I'm writing an NSIS installer for a project that requires the PyOpenGL package, however installation of this package fails because my system doesn't contain mscvr71.dll (VS C runtime lib). According to KB326922, this library should have been packaged with PyOpenGL.
My question is, what is the safest way to correct this so I can install the PyOpenGL dep within my installer? I certainly don't want to have to drop the file into system32 during installation, and I'm not aware of any update that includes this file (other than VS itself).
EDIT:
I can't easily re-package PyOpenGL to include the missing dll. I don't have VS installed and am unsure how to rebuild the package and installer.
You can put the library in the same directory as the installer for PyOpenGL, which is first in the dll search path. mscvr71.dll is included with other applications, like the Java JRE, so you may have a safe copy to use in your Program Files directory (don't use dll's from untrusted sources).
Assuming that you have mscvr71.dll in your References, right-click on the mscvr71.dll file, select Properties, and change the Copy Local property to True.
See the py2exe tutorial, which I augmented last year to describe exactly which version of which DLL files you need for different versions of Python, where to get them from, and how to include them (especially for the tricky newer versions, which require manifest files and the like):
http://www.py2exe.org/index.cgi/Tutorial#Step5
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For the last two years I have been using Java and NetBeans, where all I need to do to add a new third party library to my project is throw in the .jar file and NetBeans does the rest.
Recently I have switch to C++ and Visual Studio and I am having a really hard time getting a project to compile using OpenGL, GLUT and GLEW due to 'Missing reference' errors.
Some tutorials tell me I need to download the projects for GLUT/GLEW and run them (that didn't work), some tutorials tell me I need to add a .dll file to my Win32 folder, others say just put the header files in the same directory as your project and some say I need to install these libraries in to Visual Studio itself, not just to my project.
None of these approaches have worked thus far.
All I want is for this one project to use these libraries. This is throwing a major spanner in the works for me at the moment, any help would be appreciated.
Sorry, I don't have an easy answer for you. I've been using OpenGL on Windows for years, and it can be a pain.
MS doesn't even (really) support OpenGL, the headers that come with Windows are the old 1.x ones - and they have no plans on changing that (they want to you use DX).
So, I would start small.
First, get a basically empty Win32 console "Hello World" app running.
Then, just add one component, like Glut.
Then, do the same - keeping it compiling / linking - incrementally add other components.
Wherever they tell you to put headers, libraries, DLLs, etc, it needs to be reflected in your project file. So:
add the location of the header files to "C/C++->Additional Include Directories"
add the .lib files to the "Linker->Input->Additional Dependencies"
(it still won't find them so) add the location of the .lib files to "Linker->General->Additional Library Directories"
With all that in place it should compile and link, but may not run still because it can't find the DLLs (that go along with the .lib files).
The shortest path to getting running might just be to dump the DLLs in the Windows/System32 folder. But in the long run that can be problematic as other apps may overwrite it (or see you as overwriting theirs).
What I do with specific DLLs is just load them explicitly in my application so I know for sure what DLL I'm getting (I don't do much Windows-specific GL, but when I did, I had my own \OpenGL directory with the versions of .h files, libs and DLLs I wanted).
Good Luck!
Oh, LoadLibrary() will load a DLL, etc.
I have an app that I am moving to another server. It is complaining that it is missing TABCTL32.OCX. I have located this file on another server and I want to copy and paste it across.
I have discovered that there is also a file called TABCTL32.DEP on the server I am moving from. Do I have to copy both files across or is the dependency file optional?
I have tried it with an without the DEP. The app works in both cases. It is a production server so I want to be sure.
Those .DEP (depdendency) files are instructions about a library meant to be used by packaging tools. These files have no run-time significance, containing only development metadata. They are text files.
They contain the preferred ("designed") location to install the library, sub-dependencies of the library including optional localization "satellite" resource DLLs, version information, etc.
See articles such as INFO: How Setup Wizard and PDW Use Dependency Files.
This is information a packager should use along with other "rules databases" such as VB6DEP.ini. Programmers are also supposed to create them if they expect other developers to use their libraries.
If you are using an "impaired" 3rd party packaging technology that is ignorant of .DEP files it is up to you to read them and incorporate the information they contain in your build process. You are also responsible as a developer to keep your dev machine's .DEP files and VB6DEP.ini file up to date, since they often are not updated by Microsoft anymore.
You can't just copy files willy-nilly from one machine to another. Go find this program's installer and run it on the new machine.
A .dep file is a file used by the Visual Basic Setup Wizard to determine what dependencies your ocx file have. You can open the file with Windows Notepad to view the contents.
Unless you are using the Visual Basic Package and Deploy Wizard, you can ignore this file.
For more info, see INFO: How Setup Wizard and PDW Use Dependency Files
Often my exe's have dll dependencies that I package with an installer like nsis or inno.
This makes sense for large programs but is overkill for small scripts.
Is there an alternative way to bundle dependencies, so that the user can just execute a single exe and not require a directory of dll's in the PATH?
EDIT
I am hoping for a solution that won't depend on the type of dll's, and will work for other kinds of dependencies too.
