How to make a .lib file when have a .dll file and a header file

Solution 1:

You're going to need Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 Express (or any other source of MSVC command line tools), and your DLL.

Steps:

1. dumpbin /EXPORTS yourfile.dll > yourfile.exports
2. Paste the names of the needed functions from yourfile.exports into a new yourfile.def file. Add a line with the word EXPORTS at the top of this file.
3. Run the following commands from VC\bin directory (the one where lib.exe and other compile tools reside).

 vcvars32.bat

 lib /def:yourfile.def /out:yourfile.lib

or for x64 builds

 lib /def:yourfile.def /machine:x64 /out:yourfile64.lib

You should get two files generated: yourfile.lib and yourfile.exp

Solution 2:

You can use Digital Mars's IMPLIB tool. It can create a lib file using only the dll, without any need for a .def file.

The download link is http://ftp.digitalmars.com/bup.zip.

The command line is:

implib.exe /s mydll.lib mydll.dll

Solution 3:

There is a much simpler way to create a .def file. Search the web for the gendef utility (you may already have it if you have Mingw-64). Once you have it, just go to a command line and type,

gendef myfile.dll

And it will create a myfile.def. After that, just use lib.exe to create the myfile.lib file as explained by John.