LoadLibrary fails when including a specific file during DLL build - c++

Question

I'm getting really strange behavior in one of the DLLs of my C++ app. It works and loads fine until I include a single file using #include in the main file of the DLL. I then get this error message:
Loading components from D:/Targets/bin/MatrixWorkset.dll
Could not load "D:/Targets/bin/MatrixWorkset.dll": Cannot load library MatrixWorkset: Invalid access to memory location.
Now I've searched and searched through the code and google and I can't figure out what is going on. Up till now everything was in a single DLL and I've decided to split it into two smaller ones. The file that causes the problems is part of the other second library (which loads fine).
Any ideas would really be appreciated.
Thanks,
Jaco

Answer 1

The likely cause is a global with class type. The constructor is run from DllMain(), and DllMain() in turn runs before LoadLibrary() returns. There are quite a few restrictions on what you can do until DllMain() has returned.

Answer 2

Is it possible that header includes a #pragma comment(lib,"somelibrary.lib") statement somewhere? If so it's automatically trying to import a library.
To troubleshoot this I'd start by looking at the binary with depends (http://www.dependencywalker.com/), to see if there are any DLL dependencies you don't expect. If you do find something and you are in Visual Studio, you should turn on "Show Progress" AKA /VERBOSE on the linker.
Since you are getting the Invalid Access to memory location, it's possible there's something in the DLLMAIN or some static initializer that is crashing. Can you simplify the MatrixWorkset.dll (assuming you wrote it)?

Answer 3

The error you describe sounds like a run-time error. Is this error displayed automatically by windows or is it one that your program emits?
I say attach a debugger to your application and trace where this error is coming from. Is Windows failing to load a dependency? Is your library somehow failing on load-up?
If you want to rule in/out this header file you're including, try pre-compiling your main source file both with and without this #include and diff the two results.

Answer 4

I'm still not getting it going. Let me answer some of the questions asked:
1) Windows is not failing to load a dependency, I think since Dependency Walker shows everything is ok.
2) I've attached a debugger which basically prints the following when it tries to load MatrixWorkset.dll:
10:04:19.234
stdout:&"warning: Loading components from D:/ScinericSoftware/VisualWorkspace/trunk/Targets/bin/MatrixWorkset.dll\n"
10:04:19.234
stdout:&"\n"
status:Stopped: "signal-received"
status:Stopped.
10:04:19.890
stdout:30*stopped,reason="signal-received",signal-name="SIGSEGV",signal-meaning="Segmentation fault",thread-id="1",frame={addr="0x7c919994",func="towlower",args=[],from="C:\\WINDOWS\\system32\\ntdll.dll"}
input:31info shared
input:32-stack-list-arguments 2 0 0
input:33-stack-list-locals 2
input:34-stack-list-frames
input:35-thread-list-ids
input:36-data-list-register-values x
10:04:19.890
3) MSalters: I'm not sure what you mean with a "global with class type". The file that is giving the problems have been included in a different DLL in which it worked fine and the DLL loaded successfully.
This is the top of the MatrixVariable.h file:
#include "QtSF/Variable.h" // Located in depending DLL (the DLL in which this file always lived.
#include "Matrix.h" // File located in this DLL
#include "QList" // These are all files from the Qt Framework
#include "QModelIndex"
#include "QItemSelection"
#include "QObject"
using namespace Zenautics;
using namespace std;
class MatrixVariable : public Variable
{
Q_OBJECT
Q_PROPERTY(int RowCount READ rowCount WRITE setRowCount)
Q_PROPERTY(int ColumnCount READ columnCount WRITE setColumnCount)
Q_PROPERTY(int UndoPoints READ undoPoints WRITE setUndoPoints)
public:
//! Default constructor.
MatrixVariable(const QString& name, int rows, int cols, double fill_real = 0, double fill_complex = 0, bool isReal = true);
etc. etc. etc.
A possible solution is to put the MatrixVariable file back in the original DLL but that defeats the whole idea of splitting the DLL into smaller parts which is not really a option.

Answer 5

I get that error from GetLastError() when I fail to load a DLL from a command line EXE recently. It used to work, then I added some MFC code to the DLL. Now all bets are off.

Answer 6

I just had this exact same problem. A dll that had been working just fine, suddenly stopped working. I was taking an access violation in the CRT stuff that initializes static objects. Doing a rebuild all did not fix the problem. But when I manually commented out all the statics, the linker complained about a corrupt file. Link again: Worked. Now I can LoadLibrary. Then, one by one, I added the statics back in. Each time, I recompiled and tested a LoadLibrary. Each time it worked fine. Eventually, all my statics were back, and things working normally.
If I had to guess, some intermediate file used by the linker was corrupted (I see the ilk files constantly getting corrupted by link.exe). If you can, maybe wipe out all your files and do a clean build? But I'm guessing you've already figured things out since this is 6 months old ...