Question

I am using Dev++ and, according to a tutorial on socket programming I read, I need to link to libws2_32.a for my project.

I don’t understand how to do this. Could somebody please explain?

Here is my code:

//CONNECT TO REMOTE HOST (CLIENT APPLICATION)
//Include the needed header files.
//Don't forget to link libws2_32.a to your program as well
#include <winsock.h>
#pragma comment(lib,"libwsock32.a")
SOCKET s; //Socket handle

//CONNECTTOHOST – Connects to a remote host
bool ConnectToHost(int PortNo, char* IPAddress)
{
    //Start up Winsock…
    WSADATA wsadata;

    int error = WSAStartup(0x0202, &wsadata);

    //Did something happen?
    if (error)
        return false;

    //Did we get the right Winsock version?
    if (wsadata.wVersion != 0x0202)
    {
        WSACleanup(); //Clean up Winsock
        return false;
    }

    //Fill out the information needed to initialize a socket…
    SOCKADDR_IN target; //Socket address information

    target.sin_family = AF_INET; // address family Internet
    target.sin_port = htons (PortNo); //Port to connect on
    target.sin_addr.s_addr = inet_addr (IPAddress); //Target IP

    s = socket (AF_INET, SOCK_STREAM, IPPROTO_TCP); //Create socket
    if (s == INVALID_SOCKET)
    {
        return false; //Couldn't create the socket
    }  

    //Try connecting...

    if (connect(s, (SOCKADDR *)&target, sizeof(target)) == SOCKET_ERROR)
    {
        return false; //Couldn't connect
    }
    else
        return true; //Success
}

//CLOSECONNECTION – shuts down the socket and closes any connection on it
void CloseConnection ()
{
    //Close the socket if it exists
    if (s)
        closesocket(s);

    WSACleanup(); //Clean up Winsock
}

And the error I am getting is:

[Linker error] undefined reference to `WSAStartup@8'

Answer 1

Go to the project options -> parameters -> linker -> add library and add the library file that you need – in your case – libws2_32.a