win32 against the Release version of the CRT (i don't have the original project/sources).
So far, to avoid the mixing of the Release/Debug versions of CRT, I have to put the /NODEFAULTLIB:msvcrt.lib linker directive in all leaf projects (A.exe, B.dll). This works but I think it's not the ideal way of dealing with that issue.
I tried to put this property in D.lib project, but it has no effect.
Is there a way to force msvc++ to ignore the msvcrt.lib dependency from the 3rd party library?
A .lib does not have any linker settings because you don't link it, you link to it. A .lib is just an archive of .obj files, sort of like an uncompressed .zip file - that's why you have to put the setting on all projects that link to it.
If you're using VS2005+ you could use property sheets so that you only have to put the setting in one place and then use that property sheet in all projects.
However, OpenSSL is just that - Open Source, so you should be able to get the source for the version you are using and build it again (and add it to your version control system of course). I thought OpenSSL could be built as a DLL or LIB, which would solve your problem as the DLL would not interfere with the linking of your code.
Failing that, you always have the option of slitting your functionality out into a separate DLL so that you only have issues with one project.
To prevent your distributed static link library from depending on a specific MSVC runtime library you need to set this compiler option (in Visual Studio 2010 it looks like):
Configuration Properties -> C/C++ -> Advanced -> Omit Default Library Name = Yes (/ZI)
Now your users can link to your release built static lib from their debug build and not try to link to the incorrect runtime library causing problems, as well as linkers warnings.
Note that may cause link errors if your library actually depends on a specific runtime library or its behavior, and compatible components are not provided in some other way.
My understanding is that if library LIB in linked statically into a DLL, the DLL contains already all relevant code from LIB. Therefore, this coupling cannot be removed. This is just based on my understanding of statical linking, not on experiments.