I have a third-party, native library (API.DLL) that I use in my program. I have written a C++ wrapper (Wrapper.dll) for the API. My application (MyApp.exe) makes calls to methods in the wrapper. The MyApp project references the Wrapper project. When I run my application, I get a FileNotFoundException: Could not load file or assembly 'Wrapper.dll' or one of its dependencies.
The problem is that API.DLL isn't found. When I build Wrapper, the Wrapper.dll and API.DLL files both get placed in the Wrapper\Bin\Debug folder. When I build MyApp, the Wrapper.dll file gets placed in the MyApp\bin\Debug folder, but the API.DLL file does not!
What is the correct/best way to get the third-party DLL in the application target folder when I build my solution?
Add the file to your project, put it the root folder inside the project, make the solution Show All Files, then add it (if not already).
Then change the properties of the file (right click-> properties) to build action=None and Copy to output directory=always or newer (whatever you prefer).
The file will get copied when you build.
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Being new to making/using libraries, I followed a simple tutorial to build a static library in Visual Studio (2022). I made a solution with 2 projects in it. One that builds a library and one that uses the library. It worked. Then I made an independent project / solution to see if I can use this library independently from the original solution/projects. I put the lib file and hpp/cpp file into new separate folders and set these folders in project properties (Additional Include and Library Directories + the .lib file).
Problem: I could use the functions from the library in this new project but when I tried to step into it with the debugger, the cpp file it stepped into was from the original project. (that's what the path showed anyway.) When I renamed the old project and tried again, VS complained that the file directory has changed and asked me to set the path to it. I did set it to the newly made directory with only the hpp/cpp in it and it was fine. I made another new project for using the library and tried the whole thing again and then the debugger simply could not step into the function, it stepped over it.
My questions: what was going on here? how did the debugger find the original cpp file when Im positive I did not set that path anywhere in the new project? and how do I debug a static library then? Is putting the cpp file next to the header in the include directory not enough?
I want to package my executable file and other needed files into an install file (using NSIS) so that other people can install and use. There are a few file types I am uncertain of whether they are needed for installation or if it is safe to delete them.
Here is a random example of the files in the project folder as well as the Debug file automatically generated by VS:
I have already deleted the .user file as I know that is not needed, but not sure when it comes to .vcxproj, .tlog, .build.cppclean, .idp, and .pdb files. Also, do I need to keep the .obj files as well as the .cpp files?
This is my first time trying to do this, I am just messing around to seeing how it all works so thanks in advance.
You generally only need the .exe. Your app might depend on custom .dlls or the C++ run-time library in which case you would bundle the custom .dlls and/or the C++ redistributable.
Your screen shots are of a debug build and you normally want to distribute a release build instead because it is often smaller and contains more optimized code.
.obj files contain the machine code for each source file and is used by the linker when it merges all the required code into your .exe.
.pdb files contain debugging information. You should not distribute them but it is helpful to store them for yourself in case you need to debug a released version of your application.
The rest of the files in Debug and Release can also be ignored.
If your project is open source then you could include the c/c++ files and the Visual Studio project files. Or you could just upload them to Github.
In NSIS you could do something like this
InstallDir $ProgramFiles\MyApp
Page Directory
Page InstFiles
Section
SetOutPath $InstDir
File myproject\Release\MyApp.exe
File mylibrary\Release\*.dll
SectionEnd
It is a good idea to test your installer on a freshly installed Windows instance. Ideally the minimal version you require, Windows 7 etc. This should allow you to verify that you have included all the files required by your application.
I am working on a c++ application and it builds just fine but upon running my main class NetBeans complains that no executable has been specified in my project, it then asks me to provide a path to a .exe file? What is an executable and where can I find it?
An executable is a file that can be executed. A .exe file is one kind of executable. In general some people would include .bat files, .com files, .jar files with a main class in the manifest, scripts in various languages etc as executable files. In Linux/MAC executable files often have no extension at all.
However, if you are on Windows building with C++ the file you probably want is a .exe file.
If you create a new C++ Application type project it should already know which file to run since it will be setup to create it. If you create a project with C++ Project with Existing Sources then the project could create multiple executable files or none at all if the goal was just to build a library. This depends on who ever authored the external Makefile or whatever that project uses. If you don't know and can't guess from looking at the directory ask whoever created the original project or consult their documentation.
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 am trying to use KDevelop to write a cmake based simple application. KDevelop created two myProject.kdev4 project files: one in the project folder and one in .kdev4 hidden subfolder. Both are non-empty. Which ones should I check in? How can I make kdevelop use just one project file (and preferably not use hidden folders)?
The .kdev4 file is used for kdevelop specific information (It mainly only tells KDevelop to use the CMake project manager). The folder includes user specific configuration (If you are familiar with Visual Studio, it is like the .user files).
Usually only the CMakeLists.txt files are needed as they should have all the relevant generic data. You can throw in the .kdev4 file so that you don't need to 'import' the project through the CMakeLists.txt on another machine. But the .kdev4 folder should stay in your local machine, as you don't want to mix user's configurations.