How to configure and use GCC compiler to Generate dll fille

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How to configure and use GCC compiler to Generate dll fille

Akash Chandrasekaran 20

HI,

I want to configure Visual Studio with the GCC compiler for dll file generation. I have googled enough about creating this environment but could not able to find an appropriate solution.

I have an existing environment in which I create a C++ empty project and configured it accordingly but it uses the default visual studio compiler there is no option to change the compiler in the project properties.

In the platform toolchains, no GCC compiler is listed. only the default visual studio compiler is available.

Can anyone support me on how to add the GCC?

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Answer 1

Minxin Yu 13,501 Microsoft External Staff

Hi,

You need to install CMake tools in Visual Studio.
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Create CMake project.

enter image description here

In default CMakePreset.json file Modify: "CMAKE_C_COMPILER": "gcc", "CMAKE_CXX_COMPILER": "g++"

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Add content in the CMakeList file.

# CMakeList.txt : CMake project for CMakeProject1, include source and define
# project specific logic here.
#

# Add source to this project's executable.
add_executable (CMakeProject1 "CMakeProject1.cpp" "CMakeProject1.h")

if (CMAKE_VERSION VERSION_GREATER 3.12)
  set_property(TARGET CMakeProject1 PROPERTY CXX_STANDARD 20)
endif()

# TODO: Add tests and install targets if needed.


add_library(YourLibraryName SHARED "Header.h" "Header.cpp")

set_target_properties(YourLibraryName PROPERTIES LIBRARY_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY "")

install(TARGETS YourLibraryName DESTINATION "")

Click the icon to switch to CMake View.

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Right click the project->Build ALL.

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Best regards,

Minxin Yu

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Akash Chandrasekaran 20 Reputation points

2023-06-15T04:47:32.52+00:00
Hi Minxin Yu,

Thank You

I am not much aware of the CMakeList file could let me know about the things mentioned below for my better understanding?

add_executable - Is all the source files (*.c & *.h) that are available need to be added here .?

For the below three, I could not get what is YourLibraryName could you please share any sample or example of what need to be added/modified?

add_library(YourLibraryName SHARED "Header.h" "Header.cpp") - Header.h and Header.cpp is this a dummy.?

set_target_properties(YourLibraryName PROPERTIES LIBRARY_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY "")

install(TARGETS YourLibraryName DESTINATION "")

Also when creating a new CMAKE project I am not getting any options to add the existing file to the project. Only adding new items is possible is there any option to add the existing sources to the project or do we need to manually copy the source to the root directory since I have a list of source files that need to bed added here.

For DLL generation any other setting need to be changed.?
Akash Chandrasekaran 20 Reputation points

2023-06-15T04:54:35.6066667+00:00
Hi Minxin Yu,

Thank you for the Update.

I am completely new to the CMakeList file and totally unaware of it could you clarify me the below points

add_executable - In this weather all the source files (*.c & *.h) need to be added.?

And for the below three, I could not get what you mean by YourLibraryName could you share with me some sample or example scripts for better understanding?

add_library(YourLibraryName SHARED "Header.h" "Header.cpp")

set_target_properties(YourLibraryName PROPERTIES LIBRARY_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY "")

install(TARGETS YourLibraryName DESTINATION "")
Minxin Yu 13,501 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff

2023-06-15T05:33:34.37+00:00
add_executable is used to generate exe. Considering that you are using a DLL. You can ignore this line.

In the add_executable command, you typically need to add the source files (.c and .cpp) that are necessary to build your executable. And the compiler will find Headers automatically based on the #include directives. Of course , it won't matter if you add header files.

YourLibraryName is the name of the dll. As it says, this just a DLL name. And XXX.h and XXX.cpp are the dll source files.

CMake does not depend on project. You only need to specify the file path or put the code in the same folder.

To generate DLL. what you need is command below:

add_library(YourLibraryName SHARED "XXX.h" "XXX.cpp") //source code set_target_properties(YourLibraryName PROPERTIES LIBRARY_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY "") install(TARGETS YourLibraryName DESTINATION "")
Akash Chandrasekaran 20 Reputation points

2023-06-15T05:39:06.9333333+00:00

Thank You Minxin now I can understand it better. I will try this and update it here.

