I have a 3rd party application that doesn't come with an installer. It's a very small exe, a simulator.
Anyhow, it crashes on startup due to some missing libraries. But the error doesn't tell me which ones. Is there an application on windows that tells me which libraries are going to be loaded at program load time?
It's been a few years since i've used it but Dependency Walker got me through a lot of DLL hell.
Also, Process Explorer is a great and fast way to see what DLLs are loaded by an EXE on a test machine... for comparison purposes when hunting down missing DLLs.
Only a partial answer: DEPENDS.EXE tells you what dlls a dll needs. I think it works for EXE's too.
Related
I have begun to use GTK(2), and I find that the workings of the library to be very good, but the documentation sucks.
I want to upgrade to GTK3, but it seems I need to install something called packman. That is a difficult philosophical step for me. Why can't I simply download a zip file(s) somewhere?
The documentation uses a lot of words without saying much, and the downloads want you to download stuff OTHER then gtk in order to get gtk. Why don't they simply have a GTK package and let me decide if I need all the other stuff.
Also, I have been reading on forums, even if I do the packman stuff, it still isn't enough for C::B.
Anyway, that is mostly a rant, what I'd really like is a suggestion to an alternative to GTK+.
Here are some of my requirements...
#1, It must NOT be an interpreter. Using Code::Blocks and C, I get an exe file and I'd like to continue that way.
#2 It must be programmable using C. I'd really like to stick wiith C::B, but I guess in a pinch I can use Eclipse (although that is another nightmare I won't get into here.)
#3 GTK requires a bunch of DLL's to be shipped along with the exe file. It would be ideal if the entire target could be included in the single exe without having to rely on external dll's or .net framework or other external stuff.
Any suggestions woule be apreaciated.
Thanks, Mark.
You best bet is to give a look at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_widget_toolkits#High-level_widget_toolkits
If you wan to stick to C and not C++, then Qt is out.
The other that stands out is EFL. I've never used it myself, but it has good reputation and probably your best bet if you want to quit GTK+ and stick to C. However I don't know how easy it is to use it on Windows.
Now about GTK+:
Also, I have been reading on forums, even if I do the packman stuff, it still isn't enough for C::B.
There are people here that use GTK+ with Code::Blocks, so I don't get what kind of problem you're referring to.
Then your other problems:
The documentation uses a lot of words without saying much
Examples?
the downloads want you to download stuff OTHER then gtk in order to get gtk
What you don't get is that GTK+ is more that just the libgtk library. It has dependencies on a lot of other libraries, like glib, cairo, pango, etc. In the past there used to be a bundle or installer to have that installed on Windows, but people would mess up on setting the environment up based on their needs and give up. As the GTK+ manpower for the Windows platform is limited, the GTK+ team delegated the distribution of the GTK+ binaries to the MSYS2 project.
MSYS2 is a popular project that provides a lot of open source software already built for Windows, and solves the problem of building and installing dependencies by hand for the user. This step is made to make installation simpler, not harder. In a handful of commands you have GTK+ and all its dependencies installed for your platform, and can start coding your app. Another command and you have python and the python GTK+ bindings installed and can get started. Want to depend on another popular library? Chances are MSYS already provides it.
Windows has been known for decades to be bad on dependency management. If package management wasn't a a pain point on Windows, then stuff like chocolatey or conan wouldn't exist.
Your philosophical reluctance is merely that: philosophical. Sure GTK+ on Windows isn't perfect. With MSYS2 you will get packages built with gcc so the debug symbols are not compatible with the Visual Studio debugger and you will need to use gdb instead. But on your other question you say you use gcc and loathe Visual Studio, so this should not be a blocker to you.
GTK requires a bunch of DLL's to be shipped along with the exe file. It would be ideal if the entire target could be included in the single exe without having to rely on external dll's or .net framework or other external stuff.
This is not possible for the moment as static compilation of GTK+ isn't supported. The redistribution of an app, however, isn't as easy as I'd like it to be. The best way on Windows to redistribute your app while using MSYS2 is to create a pacman package for your app, listing its dependencies, then call pacman to install your app on an empty directory and tell it to install all your dependencies there too. The result will be a directory that you can redistribute, with a self-contained installation of your app and all its dependencies, GTK+ included.
I'm having problems debugging a JNI application. I've read several threads in StackOverflow, like this one, this one or this one. I've also tried to start gdb in a separated shell and attach it to the running java process. In both cases, the problem is the same: GDB can't find the sources to debug. Things tried
Add "dir" line to gdbinit, pointing to C++ sources folder
Adding the C++ sources folder to the GDB debbuging configuration in Eclipse, in the "Sources" tab.
