missing zlib.dll - windows

I am building a win32 executable. The compiler is the latest version of MinGW. The library dependencies are GLUT and libpng.
I first tested on a windows 7 machine, and had to obtain libpng3.dll and freeglut32.dll. However, on XP, I had to (in addition) acquire zlib1.dll.
The XP machine was a VM with a fresh install, so I suspect a fresh win7 machine may also be lacking zlib1.
My question is how do I go about finding out which dll's I need to distribute? How do I know, a priori, which dynamic libraries are needed for my program to run on a particular system? I suppose this is what installer programs are for... I'm guessing that what the installer does is look through the system to find out which dependencies are unsatisfied, and then provides them. So this way if I were to distribute my program I could check if the user's machine already has zlib1.dll, and I won't install zlib1.dll if it's already found in the system directory. However I never found a document that said to me specifically, "libpng requires zlib", and so, until such point as I tested the executable on a machine lacking zlib, I was unaware of this dependency. How can I create my dependency list without having a fresh install of each version of every operating system to test on?
One idea I have is to decompile the executable, or through some method examine the linking process, to find all the libraries that are being linked at runtime. The problem now becomes figuring out which of these are supposed to already be there, and which of them I could be expected to provide in the distribution.
edit: Okay, I looked, and the installation of libpng I downloaded did provide zlib1.dll inside its bin directory. So not including it is pretty much my fault. In any case, Daniel's answer is definitive.

Dependendy Walker shows all deps of your program.

The correct answer to this question, in my view, is to start at the source rather than to reverse engineer the solution with Dependency Walker, awesome and useful tool though it undoubtedly is.
The problem with Dependency Walker is that it only tells you what one particular run of the program requires on the OS on which you run it. If you have any dynamic loading dependencies in your app then you would only pick those up if you made sure you profiled the app with Dep. Walker and forced it through those dynamic loads.
My preferred approach to this problem is to start with your own source code and analyse and understand what it depends upon. It's often easy enough to do so because you know it well.
You need to understand what are the deployment requirements for your compiler. You usually have options of linking statically and dynamically to the C++ runtime. Obviously a dynamic link results in a deployment requirement.
You will also likely link to 3rd party code. One example would be Windows components. These typically don't need deployment, you can take them as already being in place. Sometimes that's not true, e.g. GDI+ on Windows 2000.
Sometimes you will link statically to 3rd party code (again easy), but if you link dynamically then that implies a deployment requirement.

Related

How to install CBC for Pyomo locally on Windows machine?

My goal is to connect the open-source CBC solver with Pyomo in Spyder. I am working on a Windows 10 machine and it is not an option for me to use the NEOS server due to company policy.
I have downloaded the binaries from Bintray (https://bintray.com/coin-or/download/Cbc#files) that include a cbc.exe file. However when trying to run it, several errors come up stating that I am missing files (among other libbz2-1.dll and zlib1.dll). I do not know much about linux or software development but after a lot of time on google I understand that these are used for unpacking data among other things. I found all files except zlib1.dll in a developer chat on the same subject and zlib1.dll I found on another page. However when running I now get the error: “The application was unable to start correctly (0xc000007b).
I have also tried downloading MSYS2 MinGW and followed instructions from CBC. I don’t know if I require this or if it is only for developers.
Can anyone tell me what to do? I suspect other people than myself want to use CBC in Pyomo as an alternative to GLPK.
If you already have the .exe file, make sure it is in your current working folder (set as the working directory in Spyder, simply opening your file is not enough) and call it using the SolveFactory function:
opt = SolverFactory("cbc.exe")
results = opt.solve(model)
It works for me.
You will find some general information here where i outlined some approaches.
While this was targeted at Clp, it also applies to Cbc.
It's a bit strange as i observed too, that some libs are not statically linked (zlib) while it's certainly doable. But as mentioned in the thread, this should not be the case anymore (see the restriction about which files are fully statically linked) and therefore your observation is strange (and you did not say, which file you downloaded).
So i would trying one of the following (in this order):
Try again with your source, but stick to the master-versions (see first link) as the maintainer only guaranteed fully-static builds for those!
Use the builds from AMPL
(tested and works for me; generally recommended in terms of quality/stability of builds)
Use the builds from coin-or/pulp, another modelling-tool for python
(tested and works for me)
Compile from source using mingw64
(Use any build and provide some external dll of zlib and co -> hard to debug)
Of course i completely ignored other potential issues:
license-stuff (what's part of those builds)
not sure if a company can afford to use binaries not build themself in regards to legal stuff
version-compatibility with python
does every version of Cbc work
cbc version + configuration
modern version
compiled with multi-threading
...

