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NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | OPTIONS | SEE ALSO | COPYRIGHT | COLOPHON |
DLLTOOL(1) GNU Development Tools DLLTOOL(1)
dlltool - Create files needed to build and use DLLs.
dlltool [-d|--input-def def-file-name]
[-b|--base-file base-file-name]
[-e|--output-exp exports-file-name]
[-z|--output-def def-file-name]
[-l|--output-lib library-file-name]
[-y|--output-delaylib library-file-name]
[--export-all-symbols] [--no-export-all-symbols]
[--exclude-symbols list]
[--no-default-excludes]
[-S|--as path-to-assembler] [-f|--as-flags options]
[-D|--dllname name] [-m|--machine machine]
[-a|--add-indirect]
[-U|--add-underscore] [--add-stdcall-underscore]
[-k|--kill-at] [-A|--add-stdcall-alias]
[-p|--ext-prefix-alias prefix]
[-x|--no-idata4] [-c|--no-idata5]
[--use-nul-prefixed-import-tables]
[-I|--identify library-file-name] [--identify-strict]
[-i|--interwork]
[-n|--nodelete] [-t|--temp-prefix prefix]
[-v|--verbose]
[-h|--help] [-V|--version]
[--no-leading-underscore] [--leading-underscore]
[object-file ...]
dlltool reads its inputs, which can come from the -d and -b options
as well as object files specified on the command line. It then
processes these inputs and if the -e option has been specified it
creates a exports file. If the -l option has been specified it
creates a library file and if the -z option has been specified it
creates a def file. Any or all of the -e, -l and -z options can be
present in one invocation of dlltool.
When creating a DLL, along with the source for the DLL, it is
necessary to have three other files. dlltool can help with the
creation of these files.
The first file is a .def file which specifies which functions are
exported from the DLL, which functions the DLL imports, and so on.
This is a text file and can be created by hand, or dlltool can be
used to create it using the -z option. In this case dlltool will
scan the object files specified on its command line looking for those
functions which have been specially marked as being exported and put
entries for them in the .def file it creates.
In order to mark a function as being exported from a DLL, it needs to
have an -export:<name_of_function> entry in the .drectve section of
the object file. This can be done in C by using the asm() operator:
asm (".section .drectve");
asm (".ascii \"-export:my_func\"");
int my_func (void) { ... }
The second file needed for DLL creation is an exports file. This
file is linked with the object files that make up the body of the DLL
and it handles the interface between the DLL and the outside world.
This is a binary file and it can be created by giving the -e option
to dlltool when it is creating or reading in a .def file.
The third file needed for DLL creation is the library file that
programs will link with in order to access the functions in the DLL
(an `import library'). This file can be created by giving the -l
option to dlltool when it is creating or reading in a .def file.
If the -y option is specified, dlltool generates a delay-import
library that can be used instead of the normal import library to
allow a program to link to the dll only as soon as an imported
function is called for the first time. The resulting executable will
need to be linked to the static delayimp library containing
__delayLoadHelper2(), which in turn will import LoadLibraryA and
GetProcAddress from kernel32.
dlltool builds the library file by hand, but it builds the exports
file by creating temporary files containing assembler statements and
then assembling these. The -S command line option can be used to
specify the path to the assembler that dlltool will use, and the -f
option can be used to pass specific flags to that assembler. The -n
can be used to prevent dlltool from deleting these temporary
assembler files when it is done, and if -n is specified twice then
this will prevent dlltool from deleting the temporary object files it
used to build the library.
Here is an example of creating a DLL from a source file dll.c and
also creating a program (from an object file called program.o) that
uses that DLL:
gcc -c dll.c
dlltool -e exports.o -l dll.lib dll.o
gcc dll.o exports.o -o dll.dll
gcc program.o dll.lib -o program
dlltool may also be used to query an existing import library to
determine the name of the DLL to which it is associated. See the
description of the -I or --identify option.
The command line options have the following meanings:
-d filename
--input-def filename
Specifies the name of a .def file to be read in and processed.
-b filename
--base-file filename
Specifies the name of a base file to be read in and processed.
The contents of this file will be added to the relocation section
in the exports file generated by dlltool.
-e filename
--output-exp filename
Specifies the name of the export file to be created by dlltool.
-z filename
--output-def filename
Specifies the name of the .def file to be created by dlltool.
-l filename
--output-lib filename
Specifies the name of the library file to be created by dlltool.
-y filename
--output-delaylib filename
Specifies the name of the delay-import library file to be created
by dlltool.
--export-all-symbols
Treat all global and weak defined symbols found in the input
object files as symbols to be exported. There is a small list of
symbols which are not exported by default; see the
--no-default-excludes option. You may add to the list of symbols
to not export by using the --exclude-symbols option.
--no-export-all-symbols
Only export symbols explicitly listed in an input .def file or in
.drectve sections in the input object files. This is the default
behaviour. The .drectve sections are created by dllexport
attributes in the source code.
--exclude-symbols list
Do not export the symbols in list. This is a list of symbol
names separated by comma or colon characters. The symbol names
should not contain a leading underscore. This is only meaningful
when --export-all-symbols is used.
