[LLVMdev] Building LLVM as a shared library using Visual C++ 2010?

[Alan Garny]

Óscar Fuentes <ofv at wanadoo.es> writes:
> Michael Spencer <bigcheesegs at gmail.com> writes:
> > The problem is that MSVC++ requires sprinkling
> > __declspec(dllexport/dllimport) all over the code, and we really don't
> > want to deal with maintaining that, as most developers have little to
> > no experience with Windows DLLs.
>
> BTW, you don't put __declspec(dllexport) / __declspec(dllimport) on the
> code, but macros that alternatively expand to those declspecs depending
> on if the library is being compiled or referenced.

I have just realised that I directly replied to Michael rather than the
mailing list (!!), but it was to say the same as Óscar with regards to the
use of a macro. In fact, I am thinking of taking this approach for the
classes that I need in my project. Still, it will mean 'hacking' the code
myself, and I really wish I didn't have to go that route, but... what other
choice do I have if I want to use MSVC?...

> Yeah, I tried that too. AFAIK the 2^16 symbol limitation on the VS
> linker applies to .def files in general, not just when exporting by
> ordinal. One problem I found was to differentiate the relevant stuff
> from the junk while deciding what to put on the .def file. I find it
> hard to believe that any LLVM library exports 65000 symbols. Maybe
> fine-tuning the symbol filtering the .def files could be used regardless
> the 2^16 limit, altough generating those .def files would never be as
> reliable as putting the declarations on the source code, IMO.

FWIW, using MinGW, I end up with a DLL with 13,320 symbols. Still, I agree
with Óscar, this wouldn't be as reliable as using a macro (not to mention
that maintenance could be a bit of a nightmare).

Alan