Linking HDF5 library into Visual C++ DLL project: unresolved external symbol imp*

Question

I'm building a plug-in with MS Visual C++ 2010 Express, and I would like to include capabilities from the HDF5 library. I have tried both building HDF5 from source with CMake, and installing the precompiled library (HDF5-1.8.7_CMake_x86_shared.zip for VC 2008). For either build directory/method, I've modified my project property:

C/C++ > General > Additional Include Directories: add the include for HDF5
Linker > General > Additional Library Directories: add the lib for HDF5

Here is a snippet of my DLL module:

#include "cpp/H5Cpp.h"

static IResult OnBeginDocument (IDocument pDoc)
{
  H5Fcreate("C:\\out.h5", H5F_ACC_EXCL, H5P_DEFAULT, H5P_DEFAULT);

  return True;
}

Note that VC++ correctly parses the .h files to, e.g., visually show pop-up documentation for H5Fcreate when I hover my mouse over that snippet. My problem is that I cannot build the module that tries to use H5Fcreate. Here is the console output from my build attempts:

1>MyProject.obj : error LNK2019: unresolved external symbol __imp__H5Fcreate referenced in function "int __cdecl OnBeginDocument(struct IModuleStruct *)" (?OnBeginDocument@@YAHPAUIModuleStruct@@@Z)
1>MyProject.obj : error LNK2019: unresolved external symbol __imp__H5check_version referenced in function "int __cdecl OnBeginDocument(struct IModuleStruct *)" (?OnBeginDocument@@YAHPAUIModuleStruct@@@Z)
1>C:\MyProject\Release\MyProject.dll : fatal error LNK1120: 2 unresolved externals

Both methods of attempting to link in HDF5 (precompiled vs self-compiled, as described above) produce these exact same errors, so I'm not sure where I'm going wrong.

Many thanks to @HasanKhan and @StevieG, these were helpful tips for n00bs like me. Just to follow up clearly, I did indeed need to add lib filepaths in Linker > Input > Additional Dependencies:

hdf5dll.lib
hdf5_cppdll.lib

I may need to add other lib files if I require other HDF5 features. Also, it turned out that I needed to copy the HDF5 DLLs (from bin) into my system directory (e.g., C:\WINDOWS\System32\) for the plugin to operate correctly at runtime. All good now, thanks!

In project settings > Linker > Input you need to add the name of the lib file that you want to link with. — Muhammad Hasan Khan
Are you missing extern "C" or do you mean to export mangled names? — David Heffernan

StevieG StevieG · Accepted Answer · 2011-09-13T08:45:00

Linker > General > Additional Library Directories: you should add the path to the directory containing the .lib file here
Linker > General > Input: you should add the name of the .lib file here

Linking HDF5 library into Visual C++ DLL project: unresolved external symbol __imp__*

2 Answers

Linking HDF5 library into Visual C++ DLL project: unresolved external symbol imp*