Why is VisualStudio looking for this lib file? LNK1104 error - c++

We have a large project using VS2008 and boost 1_42. I'm trying to upgrade to VS2010 and boost 1_44. I installed VS2010 and boost 1_44 and converted the project. Now I am trying to build, and everything compiles, but fails when linking:
LINK : fatal error LNK1104: cannot open file 'libboost_thread-vc90-mt-1_42.lib'
I have changed the include and lib directories to point to the new boost 1_44 files and I have renamed the old boost 1_42 directory.
Why is the linker still looking for a vc90-1_42 file, when it is only using 1_44 headers? Is there a way that I can determine WHY the linker wants this file? The linker obviously thinks it needs the file, but why?
I have cleaned the project and I am re-building to ensure any old build files are erased.

I've run into exactly this problem a couple of times too. It's usually been some old temporary files but like in your case cleaning didn't always do the trick straight away. Does your project include any static libs that might have been built with 1.42?
Something you can try which may or may not be helpful in tracking down your issue:
Rename the old boost directory back to it's original name
Clean the solution
Under C/C++->Command Line->Additional Options add "/showIncludes"
Under Linker->Command Line->Additional Options add "/verbose:lib"
Rebuild all
Then when you build you'll be able to see at which point 1.42 headers are included, etc. in the output window. Somehow doing this helped me in tracking down where the problem was.

Along with changing the lib directory, you need to change the name of the boost library. That's in the Linker | Input section of the project settings.
Your added comment makes it clear that the dependency on the Boost 1.42 library was being created indirectly by another library that hadn't been rebuilt.
For this you basically have two choices: either add that library as a project to your main solution, and make sure it has enough dependency information that it'll be re-built when you upgrade Boost, or use the /Zl compiler switch when you build your library. This tells the compiler you're building a library so you do not want to embed library dependencies like this.

Boost uses
#pragma comment(lib)
command to inform the linker of libraries it needs to link with. It is not an error. If Boost says you need it, it's likely you do.

On How can I find out why the linker wants this file?
There are programs which will go through your app and dlls/libs and report the content of manifests and what the binaries report they depend on. You could then scan the report for the unexpected libraries being included. We used this mainly to find libs including the previous version of the VC runtime.
Have not used the one we had in about 5 years though, now if only I could remember the name of the app!
DependancyWalker (depends.exe) will allow you to see dependancies of dll/exe but not static libs.
You could open each binary as a 'file' in MSVS and look at the manifest content by hand, but I imaging this would be a bit painful. I've not tried this with a static lib.

Related

Custom libraries in Eclipse with Arduino plugin with cross references

I have an issue with custom libraries that reference headers in other custom libraries.
This is under Eclipse (2020-03) with the 9.11 CDT - Arduino Plugins. (So the latest Version at this time)
Until now I have been using Sloeber, which included all include paths from all custom libraries so everythig was building fine. But with the latest Eclipse/CDT version sloeber does not work anymore. Since it should not really be necessary anymore anyway, I am trying to get my projects to build with just the CDT-Arduino Plugin(s).
Simple projects are Building fine, but more complex have issues…
The build process (makefile generation) seems to scan though the libraries directory, because I can see all the entries in the makefile to build the things it findes in there. But I one of these libraries referneces a header of another one it failes to find it.
Of course I could just edit the include and make it relative, but since these are imported libraries I prefer not to make changes in the code.
With the Arduino plugin there is also no configuration for include paths etc in the project properties any more :-( Normally I would have added the include path there, but the arduino Plugin seems to want to do it all by itself...
Any idea, how I can add the required include paths? Is there a way to do this in the makefile.ini?
I found a different and better way to add custom libraries, which also solves the include path problem. Sadly there is no documentaion about this.
Anyway, it is very simple, just copy the library to the …/.arduinocdt/libraries/ folder. The custom library must contain a library.jason and library.properties file. When opening the Arduino download manager, you can see the new lib and ýou can add it.
Eclipse will read the library version from the json/properties and copy the data in the correct form in a sub directory with the version number.
For libraries added this way, all includes/headers will be found without Problems including libraries referencing other libraries.