--no-default-excludes
When --export-all-symbols is used, it will by default avoid
exporting certain special symbols. The current list of symbols
to avoid exporting is DllMain@12, DllEntryPoint@0, impure_ptr.
You may use the --no-default-excludes option to go ahead and
export these special symbols. This is only meaningful when
--export-all-symbols is used.
-S path
--as path
Specifies the path, including the filename, of the assembler to
be used to create the exports file.
-f options
--as-flags options
Specifies any specific command line options to be passed to the
assembler when building the exports file. This option will work
even if the -S option is not used. This option only takes one
argument, and if it occurs more than once on the command line,
then later occurrences will override earlier occurrences. So if
it is necessary to pass multiple options to the assembler they
should be enclosed in double quotes.
-D name
--dll-name name
Specifies the name to be stored in the .def file as the name of
the DLL when the -e option is used. If this option is not
present, then the filename given to the -e option will be used as
the name of the DLL.
-m machine
-machine machine
Specifies the type of machine for which the library file should
be built. dlltool has a built in default type, depending upon
how it was created, but this option can be used to override that.
This is normally only useful when creating DLLs for an ARM
processor, when the contents of the DLL are actually encode using
Thumb instructions.
-a
--add-indirect
Specifies that when dlltool is creating the exports file it
should add a section which allows the exported functions to be
referenced without using the import library. Whatever the hell
that means!
-U
--add-underscore
Specifies that when dlltool is creating the exports file it
should prepend an underscore to the names of all exported
symbols.
--no-leading-underscore
--leading-underscore
Specifies whether standard symbol should be forced to be
prefixed, or not.
--add-stdcall-underscore
Specifies that when dlltool is creating the exports file it
should prepend an underscore to the names of exported stdcall
functions. Variable names and non-stdcall function names are not
modified. This option is useful when creating GNU-compatible
import libs for third party DLLs that were built with MS-Windows
tools.
-k
--kill-at
Specifies that @<number> suffixes should be omitted from the
names of stdcall functions that will be imported from the DLL.
This is useful when creating an import library for a DLL which
exports stdcall functions but without the usual @<number> symbol
name suffix.
This does not change the naming of symbols provided by the import
library to programs linked against it, but only the entries in
the import table (ie the .idata section).
-A
--add-stdcall-alias
Specifies that when dlltool is creating the exports file it
should add aliases for stdcall symbols without @ <number> in
addition to the symbols with @ <number>.
-p
--ext-prefix-alias prefix
Causes dlltool to create external aliases for all DLL imports
with the specified prefix. The aliases are created for both
external and import symbols with no leading underscore.
-x
--no-idata4
Specifies that when dlltool is creating the exports and library
files it should omit the ".idata4" section. This is for
compatibility with certain operating systems.
--use-nul-prefixed-import-tables
Specifies that when dlltool is creating the exports and library
files it should prefix the ".idata4" and ".idata5" by zero an
element. This emulates old gnu import library generation of
"dlltool". By default this option is turned off.
-c
--no-idata5
Specifies that when dlltool is creating the exports and library
files it should omit the ".idata5" section. This is for
compatibility with certain operating systems.
-I filename
--identify filename
Specifies that dlltool should inspect the import library
indicated by filename and report, on "stdout", the name(s) of the
associated DLL(s). This can be performed in addition to any
other operations indicated by the other options and arguments.
dlltool fails if the import library does not exist or is not
actually an import library. See also --identify-strict.
--identify-strict
Modifies the behavior of the --identify option, such that an
error is reported if filename is associated with more than one
DLL.
-i
--interwork
Specifies that dlltool should mark the objects in the library
file and exports file that it produces as supporting interworking
between ARM and Thumb code.
-n
--nodelete
Makes dlltool preserve the temporary assembler files it used to
create the exports file. If this option is repeated then dlltool
will also preserve the temporary object files it uses to create
the library file.
-t prefix
--temp-prefix prefix
Makes dlltool use prefix when constructing the names of temporary
assembler and object files. By default, the temp file prefix is
generated from the pid.
-v
--verbose
Make dlltool describe what it is doing.
-h
--help
Displays a list of command line options and then exits.
-V
--version
Displays dlltool's version number and then exits.
@file
Read command-line options from file. The options read are
inserted in place of the original @file option. If file does not
exist, or cannot be read, then the option will be treated
literally, and not removed.
Options in file are separated by whitespace. A whitespace
character may be included in an option by surrounding the entire
option in either single or double quotes. Any character
(including a backslash) may be included by prefixing the
character to be included with a backslash. The file may itself
contain additional @file options; any such options will be
processed recursively.
The Info pages for binutils.
Copyright (c) 1991-2017 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
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Invariant Sections, with no Front-Cover Texts, and with no Back-Cover
Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled
"GNU Free Documentation License".
This page is part of the binutils (a collection of tools for working
with executable binaries) project. Information about the project can
be found at ⟨http://www.gnu.org/software/binutils/⟩. If you have a
bug report for this manual page, see
⟨http://sourceware.org/bugzilla/enter_bug.cgi?product=binutils⟩. This
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binutils-2.28 2017-03-02 DLLTOOL(1)