Question

Possible Duplicate:
Why does VS2010 give syntax errors when syntax is correct?

I’m trying to develop a kind of Windows 32 service in C language, using Visual Studio 2010.

I created a new project, and inserted .c files :

• main.c
• service.c
• misc.c

I also have two header files :

• myerrors.h
• my.h

Here’s the code I have (be aware that it’s just a draft).

main.c :

#include <Windows.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include "stdafx.h"
#include "my.h"
#include "myerrors.h"

static int parse_args(int ac, char **av)
{
    int i = 0;

    while (++i < ac)
        if (strcmp(av[i], "-i") && !InstallMyService())
            return false;
        else if (strcmp(av[i], "-d") && !UninstallMyService())
            return false;
        else if (strcmp(av[i], "-p"))
            if (!av[i + 1])
                return false;
            else
            {
                if (!InsertPathInRegistry(av[i + 1]))
                    return false;
                i++;
            }
        else
            return false;
    return true;
}

int main(int ac, char **av)
{
    HANDLE hLogFile;

    if ((hLogFile = CreateFile(LOG_FILE_PATH, GENERIC_WRITE, 0, NULL, CREATE_NEW, FILE_ATTRIBUTE_NORMAL, NULL)) == INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE)
        aff_error(CANT_CREATE_FILE);    
    if (ac > 1)
    {
        if (!parse_args(ac, av))
        {
            aff_error(BAD_ARGUMENTS);
            return EXIT_FAILURE;
        }
    }
    else
    {
        SERVICE_TABLE_ENTRY DispatchTable[] = {{DC_SERVICE_NAME, ServiceMain}, {NULL, NULL}};
        StartServiceCtrlDispatcher(DispatchTable);
    }
    getchar();
    if (!CloseHandle(hLogFile))
        aff_error(CLOSE_FILE_FAILED);
    return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}

misc.c :

#include <Windows.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include "my.h"
#include "myerrors.h"

void aff_error(char *error_str)
{
    fprintf(stderr, "ERROR: %s\n", error_str);
}

bool InsertPathInRegistry(char *path)
{
    printf("LOG: Inserting %s as ", path);
}

void WriteInLogFile(HANDLE hLogFile, char *log_string)
{
    printf("WriteInLogFile function");
}

service.c :

#include <Windows.h>
#include "my.h"

bool InstallMyService()
{
    return true;
}

bool UninstallMyService()
{
    return true;
}

void WINAPI ServiceCtrlHandler(DWORD Opcode)
{

}

void WINAPI ServiceMain(DWORD ac, LPTSTR *av)
{

}

My headers are just some function declarations and macros such as :

# define DC_SERVICE_NAME    "MyService"

/* MISC functions */

void aff_error(char *error_str);

my.h

#ifndef _MY_H_
# define _MY_H_

#include <Windows.h>
#include <strsafe.h>

/* Macros */

# define LOG_FILE_PATH      "c:\\my_log_file.txt"
# define DC_SERVICE_NAME    "MyService"

/* MISC functions */

void aff_error(char *error_str);

/* SERVICE functions */

void WINAPI ServiceMain(DWORD ac, LPTSTR *av);
bool InstallMyService();
bool UninstallMyService();
bool InsertPathInRegistry(char *path);
void WINAPI ServiceCtrlHandler(DWORD Opcode);

#endif /*!MY_H_ */

While trying to compile the project, i got some weird errors :

my.h(19): error C2061: syntax error : identifier 'InstallMyService'
my.h(19): error C2059: syntax error : ';'
my.h(19): error C2059: syntax error : ')'

Or :

my.h(21): error C2061: syntax error : identifier 'InsertPathInRegistry'
my.h(21): error C2059: syntax error : ';'
my.h(21): error C2059: syntax error : 'type'

I checked on some forums that says those errors are commonly errors with includes badly placed, but I don’t really know in this case, I don’t think I made mistakes with includes…

Can anyone illuminate me ?

Thanks.

Answer 1

bool is not a data type in ANSI C. It is a data type in the C99 version of the language, only if <stdbool.h> is included, but Visual Studio does not support C99, only C89 (C99 also adds the _Bool data type, which can be used without including any headers).

I suggest you replace bool with another type such as int, or use a typedef to alias it with int or unsigned char or something.