VS2015 linker looking for old, nowhere mentioned files - c++

I'm working on a project(game engine) which has a solution with 11 projects(VS projects) in it, 10 of which are static libraries (.lib) and one is an executable (.exe). I'm working on in only from 2 computers - the one at home, and the one at work, both using Visual Studio 2015 Community. The one at home works perfectly well, but the one at work has an issue - when I build the solution the linker is always looking for a "corelib.lib" file. That file existed some time ago, but at some point I starting switching too often between release and debug and I made a new convention to ease the pain of compilation time - now my files are called: corelib_vc14_dbg.lib and corelib_vc14_rls.lib (for debug and release respectively). No matter what I do, the linker always looks for this file. I tried cleaning the solution, I tried full clean up of the svn copy, I tried a fresh checkout, I tried moving the svn copy to another location. I tried looking for "corelib.lib" in the directory (multiple times, using Sublime and Notepad++), and I had zero hits. Files like ".sdf", ".suo", ".user" are not versioned. Object files, libraries, executables and so on, are also excluded from the svn, so there can't be any cached values there (if there should be any). What could be causing the problem? Does Visual Studio cache something like that anywhere? And if so - why couldn't I find it anywhere?
Here are the dependencies of the failing project:
Debug:
AdditionalDependencies>openal.lib;opengl32.lib;engine_vc14_dbg.lib;corelib_vc14_dbg.lib;glfw_vc14_dbg.lib;glew_vc14_dbg.lib;gorilla_vc14_dbg.lib;jsoncpp_vc14_dbg.lib;%(AdditionalDependencies)</AdditionalDependencies>
Release
<AdditionalDependencies>openal.lib;opengl32.lib;engine_vc14_rls.lib;corelib_vc14_rls.lib;glfw_vc14_rls.lib;glew_vc14_rls.lib;gorilla_vc14_rls.lib;jsoncpp_vc14_rls.lib;%(AdditionalDependencies)</AdditionalDependencies>
All .lib files are exported correctly with their new names (example: "corelib_vc14_dbg.lib"), but the linker still looks for the old library file "corelib.lib"

I resolved my problem. It was somewhere I never expected it to be - when I moved from VS2013 to VS2015 some references to the old projects have been left out and were causing this strange issue. Thankfully I keep my project folders organized, so I looked through everything in the trunk for "vs2013" and found a bunch of occurances, replaced them manually with "vs2015" and everything worked fine :)

