I currently have a C++ project that is built using msbuild.
Once the project is built I get an exe along with multiple dll files.
Is there a way to tell msbuild to link to those libraries statically ?
I cannot open the project in visual studio but I can make changes to the vcxproj.
Any suggestions on how I can accomplish that ?
In the vcxproj files, change:
<ConfigurationType>DynamicLibrary</ConfigurationType>
To
<ConfigurationType>StaticLibrary</ConfigurationType>
Also, in the PreprocessorDefinitions section(s), remove xxx_EXPORTS (where xxx is the name of the project) and _USRDLL, and replace with _LIB
Note: each of these (including ConfigurationType) will appear once for each Configuration you have (i.e. Debug, Release, etc.).
I tried to add a lib file into a clean project, and the modification of vcxproj file are below, hope it can help you:
Library Paths and Include Directories
Additional Dependencies
Related
I'm on Windows 10, Visual Studio 2017, x64 build . . .
I have a DLL that I'm using in an exe project. We'll call it, myLibrary.dll. It comes with a .lib companion file as well. The myLibrary.dll has some other DLL dependencies that it is using. We'll call that one theDependency.dll.
I've linked the companion myLibrary.lib file in my project through Linker --> General --> Additional Library Dependencies properties. Added myLibrary.lib to the Additional Dependencies.
When I build my project, I use post build event to copy the myLibrary.dll to the Release/Debug directory of my project.
This works fine.
My issue is when I try to use myLibrary.dll in a different exe project. I get an error that it cannot find the theDependency.dll. I've used all the same property setup as the first exe project. As a test, I moved the build directory of the first exe project to another location (on the same computer) and I get the same error. "Cannot find theDependency.dll"
How is myLibrary.dll targeting it's dependencies? Not sure why the 2nd project gets this error? Also, not sure why moving the files gets this error?
Any ideas? Thanks.
Adding the path of the dll to the PATH environment variable worked for me.
I am working on a project that involves making a dynamic link library, so I want to test it in a console app in Visual Studio.
The DLL is also made in Visual Studio, it doesn't have much, just a few functions in it. I'm not sure if I'm just supposed to include the librarys header in the include directories panel in Properties, or do something else
A lot of people say I'm supposed to add its corresponding .lib file in the Library or Reference directory, but I'm not sure that VS generates a .lib file alongside the DLL. I'm using VS 2015.
I don't have VS in front of me this very moment, but these should be the general steps to set it up:
Properties->Linker->Input: your.lib
Properties->Linker->Additional Library Directories: ../your/bin
Properties->General->Compiler->Additional Include Directories: ../your/include
To build your app, the DLL's API headers must be in the include for the compile-time, it's LIB files in the bin for the link-time. Once you have your app EXE, all you need is the DLL to be in the same folder as your EXE when it executes.
You might also want to add the dll project and the app project into a common solution in VS and add (right click) Project Dependency from the app to the dll. This ensures correct order of building, assuming you are going to build the dll at all.
You can also do what I did.
You can create a Libs directory inside of your Solution directory.
You can then place your .DLL files inside of the Libs directory or some sub-directory inside of Libs
In my case, I added the entire SFML-2.3.2 directory in there, which included the source-code, .lib files, and .dll files.
I did link up what I could in the project properties, but I used Visual Studio's macros to fill in the path name to the Solution directory. Just in case I wanted to put this in version control and work on it from multiple machines.
Then I opened up the Project's Property Page.
Within the property page, I went to Build Events -> Post-Build Event -> Command Line
Within the Command Line, you can add a copy command that will copy any needed files into the same directory as the executable that will need them.
In my case I used: copy "$(SolutionDir)Libs\SFML-2.3.2\bin\*" "$(TargetDir)"
I could have written multiple commands to copy just the individual files that I needed, but I had spent a good three hours trying to get SFML to work without actually installing it.
I implemented the SFML library nightly build to my Visual Studio 2013, because the original one is not compatibile with this VS version. I done everything what is needed (added directory to include folder in both Debug and Release, added directory to .dll files), but it can't find the files in program. What else should be done to make this library work? Or should i consider changing Visual Studio to 2010?
You haven't given really to much information so I am just really guessing as to what the problem is.
added directory to .dll files
But that sounds like your problem right there. You don't add the directory that the .dll files are in to your project. The only directories you need to add to the project are the include directory and the library directory.
But anyways I am assuming you are using dynamic linking since otherwise you wouldn't be dealing with .dlls. Now different IDE's require that you place the .dlls in different spots but since you are dealing with VS2013 you need to copy whatever .dlls that you are using into the same folder where your program's compiled executable is (The .exe file).
Another option is to link statically instead of dynamically which I generally prefer to do on small projects but it is really up to the developer which he prefers.
When you link statically you don't need to include any .dlls. What you will need to do is recompile SFML's sources and make sure to build the library so it produces the static library files (They should be named something like sfml-graphics-s-d.lib for debug and sfml-graphics-s-d.lib for release).
Add that library directory which contains the static library files to your project and then link to them .lib files in VS's input window (Remember that -d is for the debug build).
Next you will need to add SFML_STATIC to your preprocessor options on both the release and debug build.
After that you are good to go and don't need to include the .dll files with your project. And again whether you choose to link dynamically or statically is really up to you and the project you are working on but for small projects I would suggest linking statically.
