Re: libbfd, libtool & Win32

[David Olofson]

On Monday 16 September 2002 17:47, Guido Draheim wrote:
> David Olofson wrote:
>      for each -lx -ly -lz ; do
>          search trough -L specs for a .dll of that name
>          // that's actually what -no-undefined does //

Ah! I see...


>          if not found, choke and exit.
>          else...
>
>       if there is an gcc import lib side by side with the dll; then
>               just use the gcc import lib
>                      e.g. in a build with two dlls about, where one
>                      needs the other, and the other has a .libs/imp
>                      already there made along with the dll (it's not
>                      install'ed along by default, IIRC, (!!)).
>       else
>               build impgen    (Cross Kaboom 1: Mine dies at 'as'.)
>                      which never did break for me on either linux or
>                      solaris

No, it's most definitely something weird going on with my cross compiler 
setup.


>               run impgen      (Cross Kaboom 2: impgen == target binary!)
>                      where impgen will make *.dll -> *.imp.def
>               make an import lib out of the output
>                      by using normal dlltool/dllwrap commands
>                      to turn the .def file into an implib binary
>                      which is actually a staticdll format. easy part.

This is already handled in a sufficiently nice and clean way, that is?


>       fi
>
> > What we'd need is a install time compiled tool to replace impgen. (No
> > need to have that tool mess with the actualy import lib creation,
> > right?)
>
> exactly!! (a pre-build-time tool, installed along with binutils/gcc
> pair).
>
> > Further, the tool should preferably be based on libbfd, instead of
> > the current raw digging-around-in-a-binary solution.
>
> exactly!  (otherwise, it wouldn't get accepted into binutils)

I figured. :-)

BTW, do any other platforms use similar import libs + DLL systems? (I 
hope not, but if we're going to deal with one anyway, we might as well 
keep them in mind, in case someone cares to add support for them...)


> > Is that correct?
>
> aye.
>
> > Finally, I understand there were problems actually getting the
> > *right* symbols out of a DLL, using libdfb. Does anyone know if this
> > was because of limited libbfd/PE support, or something else?
>
> does anyone know? please, anyone, anything?

Oh, well. I'll just play around some with libbfd, binutils and various 
DLLs, and see what happens. I'll also try to find some fresh 
documentation on PE. (MSDN at work - might find a use for it, for a 
change. ;-)


//David Olofson --- Programmer, Reologica Instruments AB

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