Generate .dll from .sym files? - dll

I have a .a archive compiled with MinGW from C/C++ code. I also have symbols exported in many .sym files. Now I need to generate a .dll file from their combination. I've installed MSYS/MinGW w64

Related

Build gtest as shared library (dll) in CMake

I have never worked with CMake before, so please forgive any rookie mistakes. Most of the following working frame has been given to me by my project group.
The goal is to build GoogleTest into a .dll, to be used in different, indepentent parts of our project. I'm having troubles setting up CMake the right way.
The work-flow so far has been:
Clone gtest from git --> also downloads a CMake List file
Alter variables in CMakeCache.txt to have it produce a Code::Blocks project file
Compile the project file in Code::Blocks
So far, it produces a static library (.a files) that can be used in our project. I'm having troubles genereating .dll files.
Variables I have tried changing:
BUILD_SHARED_LIBS:BOOL=ON --> the files generated by Code::Blocks now have a .dll.a double extension
CMAKE_C_FLAGS and all the corresponding C++ flags where set to -DGTEST_CREATE_SHARED_LIBRARY=1 as given here
CMAKE_EXE_LINKER_FLAGS has been set to -shared to make the linker produce .dll files
I have worked my way through the GoogleTest documentation here and here but in both, building it into a .dll is merely a 2-sentence-topic.
As #Tsyvarev pointed out, the .dll files were created in a (very) different folder.

build new project include dll and compiler to so

I am a question about dll use in linux. I have dll and .h file that work good in windows. But now I need to work this program in linux. If I write a .cpp file that
function call the dll file's function. Could I compiler this .cpp file to assembly or to .so file. Then I can use .so file without original dll file ?
If you have a DLL that builds on Windows, then provided the C++ code is portable, it should be possible to compile the same code on Linux to produce a shared library (.so file), which is Linux's equivalent to Windows DLLs. There is good background on this topic here.
If your source code (i.e. CPP or header files) uses #include for headers that are Windows-specific, you will have to make that code portable in order for Linux to build and run it. One approach is to just try compiling your code on Linux and see what errors arise. If you want to be more proactive, for C++ portability guidelines see here.

cmake "exporting" shared library on windows

I'm writing a small library.
I'd like to build it as shared library and generate "MyLibraryConfig.cmake" file which then can be used by my other projects to find my library.
The only problem I have is to figure out the name/path to file which is used for linking under Windows - there are two files being generated: mylibrary.dll and mylibrary.dll.a.
So I'd like to generate MyLibraryConfig.cmake file with something like:
"set(MYLIBRARY_LIBRARIES /blah/blah/mylibrary.dll.a)"
so then MYLIBRARY_LIBRARIES can be used with target_link_libraries for my other projects.
How can I get name for this linkable file? I'd be nice if the solution was platform independed (returning .so wile on Linux and .dll.a on Windows)
thanks in advance
If you're planning on making your library available to your other projects without installing it then you want the CMake command export. For example:
export(TARGETS MyLib FILE ${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/MyLibraryConfig.cmake)
This creates the file MyLibraryConfig.cmake in the same directory as your top-level CMakeLists.txt, and can just be included in other CMake projects.
If you're planning on installing your library, then you want to make use of install(EXPORT ...) instead:
install(TARGETS MyLib EXPORT MyLibraryConfig
RUNTIME DESTINATION bin
LIBRARY DESTINATION lib
ARCHIVE DESTINATION lib/static)
install(EXPORT MyLibraryConfig DESTINATION cmake)
This will install the file MyLibraryConfig.cmake to <install path>/cmake, and can then be included by other projects.

Can't find CMake created executable file

I am new to Cmake, I was trying to build an executble program from a Fortran code using Cmake-GUI. As per the program instruction I created the Cmakelists.txt. I then launched the Cmake-GUI and nominated the source directory and binaries directory and then used the configure and generate options to create my executable file. Everything seemed to have ran ok. Howover, when I checked my bin folder the .exe file that i was hoping to find is nowhere to be seen, instead I have cmake_Install.cmake and Makefile in the binaries folder. I opened these file with a text editor and they seem to be script file. Can somebody please tell me what I should do with these files to create the executale file. or if this is a sign of the cmake build process failing.
I don't know CMake for fortran, but cmake in general will create the makefiles / visual studio projects etc. We cmake into a bin directory, then go in there and run make. It doesn't build the source, it builds the make files.
Did you build the source?
CMake just create the makefiles and projects structures to compile using a make tool. I don't know how to compile it for Fortran, but in Linux for a C++ project, I just have to open a terminal, go to the build folder (your bin folder) and run make or make all and it compile the whole project.
I think that your problem is that your project is not compiled, so there is not any binary files.

When to include .lib and when to include .dll or both

I got a .h file, two .lib files, a .dll file and a tiny test project from a hardware vendor to talk to their hardware.
Compiling and running their test project works just fine. Noteworthy: they don't use the .dll. I can throw the dll-directory and all of it's content away, everything works just fine.
To start things off I simply copied the communication parts of their code (connect, disconnect and send a command) into my project. This is actually all that you can do. I have included the .h file and pointed to the directory containing the .lib files. Just like in the tiny test project. It all compiles, but when I try to run the project complains that it is missing the .dll file.
Can anybody explain what is happening? How are libs and dlls supposed to work?
All of this is on windows, VS2005. I compared the .vcproj files and could not find any significant differences.
The test project is statically linked - the lib is included in the exe.
Your project is dynamically linked - the dll is referenced and therefore needed at runtime.
See this Stack Overflow question for more information.
Basically the answer depends on whether you are going to use static or dynamic linking for your executable.
With static linking, you need the .h and .lib files but not the .dll files to compile and link. Your executable will be larger but you won't need any of the .h/.lib/.dll files during runtime.
With dynamic linking, you just need the .h files to compile and link. Your executable will be smaller but you will need one or both of the .dll files during runtime.
For a more detailed treatment of this from the Visual Studio perspective, check out http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/1ez7dh12.aspx -
"Dynamic linking differs from static linking in that it allows an executable module (either a .dll or .exe file) to include only the information needed at run time to locate the executable code for a DLL function. In static linking, the linker gets all of the referenced functions from the static link library and places it with your code into your executable."