Question

I compiled the following code which is declared with #include <strsafe.h> in my C code and I am getting the following compiler errors in DEV-C++. I guess there should be some option in compiler to solve this. Can somebody help to solve this.

The below is my sample code which is taken from MSDN site :

#include <windows.h>
#include <strsafe.h>

void ErrorExit(LPTSTR lpszFunction) 
{ 
    // Retrieve the system error message for the last-error code

    LPVOID lpMsgBuf;
    LPVOID lpDisplayBuf;
    DWORD dw = GetLastError(); 

    FormatMessage(
        FORMAT_MESSAGE_ALLOCATE_BUFFER | 
        FORMAT_MESSAGE_FROM_SYSTEM |
        FORMAT_MESSAGE_IGNORE_INSERTS,
        NULL,
        dw,
        MAKELANGID(LANG_NEUTRAL, SUBLANG_DEFAULT),
        (LPTSTR) &lpMsgBuf,
        0, NULL );

    // Display the error message and exit the process

    lpDisplayBuf = (LPVOID)LocalAlloc(LMEM_ZEROINIT, 
        (lstrlen((LPCTSTR)lpMsgBuf) + lstrlen((LPCTSTR)lpszFunction) + 40) * sizeof(TCHAR)); 
    StringCchPrintf((LPTSTR)lpDisplayBuf, 
        LocalSize(lpDisplayBuf) / sizeof(TCHAR),
        TEXT("%s failed with error %d: %s"), 
        lpszFunction, dw, lpMsgBuf); 
    MessageBox(NULL, (LPCTSTR)lpDisplayBuf, TEXT("Error"), MB_OK); 

    LocalFree(lpMsgBuf);
    LocalFree(lpDisplayBuf);
    ExitProcess(dw); 
}

void main()
{
    // Generate an error

    if(!GetProcessId(NULL))
        ErrorExit(TEXT("GetProcessId"));
}

A sample of errors from the huge set of errors.

154 26  C:\Documents and Settings\mkumar@hubino\Desktop\DEVC\TEST-install-Driver-Difx\TO-DO\strsafe.h   
[Error] expected '=', ',', ';', 'asm' or '__attribute__' before 'char'
155 26  C:\Documents and Settings\mkumar\Desktop\DEVC\TEST-install-Driver-Difx\TO-DO\strsafe.h  
[Error] expected '=', ',', ';', 'asm' or '__attribute__' before 'const'
156 1   C:\Documents and Settings\mkumar\Desktop\DEVC\TEST-install-Driver-Difx\TO-DO\strsafe.h  
[Error] unknown type name '__nullterminated'
156 33  C:\Documents and Settings\mkumar\Desktop\DEVC\TEST-install-Driver-Difx\TO-DO\strsafe.h  
[Error] expected '=', ',', ';', 'asm' or '__attribute__' before '*' token
157 26  C:\Documents and Settings\mkumar\Desktop\DEVC\TEST-install-Driver-Difx\TO-DO\strsafe.h  
[Error] expected '=', ',', ';', 'asm' or '__attribute__' before 'const'
158 26  C:\Documents and Settings\mkumar\Desktop\DEVC\TEST-install-Driver-Difx\TO-DO\strsafe.h  
[Error] expected '=', ',', ';', 'asm' or '__attribute__' before 'const'
164 38  C:\Documents and Settings\mkumar\Desktop\DEVC\TEST-install-Driver-Difx\TO-DO\strsafe.h  
[Error] expected '=', ',', ';', 'asm' or '__attribute__' before 'const'
165 38  C:\Documents and Settings\mkumar\Desktop\DEVC\TEST-install-Driver-Difx\TO-DO\strsafe.h  
[Error] expected '=', ',', ';', 'asm' or '__attribute__' before 'const'
166 38  C:\Documents and Settings\mkumar\Desktop\DEVC\TEST-install-Driver-Difx\TO-DO\strsafe.h
[Error] expected '=', ',', ';', 'asm' or '__attribute__' before 'const'
173 10  C:\Documents and Settings\mkumar\Desktop\DEVC\TEST-install-Driver-Difx\TO-DO\strsafe.h  
[Error] unknown type name 'STRSAFE_PCNZCH'
174 10  C:\Documents and Settings\mkumar\Desktop\DEVC\TEST-install-Driver-Difx\TO-DO\strsafe.h  
[Error] unknown type name '__in_range'
175 15  C:\Documents and Settings\mkumar\Desktop\DEVC\TEST-install-Driver-Difx\TO-DO\strsafe.h  
[Error] unknown type name '__deref_out_range'
179 10  C:\Documents and Settings\mkumar\Desktop\DEVC\TEST-install-Driver-Difx\TO-DO\strsafe.h  
[Error] unknown type name 'STRSAFE_PCNZWCH'
180 10  C:\Documents and Settings\mkumar\Desktop\DEVC\TEST-install-Driver-Difx\TO-DO\strsafe.h  
[Error] unknown type name '__in_range'
181 15  C:\Documents and Settings\mkumar\Desktop\DEVC\TEST-install-Driver-Difx\TO-DO\strsafe.h  
[Error] unknown type name '__deref_out_range'
193 5   C:\Documents and Settings\mkumar\Desktop\DEVC\TEST-install-Driver-Difx\TO-DO\strsafe.h  
[Error] unknown type name '__deref_in_opt_out'
194 17  C:\Documents and Settings\mkumar\Desktop\DEVC\TEST-install-Driver-Difx\TO-DO\strsafe.h  
[Error] unknown type name '__deref_out_range'
200 5   C:\Documents and Settings\mkumar\Desktop\DEVC\TEST-install-Driver-Difx\TO-DO\strsafe.h  
[Error] unknown type name '__deref_in_opt_out'
201 17  C:\Documents and Settings\mkumar\Desktop\DEVC\TEST-install-Driver-Difx\TO-DO\strsafe.h  
[Error] unknown type name '__deref_out_range'
207 30  C:\Documents and Settings\mkumar\Desktop\DEVC\TEST-install-Driver-Difx\TO-DO\strsafe.h  
[Error] unknown type name 'STRSAFE_PCNZCH'
213 30  C:\Documents and Settings\mkumar\Desktop\DEVC\TEST-install-Driver-Difx\TO-DO\strsafe.h  
[Error] unknown type name 'STRSAFE_LPCSTR'
continues.......

