I'm making a DLL (and probably a Linux port at some later date) in C++ using eclipse. The situation is as follows: I am trying to make two separate build configurations, one that will build a DLL and one that will build an executable CppUnit test. Currently I have all of the DLL build working, and I can make a separate project to test the DLL with; however, I was wondering if there was any way to do this all in one project.
Help on this matter would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks,
Chris
Well, I found out how to do it, so if anyone else stumbles across this...
If you go into "Project->Properties->C/C++ Build->Settings", then select a debug configuration (or create a new one). Go to the "Build Artifact" tab, and change the "Artifact Type" to executable.
Now to avoid having all of your source code compiled into all Build Configurations (such as your main() being built into a DLL, which doesn't make much sense), go to "Project->Properties->C/C++ General->Paths and Symbols". Select your build configuration and go to the "Source Location" tab. Here you can add new source folders/remove source folders that already exist.
Related
I'm working in VS 2019 on a C++ program in which I want to link into a bunch of 3rd party dlls, which are located in a folder separate from my executable. I don't want to copy all the dlls into the executable folder and have found the following solution.
Just like in the solution, I create a registry entry to define the keys with the information about the executable and the required path information to link to the DLLs:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\MyExe.exe
%Path2MyExe%\MyExe.exe (default key)
Path = %Path2DLLs%
The compilation from within VS works fine and when I start the generated executables from outside VS by (a) double clicking or (b) by using the command line, the 3rd party DLLs are found and the program is executed as expected.
However, when I invoke the debugger from within Visual Studio (c), execution is halted right away complaining that DLLs cannot be found.
I have checked the present working directory from within the code using _getcwd and for all options (a-c) it indicates the same directory.
So the question is: why does option (c) - debugging from within VS - not work?!
Cheers, Sebastian
It's probably because the executable that's launched when debugging is a vshost executable, not the generated executable for the project, and so it needs a separate entry in the registry.
If you want to stick with this kind of a build (highly not recommended), the easiest way to debug is to disable the hosting process:
Following the suggestion by drescherjm I tried to prepend the DLL directory to the PATH variable in "Configuration Properties -> Debugging -> Environment" following this solution.
However, this did not work for me. I also added the path directly in the system environment dialogue without success.
What did work in the end is setting the working directory under "Configuration Properties -> Debugging -> Working Directory" to point to the DLL folder. Now all three calling routes (a-c) work as expected.
Thanks to everyone for taking the time to help me out on this.
Sebastian
I am quite used to Linux development and Makefiles, and started using (Windows and) Visual Studio not so long ago.
What I want to do is (I think) quite simple, but I can't seem to find how to do it using Visual Studio.
I have to write an application, which I can divide into several independent sub-parts. I want to work incrementally, and create several projects that together with a main file will end up with my full project.
What I basically want is to be able to write a small project, have a main for it so that I can fully test it, and use it as a dependency for the next project. In this case, the smaller main would be deactivated (or I can comment it), and I would just change the startup project.
If I find a bug in a subset while writing my bigger software, I could just change the startup project and solve it at a smaller scale.
Well, that's what I do all day long in Python and Java.
I tried to create new projects into my project, but I always end up having linking problems, where my main projects knows about the files in the sub projects, but not the smaller ones, etc. . .
So, is there a guide somewhere I can find to work this way ?
Thank you
For individual projects:
Every individual project property sheet has a C++ options page. Here you can specify the 'Addional Include Directories' in a comma separated form.
Similarly, there should be a property sheet for Linker where you can specify the 'Addional Include Dependencies' and the names of the libraries it depends on.
For linker dependencies of the main executable:
Go to that main project, go to its properties, go to common properties and select 'Framework and References'. This should give you a list of all the projecs that are in your solution. Keep adding them and Visual Studio should add the right linker flags automatically for you.
Sorry, have no access to the computer now else would have provided exact steps. Visual Studio can get tricky sometimes but once you use it, you'll be amazed by what it can do for you. Personally, I love it.
Hope this helps.