Here are some potential options:
http://www.adontec.com/index.htm?GO=/runtimepacker_e.htm
http://boxedapp.com/
http://www.filetransit.com/view.php?id=16640
Does anyone have experience with a tool like this?
Ok, you didn't like either of my other two ideas... so here goes...
You ship and give your customers a "stub EXE". The stub EXE doesn't depend on anything else and just contains a ZIP file (or setup package or similar) as a resource in your stub EXE. The zip file embedded in the stub EXE just contains the actual program EXE and all its dependent DLLs. When the stub EXE runs, it just unpacks the ZIP file to a TEMP sub-directory and launches the application EXE.
You could optimize it such that if the app has already been installed in %TEMP%, then you skip the unpacking step and just launch the application EXE already present.
Personally, I wouldn't go this route. Just give the user an installer if the EXE has dependencies. But you know your users and customers better than I do.
You could statically link the executable.
One alternative is to install the DLL's in the GAC.
You didn't mention what the DLL dependencies are. Just straight up DLLs with a stub lib? Dynamically loaded via LoadLibrary? COM? Registration required? Is any of this .NET?
Several options to consider.
Put the all the required DLLs in the same directory as the EXE (so you don't have to muck with the PATH variable). Installation is just a "copy *.*" or just allowed to run from a file share. (YMMV if there is .NET code - as that has security restriction when run from a remote file share).
Statically link the EXE with the C-Runtime instead of the dynamic option (so you don't have to redist the MSVCRT on machines that don't already have it installed).
I have some crazier ideas if the above 2 items don't suffice. Let me know.
Apparently there exists software that can convert a DLL to a LIB, so that you can link against it statically, but that might be overkill in this case.
There are many open-source libraries that can be compiled with Visual Studio. I'm porting a program from Linux to Windows, but it depends on a number of libraries. I don't know what the best practices regarding libraries are on Windows.
On Linux, these libraries are typically part of the distribution. To use sqlite on Debian, for example, you need only to install libsqlite3-dev and the include files and libraries (both static and dynamic) are automatically installed and available to your program.
If you need a different version than your distribution supplies, you can compile it in your home directory, install it to ~/include and ~/lib, and set the appropriate environment variables so that your compiler includes those directories in its search path.
What is the best way to use libraries that are distributed as source on Windows? If I link dynamically rather than statically, is there an easy way to copy required DLLs into the output directory to ease redistribution (assuming license requirements are met)?
Option 1 - Projects that have binary distributions for windows / do not build in DevStudio.
E.g. OpenSSL.
Projects like OpenSSL are best downloaded to their own folder and built using their own scripts. OpenSSL typically installs itself to C:\OpenSSL on windows builds, so one done, you can add C:\OpenSSL\include and C:\OpenSSL\lib to your project environment to access the OpenSSL headers and Libs. The actual dll files you will need to copy from C:\OpenSSL\bin into your projects staging folder (normally your SolutionDir\Debug or Release).
Once youve gone through the hassle of building OpenSSL once, you don't want to do it again. Or, if you've downloaded the binary distribution, its best left alone. Just document to others which binary distribution you used so they can set up their Visual Studio build environment appropriately.
Option 2 - Small libraries that are easy to create Visual Studio Projects for (or already have). Lua and sqllite fall into this category.
For projects that are small enough, it is not inconvenient to simply add them to your solution in a sub folder. This way you can get their outputs built directly to the solutions output folder, and you do not have to bundle pre-build binary files in your solution making it far easier to share the project with others.
Option 3 - As an alternative you could create your own standardized folder for the products of open source projects. Create C:\oss\include, c:\oss\lib, c:\oss\bin etc, add these paths to DevStudios lib and include paths, add c:\oss\bin to the systems PATH variable, as you build each OSS project, copy the appropriate files to these locations.
Again, while convenient, this setup makes it diffucult to replicate the build environment on a 2nd PC, so you might want to keep the entire C:\oss tree in source control as well.
On windows the easiest way is to build your own DLLs and include them in the program directory.
Yes it uses a bit more space, but HD are large these days and avoids a lot of headaches of incompatible versions (DLL hell). Windows also suffers a few more wrinkles with versions of libs built with different compilers so shipping your own builds is safest
I'm trying to make a distribution directory with my application. I've copied several Qt DLLs to that directory, and the program seems to be working, with one exception: it doesn't seem to find SQL plugin for SQLite. Copying qtsqlite.dll to the directory, doesn't allow my application to open or create SQLite files. What must be the direcotry structure or which additional files need to be copied so that the program can read the database?
you can use depends.exe to see exactly what the dependencies of your exe are and make sure they're all included.
Also, read this page about qt plugins. they are supposed to be in a specific directory called "plugins" and not in the main directory with all the other dlls.
Most probably, the qtsqlite.dll itself depends on original SQLite DLL's which you probably need to copy as well.
Don't forget to include an LGP license copy in your distribution as well as pointers to the original download ressources of the libs you include and their sources. To stay with the law :-)
Thanks to the link #shoosh provided, I was able to fix the problem. I needed to create sqldrivers subdirectory in the distribution dir with qsqlite.dll library inside. But that was just step one. Do you have any tips and resources on creating a full-blown Windows installer? I'm mainly a Linux programmer so this area is unknown to me.