library using winsocks: unresolved external symbol

Question

I created a library which makes use of winsocks, I compile it with following commands:

cl /c myLib.c /link ws2_32.lib
lib myLib.obj

thus obtaining myLib.lib, everything's ok.

Now, I wrote a test program, test.c in which I do:

#include "myLib.h"

//... i use some functions //

I compile it with

cl test.c /link myLib.lib

but I get:

myLib.lib(myLib.obj) : error LNK2001: unresolved external symbol _imp_connec t@12 myLib.lib(myLib.obj) : error LNK2001: unresolved external symbol _imp_htons@ 4 myLib.lib(myLib.obj) : error LNK2001: unresolved external symbol _imp_inet_a ddr@4 myLib.lib(myLib.obj) : error LNK2001: unresolved external symbol _imp_socket @12 myLib.lib(myLib.obj) : error LNK2001: unresolved external symbol _imp_WSASta rtup@8 myLib.lib(myLib.obj) : error LNK2001: unresolved external symbol _imp_WSACle anup@0 logbus.lib(logbus.obj) : error LNK2001: unresolved external symbol _imp_closes ocket@4 test.exe : fatal error LNK1120: 7 unresolved externals

edit: Ok, if I compile adding a link to ws2_32.lib too it works. Anyway I don't like it: I already linked this library when I created mine, so I just want to link to myLib.lib...is it possibile?

icabod icabod · Accepted Answer · 2013-04-15T15:00:18

You could try the advice in this answer, which is basically to include ws2_32.lib in your own library:

cl /c myLib.c /link ws2_32.lib
lib /out:myLib.lib myLib.obj ws2_32.lib

In theory this would make a composite library. The issue, however, is if you distribute myLib.lib - I'm not sure how legal it would be, as you would be including copyrighted code.

As an aside, but I include it as it's quite interesting and a slightly relevant, Raymond Chen recently wrote a series of articles on the Classical Linker Model.

library using winsocks: unresolved external symbol

2 Answers