Thanks to Vaibhav, I was able to find a solution:
I had to :
change subproject type to lib instead of exe
Add the subprojects as project dependencies in the main project (this just sets the build order)
Comment out the main of my subprojects, to keep only one active.
Add each subproject include directory in the include repos of the main project, so that the compiler can find the header files
Add the general directory as a dependency for the linker (in this case, it is not the debug/release folder of the subprojects, but the output directory of the complete project).
Add the names of the lib files of the subprojects in additional dependencies of the linker of the main project.
To make it simple, the project dependencies capability of VS2010 just changes the order in which the projects are built. . . I miss Eclipse.
If I find a bug and want to test on of the subprojects, I have to :
change the startup project to be the subproject I want to change.
uncomment the corresponding main
change the project type to be exe instead of lib to be able to compile it.
Debug, and do everything back again to continue working on my main project.
Quite boring, don't you think ?
Looks like you trying to do manual unit testing. Use something like Google.Test. You need to make test project for every lib.
We have directory with static libs projects. Another directory with tests projects. Every test solution contains one exe project and few existing lib projects. Every project have configured dependencies. You dont need to set additional dependencies of the linker manually (paths are evil, out dir for the lib file will be taken from project settings), open project properties with right mouse button, Common properties, Add new reference and select lib project. You only need to set additional include dirs.
When you find new bug - just open test project for the library with bug, add code which cause the bug, fix it, and be happy (and sometimes run all test). And even better - use TDD.
I'm using eclipse for the first time. I'm a seasoned VisualStudio user, so I'm trying to find similar functionality in eclipse. I have two projects, A and B. Project A spits out libA.a when it's done compiling. Project B links against libA.a. Here is my problem.
I compile project A then project B, everything is fine.
I make a code change to project A that requires a build of project A.
I try to build project B, but it states that no changes have been detected.
How do I make project B aware of the output of project A?? Currently I'm having to do a clean build of project B for it to re-link against libA.a.
Thanks.
EDIT: In my ProjectB->Path and Symbols->References tab, I have project A checked. This doesn't relink after project A is rebuilt.
Try the below settings:
Go to properties of Main Project → C/C++ General → Paths and Symbols → References
Tick all the dependencies.
You go into Project Properties of Project B, select Project References and make it reference (depend) on Project A.
Edit, appears to be a known bug
One can work around this problem by using the touch command.
In Eclipse, as part of C/C++ Build/Settings is the tab 'Build Steps'. In the pre-build steps command line, enter touch filename.
filename is any file in your application. This could be the file with main(). This could be a special file just for this workaround, touchdummy.c, which can be a tiny file, which compiles quickly.
When the application builds, even if you didn't change any sources, the touch command causes make to rebuild the application. If the library was rebuilt, then the application gets rebuilt with the new library.
One can read about how touch affects the date/time of the file here.
http://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/utilities/touch.html
Edit: The exact command in Eclipse would be touch ${ProjDirPath}/src/main.c
Edit: This command should work, but it appears that if the 'main' project did not change, the pre-build step is not executed. Also the touch command causes eclipse to prompt to reload the file it touched. A large annoyance.
Eclipse projects depend on each other by virtue of the checkbox in the project's properties (dependent projects?) which is how Eclipse decides which to build. You can set this yourself, but it's usually set when you change your Java build path.
By default at least with QNX C++ projects, it WILL NOT check for changes in other projects.
Right click on the project, and expand "check dependencies on/off"->"check user headers only"
It seems to work, roughly...
It appears to do a makedepends on the code, and adds *.d files to the output folder which are simply depends file that list the header files.
Note: these do not appear to get regenerated, and get out of date - I do not know how to regenerate them.
For Project A (library):
Properties>C/C++ Build>Settings>Build Steps>Post-build steps> touch -m ${ProjDirPath}/source/build/build_updated.cpp
You should create folder "source/build" firstly and don't add in that folder any other files.
For Project B:
Properties>Project References> check Project A
Properties>С/С++ General>Paths and Symbols>Source Location>Link Folder>Link to folder in the file system> find and pick "source/build" folder which you created for project A before.