Related

How to get wxWidgets working in Visual Studio 2012

I've got a problem for which I would very much like a solution please:
All I'm trying to do is use wxWidgets in Visual Studio 2012 (in C++), and make it accessible to my code project. That shouldn't be so hard, should it? But as usual, even though there are programming tutorials for it, wxWidgets is evidently one of those things that has no proper documentation just to simply get it running, or if it does then I sure can't find it.
I downloaded the installer for Windows and installed it. When it finished, it gave me a message that said:
wxWidgets was installed successfully!
Please note: before using wxWidgets in your application,
you must build the library using the same compiler you
use for building your program.
Please see docs/msw/install.md file in the installation
directory for the detailed instructions about how to build
wxWidgets and use it from your application.
It should be noted that I think I remember something on the website or somewhere saying that I can just include a header file into my project and forego the DLL altogether (which is what I'd prefer to do, if possible), though I may possibly be misremembering that or confusing it with something else.
Anyway, when I opened the docs/msw/install.md file, I found (amongst other things) these instructions:
--- From the IDE
Ready to use project files are provided for VC++ versions 8, 9,
10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16 and 17 (also known as MSVS 2005, 2008, 2010, 2012,
2013, 2015, 2017, 2019 and 2022 respectively).
Simply open wx_vcN.sln (for N=8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16 or 17) file,
select the appropriate configuration (Debug or Release, static or DLL)
and build the solution. Notice that when building a DLL configuration,
you may need to perform the build several times because the projects
are not always built in the correct order, and this may result in link
errors. Simply do the build again, up to 3 times, to fix this.
Of course, it doesn't even say WHERE the "wx_vcN.sln" files are, but I ran a file search and found them in C:\wxWidgets-3.1.6\build\msw and I opened the one called wx_vc11.sln, because that seems to be the one that corresponds to VS2012, right?
Anyway, it took a LONG time to load, because it had to keep scanning through thousands of files and so forth, but when it was finally finished, I did the "Rebuild All" command thrice in a row, like it says to do (which also took a while).
But I'm not sure where it even put the actual DLL file. It says that it's in C:\wxWidgets-3.1.6\build\msw....\lib\vc_lib\wxmsw31ud_xrc.lib, but where the hell is "...."? It doesn't even bother to specify the entire path! What kind of nonsense is that?! I just want the file so that I can put it into my project! Or better yet, just a .h file that takes care of everything would be great. Supposedly there's one to include called "wx/wx.h", which then includes everything else, I think, but I don't know if that one indirectly also requires a DLL.
I always have problems with DLLs, anyway, though I'll use one if I absolutely have to. You'd think it would be the easiest thing to import a DLL into a project, but for some reason, I've never been able to find any sort of tutorial that explains a specific, step-by-step way to do it which is guaranteed to work, so on the rare occasion that I actually need to use a DLL (99% of the time I can just rely on my own code and the .h files included with Visual Studio), I always end up muddling through it until it FINALLY works by sheer accident (if I'm lucky). Mostly, it just reports errors for one reason or another, that it's not properly included or compatible, or that the header files that I'm using which reference it keep showing the same errors, as though I hadn't even imported the DLL file at all! I've been programming for about 30 years, and I work on things like AI and compression and cryptographic algorithms. I don't say this to brag, but to point out that if someone as experienced as me has trouble getting a DLL to attach properly to a roject, then there's something severely wrong with the whole process, or the documentation for it! I HATE using DLLS, because it's always a HUGE chore, but I'll do it if there's absolutely no other way (though I'd appreciate step-by-step instructions, if you don't mind).
But enough about that. In any case, I have an example project in which wxWidgets is being used in conjunction with Vulkan, and though it has compilation errors (because Vulkan didn't properly install on my machine (when I try to run the sample programs it says they're missing DLLs - big surprise) and as it turns out, I don't think it's compatible with my video card, anyway (which might possibly be why it didn't install properly), so I think I'll have to resort to OpenGL instead - PLEASE tell me that's compatible with wxWidgets!), but even in that example project, it has errors where it's trying to include and use wxWidgets stuff (like "wx/wx.h"), even though that's supposed to be a complete and already working project! I can't find any DLL files or the header files in question anywhere in the project directories!
So anyway, there's got to be an easier way to get this all set up, just to the point that I can make a simple test program using wxWidgets, and compile it. I'd REALLY like to be able to get at least that much working sometime tomorrow morning, so I'd greatly appreciate any help you can give me! Thank you.
#ThisIsMe,
First of all you need to educate yourself on properly using C++.
When you acquire the C++ code it contains of 2 portion - header file and source code.
Header file is what you call a declaration you declare you classes there - class name, member variable and method.
In the source files You define what you declared and you put an actual code there.
Now with that in mind:
wxWidgets contains both header and source files. When you downloaded the installer and did the installation it just copied the "text file" (headers and sources) into the folder of you choice.
Now as you can imagine text files are not executable - you need to compile them into the binary files And that is exactly what you did. (I don't know why you did it 3 times though - I guess you got an errors after building 1st and 2nd time).
Now, you said you have a project that (either uses wxWidgets or you want to incorporate wxWidgets into - which one is it, BTW?). The answer to this question will help direct you to a proper solution.
Now, you said that you tried the Vulkan and it fails to run the demo. How did it fails? Did it produce an error? What was it? Did it even run?
Now wxWidgets does support OpenGL as can be seen by looking at the documentation and checking the different samples that comes with the library, but I'm just curious if what you are seeing from Vulkan is really an incompatibility with the Video Card.
So, we need you to answer the questions I put and so we can help you further. Just keep in mind - C++ is not for the beginner programmers and if you are struggling with understanding the difference between compilation, installation , headers and sources - it will be very hard for you.
Maybe you should start with something simpler - like wxPython and forget about C++ for now.

How to stop Visual Studio from putting 'mdd' at the end of library names

I use Visual Studio 2013 to make a CLR-compatible version of my C++ code library ('mylibrary.lib'). It's been working fine for years, but all of a sudden I'm getting 'LNK1104' errors because Visual Studio is looking for 'mylibrarymdd.lib'.
Why is it suddenly, magically tacking on 'mdd' to the library name instead of using the .lib file I specified? And how do I get it to stop doing this?
I've found two workarounds for this problem, but don't like either one of them. Hopefully someone is able to explain why these steps were unnecessary and then all of a sudden necessary.
The first and most obvious work-around is to modify the dependency's project settings so the target output filename matches what the consuming project is expecting -- namely, 'mylibrarymdd.lib'.
The second work-around is to use "/NODEFAULTLIB:mylibrarymdd.lib". This is required for every individual dependency with the auto-naming issue.
To get to the correct (IMHO) solution, one would need to know WHY Visual Studio is creating a "default library dependency" of 'mylibraryMDD.lib' in the first place. As I stated, it wasn't doing so before and there have been no recent updates to Visual Studio or the project files themselves.
I did find that there was a change to a dependency of 'mylibrary'. It pulls in the static OpenSSL libraries and those were updated. It's unclear how that would cause the above behavior, however.

