CMake- Difficulties building static library - dll

So I have been trying to build libarchive for a couple of days now, following this guide and many other threads: https://github.com/libarchive/libarchive/wiki/BuildInstructions
I want a static library with LZMA, zlib and bzip2 support. I got static versions of these too (lib's)
I just cant get it to work properly. Ive used CMAKE to generate the make files for VS2010 and NMAKE. With both of these options the thing compiles just fine, but when i try to use the archive_static.lib generated, in my project I get plenty of unresolved externals. Compiling the .dll version of the library works without unresolved externals, but then it starts asking for zlib.dll, bzip2.dll etc, which i dont have and dont want to use.
I think i need to set some flags with cmake, but im not sure how to do that.
Any help is greatly appreciated.
http://www.libarchive.org/

I can't be sure if that's what happening here, but please bear in mind, that when linking binaries into a static library, its external dependencies do not necessarily get embedded into it, that means you might need to provide thet static libraries on which your program indirectly depends through libarchive, namely LZMA, zlib and bzip2 in your case, explicitly.
Furthermore there's some confusion on windows when it comes to linking static vs dynamic, for in both cases you provide a .lib file, so it is very easy to mix things up and provide the dynamicaly linked .lib, instead of the static version. If you do that, the linker may refuse to link your program (that notably happens with boost), or may link just fine and then, at the time of execution, the OS will require the respective .dll's.

Related

When I should use find_package

I am learning CMake, and I feel hard to understand when I should use find_package.
For separate compilation, we need to let the compiler knows where to find the header file, and this could be done by target_include_directories. For linking, we need to let the linker knows where the implementation is, and this could be done by target_link_libraries. It seems like that is all we need to do to compile a project. Could anyone explain why and when we should use find_package?
If a package you intend allows for the use of find_package, you should use it. If a package comes with a working configuration script, it'll encourage you to use the library the way it's intended to be used likely come with a simple way to add include directories and dependencies required.
When is it possible to use find_package?
There needs to be either a configuration script (<PackageName>Config.cmake or packagename-config.cmake) that gets installed with the package or find script (Find<PackageName>.cmake). The latter one in some cases even comes with the cmake installation instead of the package installed, see CMake find modules.
Should you create missing scripts yourself?
There are several benefits in creating a package configuration script yourself, even if a package doesn't come with a existing configuration or find script:
The scripts separate the information about libraries from the logic used to create your own target. The use of the 2 commands find_package and target_link_libraries is concise and any logic you may need to collect and apply information like dependencies, include directories, minimal versions of the C++ standard to use, ect. would probably take up much more space in your CMakeLists.txt files thus making it harder to understand.
If makes library used easy to replace. Basically all it takes to go with a different version of the same package would be to modify CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH, CMAKE_MODULE_PATH or package-specific <PackageName>_ROOT variables. If you ever want to try out different versions of the same library, this is incredibly useful.
The logic is reuseable. If you need to use the same functionality in a different project, it takes little effort to reuse the same logic. Even if a library is only used within a single project, but in multiple places, the use of find_package can help keeping the logic for "importing" a lib close to its use (see also the first bullet point).
There can be multiple versions of the same library with automatic selection of applicable ones. Note that this requires the use of a version file, but this file allows you to specify, if a version of the package is suitable for the current project. This allows for the checking the target architecture, ect. This is helpful when cross compiling or when providing both 32 and 64 bit versions of a library on Windows: If a version file indicates a mismatch the search for a suitable version simply continues with different paths instead of failing fatally when considering the first mismatch.
You will probably find CMake's guide on using dependencies helpful. It describes find_package and alternatives, and when each one is relevant / useful. Here's an excerpt from the section on find_package (italics added):
A package needed by the project may already be built and available at some location on the user's system. That package might have also been built by CMake, or it could have used a different build system entirely. It might even just be a collection of files that didn't need to be built at all. CMake provides the find_package() command for these scenarios. It searches well-known locations, along with additional hints and paths provided by the project or user. It also supports package components and packages being optional. Result variables are provided to allow the project to customize its own behavior according to whether the package or specific components were found.
find_package requires that the package provide CMake support in the form of specific files that describe the package's contents to CMake. Some library authors provide this support (the most desirable scenario for you, the package consumer), some don't but are prominent enough that CMake itself comes with such files for those packages, or in the worst case, there is no CMake support at all, in which case you can either do something to get the either of the previous good outcomes, or perform some kludges to get the job done (ie. define the targets yourself in your project's CMake config).