How to Publish/Export wxWidgets Application

newbie here.
Want to ask for any advice on how to Publish/Export, CodeBlocks Application made by using wxWidgets. After some research, i discovered that i should use DLL, or something like that, but since I am really new into it, I am missing the logic on how I should actually implement that. Since CodeBlocks offers wxWidgets and DLL as separate projects. So I am not really sure how to properly combine. Thanks in advance.
If you used wxWidgets as .dll, to get a self-standing package you have to distribute all the requested libraries. The simplest way is just to copy them from their source folder (in your case [wxWidgets root]\lib\gcc_dll) in the same folder as your executable. There could be many of them, but usually only two or three are needed. For simplicity you can copy them all, or you can try repeatedly to start the program, and add each time the library indicated in the error message.
Please note that to distribute your application you will probably want to compile it in Release mode, and consequently you should ship the Release .dlls (i.e. beginning with wx...28_ instead of wx...28d_).

c++/cli DLL fails under Win 8.1

i have written a Win32/net DLL, it works fine under Win XP, Win7 and 8 but under Win 8.1 it fails.
Dependency Walker says: API-MS-WIN-CORE-KERNEL32-PRIVATE-L1-1-1.DLL not found
(user32.dll will call them)
Google means, MS changed some System-DLLs in 8.1 (and ignored compatibility), so that many programs have the same problem.
Full list with "file not found":
API-MS-WIN-CORE-KERNEL32-PRIVATE-L1-1-1.DLL
API-MS-WIN-CORE-PRIVATEPROFILE-L1-1-1.DLL
MSVCR120.DLL
API-MS-WIN-CORE-SHUTDOWN-L1-1-1.DLL
API-MS-WIN-SERVICE-PRIVATE-L1-1-1.DLL
EXT-MS-WIN-NTUSER-UICONTEXT-EXT-L1-1-0.DLL
IESHIMS.DLL
Does someone have a idea how to fix this?
Dependency Walker's static analysis is not to be relied upon. The fact that Dependency Walker reports issues with those DLLs based on its static analysis does not mean that this is indeed your problem. It is normal for perfectly fine executables to report problems as you describe under static analysis, and yet execute perfectly well.
Right now I'm looking at Dependency Walker's assessment of my application and I see the exact same list of supposedly problematic files as you do. But the application runs perfectly well. Simply put, you are looking at a false positive.
Microsoft has certainly not ignored compatibility when upgrading operating systems. On the contrary, it goes to extraordinary lengths to maintain good compatibility.
If you want to use Dependency Walker to debug dependency problems with native DLLs, then you really need to use it in dynamic mode, using the Profile menu. This will tell you which dependency fails to load at runtime, if indeed that is your problem. But depending on exactly where the balance is between managed and unmanaged, it may be that Dependency Walker is not the right tool for the job.
And your problem may not be an issue with native dependencies. The first step is for you to diagnose exactly what the problem is. That's beyond the scope of this question because we don't have any details of the errors that you encounter.

QBSDK Distribution for VB6 App

Ok, I went through great lengths but I finally got my integration to quickbooks working on my VB6 application. It works perfectly on my build machine. I actually installed the qbdsk11 on my build machine and worte and tested the code. The ONLY new reference in the project is the QBFC11.dll.
So, I added the QBFC11.dll to my innosetup, told it to do a regsvr on the dll, and hoped this was enough.
NOT.
First, during install, I get a failure to register the dll. Apparently, this DLL isnt meant to be registered?
But the .DLL was put in Windows System32, so I tried my program anyways...
NOPE. Doesnt work. I get a runtime 91, about an object variable not set. Which makes sense, if it cant create the object.
So, for grins, I moved a copy of the .DLL into the program folder, next to my executable.
Same thing. Runtime error 91.
So, i then grab the whole qbsdk11 installer and install it on this machine. I figure I can make it an additional download for people who want to use this extra functionality.
But no, even with the whole SDK installed, I still get the same runtime error.
I have not been able to find any CLEAR information on how to proceed. I'd prefer for this to be part of my base install. But apparently something still just isn't right.
What did I miss? How do I fix this? I don't even know what to try next.
If you're using QBFC11, you must install the QBFC11 redistributable components with your application. You can find instructions on how to do this in the QBSDK Programmer's Guide in the section titled Redistributing SDK Components With Your Application, subsection Using Installers and Merge Modules.
The most likely cause of the runtime error you're currently getting is the manipulation of the QBFC11.DLL that you did before you installed the SDK. I would start again with a clean OS image so that you can get the proper procedure down.

What is happening when you set a compilation path?

I understand it is somehow making a connection so that a compiler when envokes connects a source code to whatever libraries that it needs to.
But what is going on a more technical level, or better put what do I need to know in order to confidentally compile code.
I'm working with C++ and MinGW, and have started to look into build files and stuff for Sublime Text 2 (Have learned mostly under unix, or Java + eclipse so far). But what I don't understand what is adding a compiler to your path do for you?
Do I need to add it for every folder I want to compile from? Or is it system wide? I'm really learning this stuff for the first time, we we're never showed how to set up development environments or even deploy code on other systems.
You probably mean include paths and library paths in the compiler:
include paths: where the compiler will look for headers; and
library paths: where the linker, invoked by the compiler, will look for binary libraries to finish building your project.
If that is the case, look here for a gentle explanation.
Basically, what is happening is that the compiler looks in certain places for symbols defined by the operating system and other libraries installed system-wide.
In addition to those paths, you need to tell the compiler where to find the symbols defined in your own project.
You may also mean something related to installing the compiler itself or configuring the editor to use it.
In that case, what is happening is that you need to tell the build system where to find the executable for the compiler.
Basically, what is probably happening is that your editor wants to know where the compiler is so that it can provide real time feedback on your code. Adding the compiler to the system path will usually, but not always, solve your problem.
In more detail:
A C++ build is a rather complex tool chain, involving determining dependencies, preprocessing, compiling, and linking. There are tools that automate that tool chain, and those tools are in turn wrapped into the functionality of modern IDEs like Eclipse, Visual C++, or Sublime Text 2. You many need to tell your editor where to find the tools it uses to provide you with those services.

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