merge DLL in EXE

EvIl_DeViL · Post by **EvIl_DeViL** » Fri Jul 11, 2008 10:52 pm

hi to all! does anyone know a way to merge a dll file into the main exe?
(possibly freeware)
many programs that do this thing are for .NET... i want something for C++

NeRoX · Post by **NeRoX** » Fri Jul 11, 2008 11:01 pm

Put the DLL into a binary resource and use LoadResource to access it. There are samples around somewhere.

CuteAlien · Post by **CuteAlien** » Fri Jul 11, 2008 11:01 pm

Dll's are dynamic link libraries. If you want the library in your executable you will have to link statically. It's usually a linker option, but I haven't tried to link Irrlicht statically so far, so not sure if that will currently work without problems.

NeRoX · Post by **NeRoX** » Fri Jul 11, 2008 11:04 pm

Oh, thought closed-source dll... If you want Irrlicht DLL or any other Open Source DLL you can just put their source & header files into your project..

EvIl_DeViL · Post by **EvIl_DeViL** » Fri Jul 11, 2008 11:27 pm

@ NeRoX: i'm talking also about d3dx8.dll, d3dx9.dll and audiere.dll...
you know... 4 .dlls i think are too much...
didn't find anything in dev-cpp about to link dll...

Luke · Post by **Luke** » Sun Jul 13, 2008 10:49 am

something like this one: http://www.molebox.com/ (just a random google)

not sure if there are any free ones.

wyrmmage · Post by **wyrmmage** » Mon Jul 14, 2008 12:44 am

do you want to embed the dll into your .exe so you don't have to ship it, or do you want to just link to it? You can do both with Dev-C++

-wyrmmage

JP · Post by JP » Mon Jul 14, 2008 7:57 am

4 .dlls isn't really too much... it may not look as clean as you'd like having those lying around but lots of applications use many more .dlls.

And it's not going to save you any physical space by sticking them in your .exe as they'll just add that much more size, it'll basically just hide them from sight which is only really necessary if you're incredibly anal

Personally i wanted to do this before as i thought it was ugly having all the .dlls lying around but then i figured it didn't really matter and gave up on the idea.

But as has been suggested you'll want to create a static lib of irrlicht to do this and also compile in DX statically to irrlicht, if possible

For audiere i'm not sure if it's open source so you might have to use one of the other suggestions for that.

lostclimategames · Post by **lostclimategames** » Mon Jul 14, 2008 9:30 am

I personally think that dll's seem more professional, makes it look like you didnt just use some point and click "make a game in 30 minutes" programs. It makes it feel that you worked on it researched the software libraries you needed, linked them together with your own programming to create your very own application.

sudi · Post by **sudi** » Mon Jul 14, 2008 10:00 am

embeding dlls is simple.
u just define them as resource and then load them. problem is then u have to load the function u want to use as well

wyrmmage · Post by **wyrmmage** » Tue Jul 15, 2008 1:34 am

alternatively, you can use a gcc program to create a static library from the dll (no source code needed) and then just link to the static library; this allows you not to have to specify the load functions

-wyrmmage

sudi · Post by **sudi** » Tue Jul 15, 2008 9:24 am

yeah he is right forgot about that option

EvIl_DeViL · Post by **EvIl_DeViL** » Tue Jul 15, 2008 5:08 pm

so you mean i should use C:\Dev-Cpp\bin\dlltool.exe?
for example... what syntax i have to use to convert for example d3dx9.dll in a .lib? i used

dlltool -l libD3dx9.lib

but it create only 2Kb file...

rogerborg · Post by **rogerborg** » Tue Jul 15, 2008 7:24 pm

From a cursory glance, it appears that dlltool only creates an import library for the dll, not a static version of the dll.

wyrmmage · Post by **wyrmmage** » Tue Jul 15, 2008 11:57 pm

It's tricky to get working, and you actually have to run at least two commands if I remember correctly; unfortunately I've lost my notes I took when I was doing this, so you'll have to look it up yourself I'm afraid

-wyrmmage