HtmlHelp

[jklwn4]

Invoking HtmlHelp requires htmlhelp.lib to be included, so adding "includelib htmlhelp.lib" to my code should solve the problem, but, while it assembles fine then, i keep getting this when linking (MS´s linker):

HTMLHELP.LIB(htmlhelp.obj) : error LNK2019: unresolved external symbol __imp__RegQueryValueExA@24 referenced in function _LoadHHCtrl@0
HTMLHELP.LIB(htmlhelp.obj) : error LNK2019: unresolved external symbol __imp__RegOpenKeyExA@20 referenced in function _LoadHHCtrl@0
HTMLHELP.LIB(htmlhelp.obj) : error LNK2019: unresolved external symbol __imp__RegCloseKey@4 referenced in function _LoadHHCtrl@0

providing protos for these three APIs doesn´t help either - what can i do?

[nidud]

Invoking HtmlHelp requires htmlhelp.lib

This should be added to the header file, so I will look into that.

The DLL file for HtmlHelp is hhctrl.ocx so to test the import directly using:

asmc -pe test.asm

include stdio.inc
include tchar.inc

option dllimport:<hhctrl.ocx>
HtmlHelpA proto WINAPI :ptr, :ptr, :UINT, :DWORD

.code

_tmain proc

    .if !printf("Htmlhelp\n")

        HtmlHelpA(NULL, NULL, 0, 0)
    .endif
    .return(0)

_tmain endp

    end _tstart

If this works there's probably something wrong with the .LIB file you using or some additional includelib issues for the missing imports.

[nidud]

I added an update to Asmc to handle the extension for the DLL file. The pragma options for this (added to the header file) is:

.pragma comment(lib, htmlhelp, hhctrl.ocx)

The tools used for creating import libraries from system DLL's depends on a .DLL extension so creating the HtmlHelp library is a bit tricky. I modified the dlldef tool a bit to add argument count for 32-bit imports.

Note that importing DLL's differ based on bit-ness, so you have to build the tool in the bit-ness as the library (I assume 32-bit in your case). The default for the makefile is 64-bit, so the command should be:

asmc -pe dlldef.asm
dlldef hhctrl.ocx

This produce a .DEF file like this:

LIBRARY hhctrl.ocx
EXPORTS
AuthorMsg@16
DllCanUnloadNow@12
DllGetClassObject@12
DllRegisterServer@12
DllUnregisterServer@12
HhWindowThread@4
HtmlHelpA@16
HtmlHelpW@0
LoadHHA@8
doWinMain@8

Note that this is based on searching the binary object for the firs occurrence of a RET instruction and use the return size if found, so the result may not be correct. The header file only define two of these functions and the HtmlHelpW@0 should be HtmlHelpW@16. As for the other functions I have no idea if they are correct or not.

After correcting this I tried building the library using LIB:

lib /out:htmlhelp.lib /machine:X32 /def:hhctrl.def

This linked but failed to execute. Converting the .DEF to LIBW input worked for some reason.

++_AuthorMsg@16.'hhctrl.ocx'
++_DllCanUnloadNow@12.'hhctrl.ocx'
++_DllGetClassObject@12.'hhctrl.ocx'
++_DllRegisterServer@12.'hhctrl.ocx'
++_DllUnregisterServer@12.'hhctrl.ocx'
++_HhWindowThread@4.'hhctrl.ocx'
++_HtmlHelpA@16.'hhctrl.ocx'
++_HtmlHelpW@16.'hhctrl.ocx'
++_LoadHHA@8.'hhctrl.ocx'
++_doWinMain@8.'hhctrl.ocx'

libw /n /c /q /b /fac /ii htmlhelp.lib @hhctrl.def

[jklwn4]

Many thanks, this indeed creates a working htmlhelp.lib in 32 bit!

Now i have the same problem in 64 bit. Libw as far as i understand it cannot create 64 bit .lib files, or am i wrong here?

[nidud]

It's simpler in 64-bit (and __cdecl in 32-bit) as you can use the export names directly. The installer uses LIBW to create the import libraries for 64-bit by default, but optionally also LIB.

The .DEF file for LIBW:

++AuthorMsg.'hhctrl.ocx'
++HhWindowThread.'hhctrl.ocx'
++HtmlHelpA.'hhctrl.ocx'
++HtmlHelpW.'hhctrl.ocx'
++LoadHHA.'hhctrl.ocx'
++doWinMain.'hhctrl.ocx'

Command:

libw /n /c /q /b /fac /i6 htmlhelp.lib @hhctrl.def

The .DEF file for LIB:

LIBRARY hhctrl.ocx
EXPORTS
AuthorMsg
HhWindowThread
HtmlHelpA
HtmlHelpW
LoadHHA
doWinMain

Command:

lib /out:htmlhelp.lib /machine:X64 /def:hhctrl.def

Note that the Dll* functions was removed here:

hhctrl.def : warning LNK4104: export of symbol 'DllCanUnloadNow' should be PRIVATE
hhctrl.def : warning LNK4104: export of symbol 'DllGetClassObject' should be PRIVATE
hhctrl.def : warning LNK4104: export of symbol 'DllRegisterServer' should be PRIVATE
hhctrl.def : warning LNK4104: export of symbol 'DllUnregisterServer' should be PRIVATE

So the output from dlldef needs some manual editing (or improvement). It also adds "quotes" to the names that needs to be removed in 64-bit.

[jklwn4]

Linkw doesn´t work for me in 64 bit, but Lib does - thanks!

In the meantime i found this

`@echo off

REM Usage: dll2lib [32|64] some-file.dll
REM
REM Generates some-file.lib from some-file.dll, making an intermediate
REM some-file.def from the results of dumpbin /exports some-file.dll.
REM
REM Requires 'dumpbin' and 'lib' in PATH - run from VS developer prompt.
REM
REM Script inspired by http://stackoverflow.com/questions/9946322/how-to-generate-an-import-library-lib-file-from-a-dll
SETLOCAL
if "%1"=="32" (set machine=x86) else (set machine=x64)
set dll_file=%2
set dll_file_no_ext=%~n2
set exports_file=%dll_file_no_ext%-exports.txt
set def_file=%dll_file_no_ext%.def
set lib_file=%dll_file_no_ext%.lib
set lib_name=%dll_file_no_ext%

dumpbin /exports %dll_file% > %exports_file%

echo LIBRARY %lib_name% > %def_file%
echo EXPORTS >> %def_file%
for /f "skip=19 tokens=1,4" %%A in (%exports_file%) do if NOT "%%B" == "" (echo %%B @%%A >> %def_file%)

lib /def:%def_file% /out:%lib_file% /machine:%machine%

REM Clean up temporary intermediate files
del %exports_file% %def_file% %dll_file_no_ext%.exp`

on stackoverflow, which works fine as well.