Visual Studio (C++) is automatically linking against an unwanted version of lib file

I am trying to create a C++ project in Visual Studio 2013 that has CGAL and Boost (and a couple of other libraries) as dependencies. I preferably like to link to these libraries dynamically. Also, I'd like to link to the "Release" versions of these libraries for performance reasons (not the "Debug" versions).
Starting from an empty C++ project, I added the path to header files of the aforementioned libraries as shown in the image below:
Inside the linker options, I then added the directories that contain the DLL and lib files of the external libraries. (CGAL directory contains CGAL's compiled DLL files along with lib files).
At this point, I have not added a single "lib" file "Additional Dependencies" dialog:
Now something weird is going on and I cannot explain why. If I try to build the project as-is (under the "Debug" configuration), I get a LNK1104 error about the linker not being able to find CGAL-vc120-mt-gd-4.7.lib. I know that the error means I should add the lib file in "Additional Dependencies" dialog...
But wait... WHAT...?!!
How does Visual Studio know how to automatically link against this lib file?! Worse yet, how does it know it needs the "debug" version of the library? (With the gd suffix). Also, how does it know I compiled CGAL with VS2013!!??
At first, I though the project was inheriting properties from some preset property sheets somewhere in my system. But I am certain that's not the case as this behavior shows even with a project created from scratch.
My main question is, how would you force Visual Studio to link against the "Release" version of this library? (eg. CGAL-vc120-mt-4.7.lib)
Side question but related: Am I even linking against the DLL files? How can I be certain that I am in deed doing dynamic linking and not static linking?
This is probably happening due to the #pragma comment(lib) mechanism - eg see What does "#pragma comment" mean?
This is a way of the compiler emitting instructions for the linker so that it can decide between multiple versions of a library depending on the compiler version. In this case it means that it can automatically pick up the correct version of the library (debug vs release, vs2013 vs vs2015, MT vs MD, etc). When you added the explicit reference to the library in Additional Dependencies then it is now trying to look for two files.
So, to fix the problem, remove it from Additional Dependencies and let VS pick the right library. If you are getting the LNK1104 error then it suggests that either the link library path isn't set up correctly, or you don't have the CGAL library file it's looking for. You can increase the verbosity settings for the linker in the Project Options to get more detail about what's happening.

Netbeans C++ using MinGW and the libnoise library

Using netbeans 7.2 and the most recent version of MinGW (using installer) I can't use the libnoise library. I am properly including the header files, the auto completion confirms this, however the library is simply not working. There is a .lib file and a .dll. I have tried every possible combination of adding them under project > properties > Build > Linker as well as putting the .dll in the base project directory. Despite all this I am still getting undefined reference errors whenever I try and run the code. Does anyone know what to do?
I know that it is possible to link import library files (*.lib) with MinGW, but I still suggest to recompile libnoise.
With the current Makefile, this is not very easy and may break. Thus I've written a CMake script, which doesn't only work on Windows, but should work on all CMake supported platforms. In addition to this, I've cleaned up the directory structure. The code itself hasn't been touched and when you build a library it should essentially be the same as the current one.
libnoise on GitHub
After you've built your shared library, you'll have a libnoise.dll.a and libnoise.dll file. You then add libnoise.dll.a to the linking settings and put the DLL itself next to the binary, or in the working directory.
You have to link the lib file (= adding it to linker libraries) and put the dll to
<project root>/dist/<...>/
(where your exe is put to). There's no need to add the dll to linker too.
Can you please post the error message you get?