Also, I am not getting any options to add the existing file to the project. Only adding new items is possible is there any option to add the existing sources to the project or do we need to manually copy the source to the root directory since I have a list of source files that need to bed added here?
Minxin Yu 13,501 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff

2023-06-15T05:49:38.3766667+00:00

You do not need to add existing items to the project. As a first try, move the file to the folder location. For a deeper attempt, you can learn to use set (SOURCES file1.cpp file2.cpp file3.cpp)

add_library(YourLibraryName SHARED ${SOURCES})

target_include_directories and more commands.
Akash Chandrasekaran 20 Reputation points

2023-06-15T13:16:33.0533333+00:00

Hi Minxin,

With your provided input I created a CMake project for hello world and it works fine.

Now I try adding my actual project it has 1000s of source and header files I have created a directory under the project and moved all the source and header under the directory and subdirectories I checked for set (SOURCES file1.cpp file2.cpp file3.cpp) It seems like even we use the set we need to mention all the source files here. As per my understanding, we are adding all the sources to a variable SOURCE and passing it to the add_executable (CMakeProject1 ${SOURCE})

Is this the way we have to use this.?
Minxin Yu 13,501 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff

2023-06-16T01:52:46.1366667+00:00
GLOB can include all source cpp files but you need to use it carefully. For your reference: Automatically add all files in a folder to a target using CMake

file(GLOB CPP_SOURCES "*.cpp") set(SOURCES ${CPP_SOURCES})
Akash Chandrasekaran 20 Reputation points

2023-06-16T10:50:55.4766667+00:00
Thanks, I now can able to add all the source files to the executables

In our project, we need to generate *.dll & *.a files but if I add two add_library it throws an error.

Can you let me know how to generate both the lib files.?

And we need to generate *.map & Stripped *.dll files as well. To generate it what option needs to be enabled.?

In general, for make a script, we use the below commands to generate the .dll, stripped .dll, map file, .a and stripped .a files, can this same set of options be used here if so can you let us know how to use that

$(OUTDIR)/$(PROJ).dll: $(OBJECTS) @$(ECHO) Linking and locating to $(PROJ).dll @$(BINDIR)/gcc -shared -Wl,-Map=$(OUTDIR)/$(PROJ).map -o$(OUTDIR)/$(PROJ).dll $(OPT_LC) @objects.txt @$(BINDIR)/strip -s -o $(OUTDIR)/$(PROJ)_stripped.dll $(OUTDIR)/$(PROJ).dll $(OUTDIR)/$(PROJ).a: $(OBJECTS) @$(ECHO) Creating $(PROJ).a @$(shell $(RM) -f $(OUTDIR)/$(PROJ).a) @$(BINDIR)/ar r $(OUTDIR)/$(PROJ).a @objects.txt @$(BINDIR)/strip -g -X -x -o $(OUTDIR)/$(PROJ)_stripped.a $(OUTDIR)/$(PROJ).a
Minxin Yu 13,501 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff

2023-06-19T02:10:16.24+00:00
The command will generate both .dll and .dll.a file. Create a minimal sample and check the folder. You do not need two add_library.

add_library(YourLibraryName SHARED "XXX.h" "XXX.cpp") //source code set_target_properties(YourLibraryName PROPERTIES LIBRARY_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY "") install(TARGETS YourLibraryName DESTINATION "")

In addition, the command below is used to generate map for dll.

set(CMAKE_SHARED_LINKER_FLAGS "${CMAKE_SHARED_LINKER_FLAGS} -Wl,-Map=my_dll.map")

map file can be found in folder YourCMakeProject\out\build\x64-debug

And we need to generate *.map & Stripped *.dll files as well.

One thread should focus on once question. Since your original question was using GCC in Visual Studio and the second one is more related to the usage of CMake. You could ask the second question on CMake forum.
Akash Chandrasekaran 20 Reputation points

2023-06-19T02:29:28.7966667+00:00

Thank You minxin.

Hope this helps me a lot.

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How to configure and use GCC compiler to Generate dll fille

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