How to use ZeroBrane Studio IDE debugger when lua is compiled as c++

I have compiled Lua 5.3 as a 32 bit c++ DLL and exe. The DLL contains all the lua code except for lua.cpp and luac.cpp. The exe compiles lua.cpp and uses the DLL to run the lua interpreter. This works fine when running on its own from the command line. I wish to be able to run from the IDE using this DLL and exe.
If I replace /ZeroBraneStudio/bin/lua53.dll and lua53.exe with my own versions, I can run scripts (clicking the two green arrows). However, debugging does not work, giving the following error:
The procedure entry point luaL_addlstring could not be located in the dynamic link library lua53.dll.
I can see that this is happening because the debugger is making use of luasocket. \ZeroBraneStudio\bin\clibs53\socket\core.dll is dependent on lua53.dll, and is expecting it to contain lua compiled as c.
So, what is the correct solution to this - is it to compile luasocket as c++ as well?
(And, if so, does anybody have instructions/guidance for doing so? I have been unable to find anything on this.)
Thanks.
I'm not sure how exactly the DLL was compiled, but the error message likely indicates that the luaL_addlstring and other functions are not exported by it. If the symbols are exported correctly, you should be able to load luasocket and get the debugging working. See this thread for the related discussion.
Also, you don't need to replace lua53 library and executable, as you can configure the IDE to use your own copy of it using path.lua53 configuration setting as described in the documentation.
Okay, I was able to get it working. The solution was to compile luasocket as c++. I won't give full instructions on how to do this here, but some points to hopefully help anybody else with the same issue:
Got luasocket from here: https://github.com/diegonehab/luasocket
Renamed all *.c files to *.cpp
Renamed Lua52.props to Lua.props (I am using lua 5.3 but seems like it is compatible?)
Placed lua headers and lib in appropriate folders
Opened solution in Visual Studio 2012
Fixed up minor issues with project files, like the renaming of the files.
Added 'extern "C"' to declaration of luaopen_socket_core and luaopen_mime_core functions (necessary for lua to be able to load libraries).
Built solution
Copied new dlls into clibs53/socket and clibs53/mime folders.
I used Dependency Walker to help with this. If anybody wants further details in the future please leave a comment.