Fundamental cURL c++ install

With fear of being mocked due to the simplicity I venture out to ask you are question:
What do i have to download and what do i include in my project to get going with the cURL library?
I have tried different things but all resulting in unresolved externals meaning i am including it wrong, i guess.
An explanation of the install process in whole would be awesome! I'm not quite sure exactly what files to use and where to put them. Im using visual studio 2012.
Can anyone shed some light on this?
You need to link the library during link phase of the build. There is an option in the project properties for additional library dependencies - add the .lib file(s) that comes with curl there. Just including a file in your source is rarely enough to use a library.
Ok I am using visual studio (2008) for your work but I will answer to the best of my knowledge.I am assuming you have built libcurl using .sln file or are using a prebuilt set of binaries.
First of all build a solution in project wizard and get a project in it. Right click on project and select properties
In properties go the C++ general tab, add the include directories of curl. Now go to Linker general tab and put the lib directory(which contains the dlls and obj files of your build) in the additional library directories. Now go to input option and put libcurl_imp.lib or libcurldll.a(depending upon your version and compile method). These names can be different and depend upon your build, but the extensions will be of these two types. It is the linker step in which you are making a mistake.
After this compile and run.

fatal error LNK1104: cannot open file 'libboost_system-vc90-mt-gd-1_43.lib'

Made a new project, added main.cpp and wrote the code at this URL:
http://www.boost.org/doc/libs/1_43_0/doc/html/boost_asio/example/echo/async_tcp_echo_server.cpp
Also, added the appropriate include path.
What's next?!?!! It seems like a darn mystery to build a boost code!
Been digging on it for more than 10 hours.
Can anyone give a straightforward answer on how to build the boost library from the code under windows, VC9?
You need to use bjam. It is responsible for creating the libraries that your application will use. Once you use bjam, you are going to need to instruct your project to include the lib file. You do this by going into the project's properties -> Configuration Properties -> Linker -> General. Add the directory which created the lib file to Additional Library Directories. You should be capable of correctly linking after that.
I believe that this link describes the steps better than I could attempt in a post
#bogertron: I want to hug you! (:
So, at last, with a real head ache, I've managed to do so.
The exact steps I took, so others will be saved from the head ache:
Went to http://www.boost.org/doc/libs/1_43_0/more/getting_started/windows.html#or-build-binaries-from-source .
Followed the "5.3.1 Get bjam" clause. Downloaded the "pre-built bjam executable for your platform" at this URL: http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=7586&package_id=72941 .
Extracted the ZIP file (my platform is Windows).
Ran "build.bat". It produced the file "bin.ntx86/bjam.exe".
Copied this file to my PATH ("...../boost_1_43_0/").
From a command line, executed "bjam.exe" and waited for about 4-5 minutes.
Then got this message at the console: "The Boost C++ Libraries were successfully built!"
That's it, it even tells you where the include & lib files are.
Not all Boost libraries are header only, Boost.System is one of them. The documentation for Boost.Asio tells you that it depends on Boost.System.
With Visual Studio, the Boost libraries use auto-linking, which means you don't have to explicitly link to the libraries you need. You however need to have the necessary libraries in the library search path, either globally or per-project.
If you don't want to build the Boost libraries yourself, you can use the installers provided by boostpro (only up to Boost 1.42 though at the moment). If you want to build them yourself instead, the documentation covers that well.
I had the same error and i followed the SourceForge. The link will take you to a folder of zipped lib and dll files for version of boost.You can download and unzip related library and when copied it to the related location everything gonna be alright ;)
In Visual Studio, right-click on your project, then go to properties and select:
Properties -> Configuration Properties -> Linker
There you add the full path of your library in the tab named "Additional Library Directories".
From the "Boost Getting Started Directions":
"5.2 Or, Simplified Build From Source
If you wish to build from source with Visual C++, you can use a simple build procedure described in this section. Open the command prompt and change your current directory to the Boost root directory. Then, type the following commands:
bootstrap
.\b2"
On Windows, I opened the Visual Studio Command Line from the start menu. First I types "bootstrap" and then I typed ".\b2".
Now with boost_1.50 the Boost.build is included in the zip file: check tools\build\v2\ or better read: ...boost_1_50_0/more/getting_started/windows.html