I believe I have followed every instructions given, so I just have to ask the same question again.
I am trying to use libcurl.
I have changed the following settings in my project:
Configuation Properties|VC++ Directories|Library Directories - here I have put the folder where the .lib file is found. I did this for Debug, Release and All Configurations.
Configuation Properties|VC++ Directories|Include Directories - here I have put the folder where the .h files are found. I did this for Debug, Release and All Configurations.
Configuration Properties|Linker|Input|Additional Dependencies - I have added the .lib file. I did this for Release, Debug and All Configurations.
Configuration Properties|Linker|General|Additional Library Directories- I have added the folder where the .lib file is located. I did this for Release, Debug and All Configurations.
The program builds well without any errors.
When running the .exe file, I get the error message:
.dll is missing from your computer.
I have put the .lib file in the same folder as the .exe file, but that does not help. In fact I have put the .lib file in all folders for my project, but the computer can't find them anyway.
How can this be explained?
Is it possible to build the program without errors if the .lib file is simply wrong? I use a win32 .lib file and I create a Win32 project, but I'm running on a Win64 PC. Does that matter?
Desperate for help. Been searching like crazy for three days now.
Bests,
You have to put the "libcurl.dll" in the same folder as your executable (DEBUG or RELEASE). In case of debugging, the dll is expected in your Project folder because Visual Studio is setting that directory. The ".lib" file is only necessary on compile time, which is already successful in your case.
The DLL comes with the cURL Projekt or is build when building the lib. Usually you will find the DLL near the directory of the lib. Search for a "bin" folder.
If you use the 32 bit version, make sure that you use the 32 Version of the DLL. The DLL has to match with the EXE, not with the OS.
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 trying to compile OBS studio with this tutorial in windows using Visual Studio Community 2015. I have created a project in visual studio and copied the entire git repo into the project by dragging the files into the solution explorer. This project has dependencies on libav, x264, and curl. They are given as .lib, .dll, and header files.
The problem is I keep getting "cannot open source file". I have the the header files in a separate folder from the dll's and lib's (dll and lib are in the same folder). Under the project settings->VC++ Directories I added the include directory, and also added the library directory. Then I added the lib's specifically under Linker->input->additional Dependencies. Then I added the directory that contains the .dll files to the environment variable PATH.
After all this, I still keep getting the same error, as well as a few other errors. Here is a screen shot of one source file that has the issue.
These are my settings.
For the path, I have tried with and without the trailing forward slash.
EDIT:
Use the C/C++ settings instead of VC++ settings for additional include directories.
What is probably holding you up is that those folder icons in the VS sidebar are not actually related to the file system. They are filters and don't change depending on the actual directory.
This is another explanation for Drop's suggestion -- check to see if the files are really where you think they are.
In my case I already added the include libraries but that was not enough. The error went away once I switched the configuration from x86 to x64 in Project Properties.
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'm trying to understand what exactly all of these are and how they relate to each other (and most importantly, how to install them).
From what I've read, LIBs are libraries linked during the compilation of my project and DLLs are libraries linked during the runtime of my project.
So for me to use a LIB, I have to have the actual .LIB file somewhere in my computer, go to Project -> Properties -> VC++ Directories and add the path to the file in the Library Directories, and after this I have to go to Linker -> Input -> Additional Dependencies add the .lib name in there, and finally I need to type #include in my code, right?
So, some questions:
When I finish and build the release of my program, will the .exe only run if the target platform has the .lib installed in their PC as well? If yes, what steps do I need to do to make sure the .lib goes with the .exe?
When I get the source of a open source project, if I add them (using Add Existing Item...) to my project, can I use them just by using #include as if the files were mine and it would be the same as having the .lib installed? Or do I need to install the .lib file and still use these source files?
I have a project using OpenGL and I linked to glew32.lib, but I don't have the lib or any new directory added in the VC++ Directories, so I think this means I must've installed the .lib in the system folder or somewhere where the Visual Studio won't ask for another directory, should I worry about this when releasing a project?
How the above questions relate to DLLs and is there any reason why should I use DLLs over LIBs or the other way around?
I'm starting to use more and more libraries and I noticed I just dragged, copied and included it everywhere so I could use them but never really understood how they "fit" in the project. Especially those open source libraries where they provide so many files and I don't really know what to do with them...
You don't need to have LIB files along with your EXE file for running in another computer, LIB files are static files and DLL files are dynamic. So when you compile all static codes will be included in your EXE file, but DLL files will be loaded and used dynamically in runtime, so you just need to have your DLL files with your EXE file. This way, your code will work and run properly in other computers.
Just adding another project is not enough, you need to compile them and generate LIB files out of them. Then you add the generated LIB file to your final project and include external projects in your final binary. If you are compiling multiple projects together in a solution, you'll need to set project build order in solution properties in VS.
No, that's OK. It seems you've put LIB files in right folder and you don't need to have LIB file with your EXE file to run it in other computers.
DLLs are dynamic libraries, so you need to have them with your application. Installers usually install EXE files with DLL files in the same folder, so your app will run properly, but no need to include LIB files at all.
Also you can include LIB files like this:
#pragma comment(lib, "glew32.lib")
So you don't need to do it in project settings, but assuming you have your LIB file in "Library Directories" path.
Using DLL files can be done in two ways:
One is linking your application to DLL file and having DLL file's function entry in your EXE file's import table:
like using
#include <windows.h>
then
GetWindowsDirectory(windir, MAX_PATH);
So you'll have GetWindowsDirectory API entry in your EXE file's Import Table.
Also you can do it dynamically:
hinstDLL = LoadLibrary("kernel32.dll");
if (hinstDLL != NULL)
{
func_GetWindir = (DLLPROC) GetProcAddress(hinstDLL, "GetWindowsDirectoryA");
...
There is not much difference, only difference is:
In first method, as it's in your EXE file's Import Table, if there was no kernel32.dll or there was no GetWindowsDirectory entry in kernel32.dll, your EXE will not run at all, it will show a critical error and will not run. But in dynamic way (second way), your app will run, but as soon as your code try to use GetWindowsDirectoryA API, it will fail. You will have 0x00 in func_GetWindir. If you attempt to call it, then program will crash.
I successfully compiled my OpenGL program in MSVC 2008, But I am getting a Run time error as follows
"This application has failed to start because glew32.dll was not found. Re-installing the application may fix this problem."
I have no idea how you managed to link the object files without the GLEW .lib file. Have you downloaded the GLEW library and put the .DLL file in the wrong place, perhaps? The .DLL file should be in the same directory as your OpenGL application that uses it, or in your Windows directory.
Also note that if you launch the application from within Visual Studio, it looks for the .DLL files in the project directory instead of the release/debug directories.
Try putting the file glew32.dll into the same directory as the binary exe that you compiled.