A part of strsafe.h file from where I am getting the above errors :

//
// These typedefs are used in places where the string is guaranteed to
// be null terminated.
//
typedef __nullterminated char* STRSAFE_LPSTR;
typedef __nullterminated const char* STRSAFE_LPCSTR;
typedef __nullterminated wchar_t* STRSAFE_LPWSTR;
typedef __nullterminated const wchar_t* STRSAFE_LPCWSTR;
typedef __nullterminated const wchar_t UNALIGNED* STRSAFE_LPCUWSTR;

//
// These typedefs are used in places where the string is NOT guaranteed to
// be null terminated.
//
typedef __possibly_notnullterminated const char* STRSAFE_PCNZCH;
typedef __possibly_notnullterminated const wchar_t* STRSAFE_PCNZWCH;
typedef __possibly_notnullterminated const wchar_t UNALIGNED* STRSAFE_PCUNZWCH;


// prototypes for the worker functions

STRSAFEWORKERAPI
StringLengthWorkerA(
    __in STRSAFE_PCNZCH psz,
    __in __in_range(<=, STRSAFE_MAX_CCH) size_t cchMax,
    __out_opt __deref_out_range(<, cchMax) size_t* pcchLength);

STRSAFEWORKERAPI
StringLengthWorkerW(
    __in STRSAFE_PCNZWCH psz,
    __in __in_range(<=, STRSAFE_MAX_CCH) size_t cchMax,
    __out_opt __deref_out_range(<, cchMax) size_t* pcchLength);

#ifdef ALIGNMENT_MACHINE
STRSAFEWORKERAPI
UnalignedStringLengthWorkerW(
    __in STRSAFE_PCUNZWCH psz,
    __in __in_range(<=, STRSAFE_MAX_CCH) size_t cchMax,
    __out_opt __deref_out_range(<, cchMax) size_t* pcchLength);
#endif  // ALIGNMENT_MACHINE

STRSAFEWORKERAPI
StringExValidateSrcA(
    __deref_in_opt_out STRSAFE_LPCSTR* ppszSrc,
    __inout_opt __deref_out_range(<, cchMax) size_t* pcchToRead,
    __in const size_t cchMax,
    __in DWORD dwFlags);

Answer 1

__nullterminated, __out_opt, __in, __in_opt and other such words are Microsoft-specific keywords. When you use gcc you can just define them to be empty macros like

#define __in
#define __deref_out_range(A,B)
... and so on

Insert these defines before the includes.

Or as the comments suggest avoid using the <strsafe.h>

EDIT:

MinGW (x64 build from http://equation.com) compiles this code above quietly (even with strsafe.h) with just a simple command:

gcc -c Test.cpp -o Test.exe -lstdc++