MinGW-w64's ar.exe can't find libraries when trying to build a static library

I've now been trying to get MinGW-w64 to work on my system for several days, mainly because it has a more recent GCC version, but I either set things up wrong or there's some strange problem with MinGW-w64 itself.
I've now downloaded i686-w64-mingw32-gcc-4.7.2-release-win32_rubenvb, unpacked it to C:/Dev/mingw-ruben and added the path C:/Dev/mingw-ruben/bin to the $PATH environment variable.
What I'm trying to build is SFML 2 which comes with a CMake file. Running CMake will work just fine, the compiler gets recognized and passes all test. CMake also finds the ar.exe in the C:/Dev/mingw-ruben/binfolder. After generating the MinGW Makefile I switch to the windows command line and run mingw32-make install.
There's where the problem happens, I get the error:
mingw-ruben\bin\ar.exe: mingw-ruben/lib/libopengl32.a: No such file or directory
Or for the network library
mingw-ruben\bin\ar.exe: mingw-ruben/lib/libws2_32.a: No such file or directory
The error seems quite obvious and on check there really is no libopengl32.a or libws2_32.a in mingw-ruben/lib/, but the files is actually located in C:/Dev/mingw-ruben/i686-w64-mingw32/lib.
Now How can I tell ar/make/cmake to not only search in the mingw-ruben/lib directory but also in the mingw-ruben/i686-w64-mingw32/lib?
Would it be a good idea to copy all the content from the i686-w64-mingw32 subfolder to the mingw-ruben root folder?
As a side note: I can call mingw32-make install again and the procedure will continue but up on trying to link my application against SFML, I run into many unresolved symbol errors for the glXYZ functions from within SFML.
Further information: I'm on Windows 8 x64, but I think that doesn't really matter and yes I've tried MSYS but it doesn't resolve any of my issues.
Am I doing something wrong? Do I have to configure things specially?
January 2015 Edit
Now that SFML 2.2 has been released, this is no longer an issue and you have to link SFML's dependencies yourself when linking static.
January 2014 Edit
As of commit 165f2b1888 and f784fe4c07, which is included in the stable version SFML 2.1, MinGW-w64 compilers are supported.
However while discussing further with different parties it came to light, that the sfml_static_add_libraries marco a rather ugly hack was. In short it unpacked the static dependencies and included their obj files into the SFML library itself. This was most noticeable an issue, when trying to use your own version of GLEW, which failed since SFML was using its internal one already. The issue was brought to the forum and was pushed around for quite a bit, until Laurent finally gave in and went with the proper way of linking dependencies, which means you have to link them now on your own.
As of commit dbf01a775b, which is not included in the stable version of SFML 2.1, one has to link the SFML dependencies in the finally application, when linking statically against SFML.
Original
After some chat on the IRC we've figured it out.
It has nothing to do with MinGW but it's all SFML's fault. To reduce the dependencies list for SFML while linking statically the developer decided to manually extract the symbols from each library (opengl32, ws2_32, ...) which obviously isn't how one does things and violates some ODR rules. The actual error then occurs because the developer assumed that the library will be in the folder mingw/libbut with MinGW w64 it's located in a seperate directory mingw/version/lib and so ar.exe didn't find the library.
Solution
Removing the call to the sfml_static_add_libraries macro and then recompile. Afterwards you'll have to link all the dependencies for static linkages, like it should be.
I think it may be well a problem of the gcc distribution you downloaded.
A bit of light into the problem gives ruben's question here:
https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/45277/executing-binary-file-file-not-found
that seems to me related to that (although it is about linux and not win)
I was having a similar problem (the name of the missing file was different) few months ago with gcc 4.7.0 linux->win crosscompiler. So until now I lived with the standard ubuntu mingw-w64 package and only yesterday I gave another try to i686-w64-mingw32-gcc-4.7.2-release-linux64_rubenvb.tar.xz and it works without issues in otherwise same environment where the previous version was failing with "..ar.exe: ... no such file". Sometimes I develop also in windows, then I use http://www.mingw.org/ that was for me much easier to setup in Win. It supports only 32bit target but for my project it is sufficient.