For learning purposes, i wanted to create a static library, a "package" of the lib files used in opencv to then link it against my app "opencvuser". Doing so, i get tremendous amounts of erros. (LNK2005 and LNK2019)
My Setup:
Project: staticLib
I've created a static library application without precompiled headers.
Under librarian i've put D:\OpenCV248\build\x64\vc10\staticlib as an additional library
directory. And I've specified all available .lib files as additional
dependencies. (opencv_core248d.lib, opencv_imgproc248d.lib, opencv_highgui248d.lib, ...) Source
Project: opencvuser
I've added C:\OpenCV240\build\include as an additional include directory
Then i've listed "staticLib" under "Properties -> References"
What i expect: Now i should get the same functionallity, as i would add the opencv lib files instead of my built staticLib.lib is my expectation correct?
What i've checked so far:
All Projects are x64
Runtime-Library is set in both Projects to "Multi-threaded Debug"
Anyone knows if the Runtime-Library setting on the static libraries are set to "Multi-threaded Debug"?
You are getting those linker errors because the OpenCV libs you are trying to use were statically linked against the CRT. In your project, you are dynamically linking to CRT and these things won't mix. I would recommend that you don't try to create a "package" of all the OpenCV libs and instead just link to the specific libs you need where you need them.
But I am also going to show you how to solve your problem:
You need to recompile OpenCV without statically linking to the CRT.
You can check out the OpenCV documentation for instructions on how to compile OpenCV using CMake and Visual Studio 2010.
When you run CMake, after you pressed the "Configure" button, look for an option called "BUILD_WITH_STATIC_CRT" and disable it. Then you can press "Generate", open the solution with VS2010 and compile OpenCV.
In your VS2010 project, use the following settings:
In the "opencvuser" project configuration, under Librarian, additional library directories you need to add the path to where the .lib files that you built are located. For me, it's in "c:\opencv248\mybuild\lib\Debug\".
Under Additional Dependencies, you need to include all the OpenCV lib files (opencv_core248d.lib, etc). I also needed to include Comctl32.lib and zlibd.lib because if I didn't I would get some linker errors.
Here are the dependencies I put in:
opencv_calib3d248d.lib
opencv_contrib248d.lib
opencv_core248d.lib
opencv_features2d248d.lib
opencv_flann248d.lib
opencv_gpu248d.lib
opencv_haartraining_engined.lib
opencv_highgui248d.lib
opencv_imgproc248d.lib
opencv_legacy248d.lib
opencv_ml248d.lib
opencv_nonfree248d.lib
opencv_objdetect248d.lib
opencv_ocl248d.lib
opencv_photo248d.lib
opencv_stitching248d.lib
opencv_superres248d.lib
opencv_ts248d.lib
opencv_video248d.lib
opencv_videostab248d.lib
Comctl32.lib
zlibd.lib
Also, in the "opencvuser" project you need to add an empty .cpp file. If you don't add this file, the solution will be empty and Visual Studio won't compile it. I just added a file called "dummy.cpp" to the project. That file is completely empty. Don't put a "main()" function in it because it will collide with the main function in the other project and you will get an error.
In the "staticlib" project, under Linker->General, Additional library directories, you need to include the path to the opencvuser.lib file. For me, it's "..\debug". Also, under Linker->Input, Additional Dependencies, you need to add the "opencvuser.lib" file.
Set project dependencies
You also need to make sure that the projects are built in the right order (first opencvuser, then staticlib). To do this, right-click on the solution and choose Properties. In that window, under Common Properties->Project dependencies, make sure that "opencvuser" does not have a dependency on "staticlib", but "staticlib" must have a dependency on "opencvuser".
That's it, now your project should work. Here are the contents of the two files, and the project running.
I have a C++ project that builds as an EXE. However I also need to build the project as a static library (.LIB file). Right now in order to get a complete build, I need to build it in one format, then open the project properties and under General > Project Defaults > Configuration Type select the other format, accept, and recompile. It's a real hassle. Is there some way of specifying both types? I haven't seen anything on MSDN on this.
I'm using Visual Studio 2012.
A common (and particularly sane) way to solve your problem is to have a solution containing two projects. The first project should be a library (statically or dynamically linked, it doesn't matter) that contains most of your code. The second project should be an executable that references the library you've created in your first project.
Do it this way and a single build of your solution will produce both the executable and the library.
Create two projects, add the same set of source files to both.
It's a quite old thread, but for the posterity: in case your project have a minimalist main.cpp, you could build a library from the whole .obj generated by the build, except main.obj.
A typical way would be to add this build on a pre-link event:
<ItemDefinitionGroup Condition="'$(Configuration)|$(Platform)'=='Release|Win32'">
[...]
<PreLinkEvent>
<Command>#ECHO ON
"lib.exe" /NOLOGO /OUT:"$(OutDir)$(ProjectName).lib" "$(IntermediateOutputPath)*.obj"
"lib.exe" /NOLOGO "$(OutDir)$(ProjectName).lib" /REMOVE:"$(IntermediateOutputPath)main.obj"</Command>
</PreLinkEvent>
</ItemDefinitionGroup>
It was working with Visual Studio 2010 & 2019 (didn't test with the intermediates ones).