I have a source code for a project with their make files. I want to create a Visual Studio (2005) solution from it. Is there any direct way to do this? can anyone help me please. I spent hours for searching, but couldn't find a way to do this.
Thanks.
Unfortunately, Microsoft removed this capability after VC++ 6.
If all you're looking to do is to build a Visual Studio project from a command line or script, you can use the devenv command to build using the settings in a project.
Something like:
devenv /build debug /project myproj myapp.sln
Ans starting with VS2010, C++ projects will use the MSBuild system, so you can drive builds using that technology.
If you really want a makefile, you'll need to write it up by hand (or maybe there's some 3rd party tool out there that I'm unaware of).
I'm not sure whether this solution can help you. Which I tried and it worked well in my previous projects. It need manually add the files.
Create a blank VS solution/project. Add the source files into that project.
Mark all source files as "Excluded from building". You can right click the files in project explorer and find the setting. So now nothing will happen when you build your project.
In project setting, find something like "Custom build step". Add the commands that invoke your original build command. (You may write different build command for debug/release ). You can also set the post-build actions such to copy your result to some folder....
Now you can edit and build source files.
For my experience, I can even debug it after setting the executable.
Hope this can help you.
If this is a one-off then it is easier to just create the VS project manually in visual studio.
If you are going to need to do this often look at ceating the project in something like cmake or Qt's .pro whcihc an generate makefiles and VS build files from the same defintion.
Do you want to use the makefile to build? You can create a project from existing source in VS 2005 and setup the project to use make to build (and the wizard will take you through all of this).
I am using VS2010.In order to build you can create a project from existing code. In VS2010 you can create project from existing code File->New->Project from Existing code. You can specify the other parameters and then ready with the solution. I did not go with make file but followed this approach which is working great.
i'm new to visual studio and couldn't find anything on google about this. i know this is an extremely noobish question, but i can't seem to find any info for it.
the debug shows me whatever i write, and the build has no errors, so i know the code i'm writing is fine.
the release folder doesn't contain the .exe, even after i build it, rebuild, clean, etc.
it's a win 32 console project. the release folder contains the .obj files, the manifest, the build log, idb, pch and pdb files (one of each)
Some possible reasons:
Did you accidentally create a class library project? In that case the output would be a DLL and not an EXE.
Does the output window or the error list display any build errors? In that case you should first fix these, then build again.
Did you change the configuration of the project, so that the output (EXE) is created in a different folder than the default one?
There's not a whole lot of reason for people to be guessing... You said you can find the build log - the exact location of any output file will be in there. To make sure you're seeing the right build log file, the output window in VS will have a link to the file that particular build run created:
1>Build log was saved at "file://c:\DevTrees\cppTest\Debug\BuildLog.htm"
1>cppTest - 0 error(s), 2 warning(s)
If you're having trouble interpreting it, post the contents.
I had the same problem; the advice above to look closely at the output window was just what I needed - thanks. My confusion was because I was looking in solution>project>Debug when VS put it in solution>Debug.
The Release and Debug folders contain outputs from different build configurations.
If you look in Project properties, you will see an Output Folder setting in the Build section, and it will be different for each configuration. (You can see the setting for each configuration using the dropdown list at the top of the Project Properties window)
The Release folder will only get populated when you build the project in the Release configuration.
To switch to the Release configuration, use the dropdown list in the toolbar.
EDIT: I am describing the UI for C# projects. It may be different for native code.
Are you sure that your project type is correct? A class library project won't build an executable. It would need to be some sort of application project to create an executable.
I had the same problem. The compilation went fine, but no .exe was generated in the target folder (.\Debug).
The problem was actually that the file containing the main() function was called "FooProject.cpp". I renamed it to "main.cpp" and then the .exe was generated properly.
In other IDEs such as Eclipse CDT, you don't need to have your main file called "main.cpp" as long as you have a proper main() function. This is apparently not the case for Visual C++.