D3DX11EffectsD.lib not showing up after build (vs2010)

I am starting to learn DX11 and running into trouble with the effects framework. I know it was released as source and I have to build it, but the output from the build is not what I expected.
According to the research I've done on this question, the output from the build should be
D3DX11EffectsD.lib for debug
D3DX11Effects.lib for release
However, when I look into the 'Effects11\Debug' directory after building the project, I only see a file Effects11.lib (well, an Effects11 Object Library file which I assume is a .lib, I'm new to c++), and the exact same file in 'Effects11\Release'. Whats going on here? I've never used VS 2010 for c++ before now but I think I am building the solution correctly.
Is this a matter of renaming the files or have I done something wrong without realizing it? There really isn't much documentation on building and linking libraries in vs 2010 that I could find. Anybody have any suggestions?
Thanks
If you compiled exactly what you got off the web, then I think it would be just a naming convention problem.
You should try compiling it into your end application and see if it yells about debugging symbols missing.
You can also go into the build settings (it has been a while since I have used visual studio for anything other than C# so I don't know exactly where that menu option would be (I assume right clicking on the project should yield some useful results)...I generally do my C++ stuff on linux) and check to see what the built targets are for debug and release. If it turns out that the names are the same for both, but the build targets (i.e. the folder and a few other options, like including debugging symbols) are different then you should be good and it is just a naming problem.
Also, if the files are the exact same size it is likely that they are the same since the debug file should be at least a bit larger than the release one.
If it turns out that they are the same file, try re-downloading or re-extracting the source and just compiling the project again without any changes and see if that gets any results.

VC++2008 project always "out of date"

In one Solution, I have two VC++ projects. Project A has linker inputs that are .obj files compiled by project B.
Visual Studio (2008) always tells me that project A is "out of date," and prompts me to ask if I want to rebuild it, every time I want to run/debug/build/etc. Even immediately after building the entire Solution: I do a successful full build, and then click Build again, and it wants to re-link Project A.
How can I prevent this from happening? Anyone understand what's going on here?
I think that the solution is to stop using .obj files from the other project. Instead, factor the code that is common to both A and B projects into own static library C and link both A and B to it.
I just had this problem with Visual Studio 2010 (both with and without SP1) and thanks to Ted Nugent I was able to fix it. The trick is to check whether all C++ header files listed in the project still exist, and remove the non-existing ones. Apparently this is a bug in the compiler.
Had something similar occur. I was working with code that used the system time and during the debug I was twiddling with it quite a lot. Somehow the files got some bad timestamps. In the build, it shows which files are getting recompiled, so I just opened each, forced a change (add space, delete a space) and then re-saved.
Similar to the old unix "touch".
In one project I had to do the same to its include files. But after 'touching' the files like that, the problem went away.

EXE stops working if containing folder is renamed. MSVCP90.dll

This popup comes up as soon as the app is started:
The program can't start because MSVCP90.dll is missing from your computer.
Before anyone says "install the VC++ runtimes", wait! If I rename the folder containing my .EXE then the app runs. If I rename it back, it breaks. The app has been running for weeks without any changes to my system/VS installation (2008 SP1), we suddenly spotted this error a few days ago.
Lost as to why the name of the dir is causing issues... again this has not changed in months and all our resource paths are relative anyway, e.g "../someOtherDir/...."
It doesn't just do this on my PC, we have the /bin dir (the one containing EXE) in SVN and suddenly everyone started seeing the same issue, even though the binaries themselves seem just fine. Is it possible some additional data got put into SVN and that's the cause? Since it's not just one PC, there must be something either in SVN or the EXE itself...
Note this popup comes before our code even gets to run.
It seems that there is a .exe.manifest file lying around, specifying some other version of MSVCP90.dll. Removing this file should do the trick (In theory the manifest is the solution against dll hell, but in reality it is just a new PITA).
Try rolling back to some earlier SVN revisions and see if you can identify a change which made it stop working. A binary search will be most efficient for this. PATH settings might also be an issue?