Compile stand alone exe with Cygwin

I want to make a stand-alone exe with cygwin. I have two options:
Staticly link cygwin1.dll
If I can statically link cygwin1.dll, then I can get a stand-alone exe.
Merge cygwin1.dll with myprog.exe
If I can merge cygwin1.dll with my program, the I can get a stand-alone exe.
Do not suggest that I use IlMerge. This will not work because I didn't compile my program with .NET.
Are any of these options possible? If not, is there anything that is possible with this dilemma? Thanx!
Try passing -mno-cygwin as a compiler and linker flag. If your program's requirements are simple enough this will avoid depending on Cygwin libraries and create a standalone EXE.
I can see two possibilities that you might consider reasonable. One would be to build a stub executable with a different compiler (e.g., MinGW -- whatever, just so it doesn't need cygwin) to unpack the main executable and cygwin.dll into a temporary directory, and then spawn that executable. To distribute only a single executable, you'd want to add the main executable and cygwin.dll to the "stub" as binary resources. It's a bit ugly, but pretty straightforward.
The alternative would be to grab the source to cygwin, and build it as a static library. At least in theory, this should be cleaner -- but it's also undoubtedly more work. Getting it to build as purely static code instead of a DLL will almost certainly take some work, though it's hard to even guess how much. Just browsing a bit, it's seems pretty unlikely that it's going to be a quick job of a couple hours, or anything like that (unless there's something there that I missed that already supports building it statically, of course).
More precise answer of Jerry.
Procedure described below should be confronted with your rights and license law! I know it can work but rights to distribute the result (or even perform the procedure) may be (and I'm really feel that are) bounded by Cygwin license. That is because your application will still refer to Cygwin (even though it is useless - but is still in your app)
Assume hello.exe is the name of your great application compiled under Cygwin in great project directory C:\xxx\yyy\zzz\
In the cygwin console go to C:\xxx\yyy\zzz and type
objdump -p hello.exe | grep "DLL Name"
You obtain all DLLs your application uses. Then copy C:\xxx\yyy\zzz to all DLLs listed and specific for cygwin.
Note that your application may invoke other applications (using exec function for example) --- find libraries aplications use and copy this libraries as well as this applications themselves -- to C:\xxx\yyy\zzz.
Maybe you will have to recompile your project with option of kind -L C:\xxx\yyy\zzz or so. Watch all other paths in your sources.
Thus your application becomes independent of Cygwin installation and you can present its functionality to/ share it with ---- other Windows users without Cygwin. But - once more I point and ask you - be aware of proper license and law of Cygwin creators and observe them!

What exactly is the "Multi-threaded Debug DLL" Runtime Library option doing in VS 2008?

I have a solution in VS 2008 that creates a DLL. I then use that DLL in another application. If I go in to the DLL projects property pages and change the following configuration for a DEBUG build then the built dll no long provides the desired functionality. If I change it back and rebuild the DLL, then the DLL does provide the correct functionality:
Property Pages => Configuration Properties => C/C++ => Code Generation => Runtime Library
If set to "Multi-threaded Debug DLL (/MDd)"
then everything works as it should. I get the correct functionality from the DLL
If set to "Multi-threaded DLL (/MD)" then the DLL does not function properly...no runtime errors or anything, it just doesn't work (The DLL is supposed to plot some lines on a map but does not in this mode).
So the question is, why does using the /MDd flag result in correction functionality of the underlying code, while /MD results in incorrect functionality?
A little background...somebody else developed the DLL in C++ and I am using this DLL in a VB.net application.
All DLL's/debug code generation must match across everything that uses them. There may be another referenced library or object or dll or some code in there that is built using the wrong options; or specific options for an individual element that override the global project options.
The only way of figuring it out is to meticulously check all of the options for each file, checking the included and referenced libraries (.lib and .dll) and object files. Check the linker options too.
The reason why it doesn't work is probably because the debug version adds extra guard blocks around memory to allow detection of errors.
I had similar problems. My application which "used" a 3rd party DLL crashed when its runtime library was set to "Multi-threaded DLL (/MD)", but worked when its runtime library was set to "Multi-threaded Debug DLL (/MDd)".
It has something to do with passing std::strings and std::lists across the DLL interface.
Our guess was the low level definition of these types was somehow different in the two runtime libraries.
We solved our related problems using this rule...
The DLL and the DLL user must be build using the exact same runtime library.
The main difference between the two options is in the libraries that your code will be linked at later. for the debug version for example this will include LIBCMTD.LIB and a few others. if your library is going to be built as debug the you should always link with MDd. failing to do so will result in lots of unresolved external linker errors at best. and sometimes the code compiles normally but crashes at runtime. if this happens in vb.net then a catch can easily hide the error. I guess you should make sure you build setting is correct. for more detailed information check this.