Question

Since VS 2005, I see that it is not possible to simply build a dll against MS runtime and deploy them together (http://www.ddj.com/windows/184406482). I am deeply confused by manifest, SxS and co: MSDN documentation is really poor, with circular references; specially since I am more a Unix guy, I find all those uninformative. My core problem is linking a dll against msvc9 or msvc8: since those runtime are not redistributable, what are the steps to link and deploy such a dll ? In particular, how are the manifest generated (I don’t want mt.exe, I want something which is portable across compilers), how are they embedded, used ? What does Side by side assembly mean ?

Basically, where can I find any kind of specification instead of MS jargon ?

Thank you to everyone who answered, this was really helpful,

Answer 1

We use a simple include file in all our applications & DLL’s, vcmanifest.h, then set all projects to embedded the manifest file.

vcmanifest.h

/*----------------------------------------------------------------------------*/  #if _MSC_VER >= 1400  /*----------------------------------------------------------------------------*/  #pragma message ( 'Setting up manifest...' )  /*----------------------------------------------------------------------------*/  #ifndef _CRT_ASSEMBLY_VERSION #include <crtassem.h> #endif   /*----------------------------------------------------------------------------*/  #ifdef WIN64     #pragma message ( 'processorArchitecture=amd64' )     #define MF_PROCESSORARCHITECTURE 'amd64' #else     #pragma message ( 'processorArchitecture=x86' )     #define MF_PROCESSORARCHITECTURE 'x86' #endif   /*----------------------------------------------------------------------------*/  #pragma message ( 'Microsoft.Windows.Common-Controls=6.0.0.0')  #pragma comment ( linker,'/manifestdependency:\'type='win32' ' \                   'name='Microsoft.Windows.Common-Controls' ' \                   'version='6.0.0.0' ' \                   'processorArchitecture='' MF_PROCESSORARCHITECTURE '' ' \                   'publicKeyToken='6595b64144ccf1df'\'' )  /*----------------------------------------------------------------------------*/  #ifdef _DEBUG     #pragma message ( __LIBRARIES_ASSEMBLY_NAME_PREFIX '.DebugCRT=' _CRT_ASSEMBLY_VERSION )      #pragma comment(linker,'/manifestdependency:\'type='win32' '            \             'name='' __LIBRARIES_ASSEMBLY_NAME_PREFIX '.DebugCRT' '         \             'version='' _CRT_ASSEMBLY_VERSION '' '                          \             'processorArchitecture='' MF_PROCESSORARCHITECTURE '' '         \             'publicKeyToken='' _VC_ASSEMBLY_PUBLICKEYTOKEN ''\'') #else     #pragma message ( __LIBRARIES_ASSEMBLY_NAME_PREFIX '.CRT=' _CRT_ASSEMBLY_VERSION )      #pragma comment(linker,'/manifestdependency:\'type='win32' '            \             'name='' __LIBRARIES_ASSEMBLY_NAME_PREFIX '.CRT' '              \             'version='' _CRT_ASSEMBLY_VERSION '' '                          \             'processorArchitecture='' MF_PROCESSORARCHITECTURE '' '         \             'publicKeyToken='' _VC_ASSEMBLY_PUBLICKEYTOKEN ''\'') #endif  /*----------------------------------------------------------------------------*/  #ifdef _MFC_ASSEMBLY_VERSION     #ifdef _DEBUG         #pragma message ( __LIBRARIES_ASSEMBLY_NAME_PREFIX '.MFC=' _CRT_ASSEMBLY_VERSION )          #pragma comment(linker,'/manifestdependency:\'type='win32' '            \                 'name='' __LIBRARIES_ASSEMBLY_NAME_PREFIX '.MFC' '              \                 'version='' _MFC_ASSEMBLY_VERSION '' '                          \                 'processorArchitecture='' MF_PROCESSORARCHITECTURE '' '         \                 'publicKeyToken='' _VC_ASSEMBLY_PUBLICKEYTOKEN ''\'')     #else         #pragma message ( __LIBRARIES_ASSEMBLY_NAME_PREFIX '.MFC=' _CRT_ASSEMBLY_VERSION )          #pragma comment(linker,'/manifestdependency:\'type='win32' '            \                 'name='' __LIBRARIES_ASSEMBLY_NAME_PREFIX '.MFC' '              \                 'version='' _MFC_ASSEMBLY_VERSION '' '                          \                 'processorArchitecture='' MF_PROCESSORARCHITECTURE '' '         \                 'publicKeyToken='' _VC_ASSEMBLY_PUBLICKEYTOKEN ''\'')     #endif #endif /* _MFC_ASSEMBLY_VERSION */  /*----------------------------------------------------------------------------*/  #endif /* _MSC_VER */  /*----------------------------------------------------------------------------*/