Adding set environment LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/path/to/library.so, being library.so the library file built from C++ source files
Attach ddd to the java process, but then I get an error because pthread_join.c is not found in the working directory. I don't have this file in my hard disk. I don't know what is this about.
Nothing worked. I've spent several days on this. I know my bug is in the C++ code called by the JNI wrapper, but I can't debug it. Any hints? If helps, I'm running Eclipse Juno in Debian 7 under a Parallels VM on Mac OS.
Many thanks in advance,
You need to have debug information in your native library. You should pass -g to your compiler and linker to have this information in the executable. You may also want to add -O0.
As an alternative to attaching to the Java process, you can create a C++ app and debug it directly. You just need to link in the functions you want to test. In the main function, create the VM, register the functions with RegisterNatives, and kick off a Java test class the uses them.
Hopefully, the debugger has no problem finding the sources since it is just part of the normal compile/link/debug loop of a C++ app.
I would suggest to start with the latest ADT bundle. You can even download the Mac version, so you will not even need Parallels (see a detailed instructions). Then, choose Debug Android Native Application in launch menu.
usually I deploy my Java apps as a bundle which contains the JVM, so there's no need to install a JVM on the system.
Btw: This is no jnlp applet, this is a normal Swing Application.
I did this using ant's fx:deploy. This already works for 64bit systems.
My problem is, that I want to deploy this application to a 32bit system and don't get it to work.
Here's what I did:
I've set up a clean Windows 7 (32bit) instance and installed a 32bit JVM. Now i ran my ant script to build a bundled Java app and it built a App.exe.
But when I tried to start this exe by double clicking, I get the following message box
If I click OK, I get another message box
After this the app is terminated.
I did not find anything searching the web relating to bundling for 32/64 bit systems.
So I would be very glad if someone can point me in the right direction.
Many thanks in advance!
Greetings, -chris-
Looks like a known bug fixed for an upcoming JavaFX version (currently known as 2.2.40):
RT-25715 The Windows launcher generated by the packager fails to load msvcr100.dll on 32-bit OS
RT-22610 .exe created by fx:deploy can't be executed due to missing msvcr100.dll
On the bug case, the user mentions a work-around:
If I give a try to the workaround documented in RT-22610, which is to copy runtime\jre\bin\msvcr100.dll side to my application's launcher binary, it fixes it.
I think the bug is fixed in JDK 8, so another possible work-around is to download a JDK 8 early access release and use the packaging tools from there to package a Java 7 application (though I have never tried that and am not sure if it would work).
Just a small modification to #jewelsea's Fix:
copying msvcr100.dll into the app/ folder instead putting it right next to the exe also works, and at least it is somewhat hidden away then.
If you're generating an MSI you can hack the WXS file used by WIX to automatically copy msvcr100.dll into the app folder. Making FX Deploy verbose will tell you where it's putting the temporary WXS file you can copy and modify and use to override the WXS like you would the program icon for example.
Our VB6 application relies heavily on the use of scrrun.dll (Windows Scripting Host). Until a year ago we used to deploy this dll with our installer. Since the Windows Scripitng Host is supposed to be part of Windows we removed the dll from the installation package. However, now and then surface customers who have a non functional scrrun.dll on their system and we have to help them reinstall or reregister it.
So, should we put the scrrun.dll back in the installation package? Should we perform some check on installation? Or should we just live with the fact that we have to provide hands on support to some of our customers to set their systems right?
Don't try to deploy these libraries as part of a normal setup.
Microsoft Scripting Runtime must be installed through the use of a
self-extracting .exe file. For versions of Scripting Runtime mentioned
at the beginning of this article, the only way to distribute it is to
use the complete self extracting .exe file located at the following
locations...
It is possible that some users employ an older anti-malware suite, many of which tried to disable scripting. It is more likely though that some users have managed to break their Windows installation, either themselves or by using applications improperly packaged to try to include these libraries - and blindly remove them from the system on uninstall (cough, cough - Inno).
The libraries involved have been tailored code for some time. This is why the ancient .CAB file was "recalled" long ago. There is no single copy of them intended to run on any random version of Windows, and there are no redist packs for any modern version of Windows. The correct fix is a system restore or repair install.
While this can't be blamed directly on InnoSetup because it is the result of poorly authored scripts it is frustrating enough and common enough that I won't cry when its signature is added to anti-malware suites. There are just too many poorly written examples loose in the wild copy/pasted by too many people.
I spend plenty of time undoing the damage caused by uninstalls of these applications and have grown quite weary of it. Where possible I use isolated assemblies now in self-defense, which helps a lot. Windows File Protection is getting better about preventing abusive action for system files too.
But in general you are much better off avoiding any dependency on scripting tools in an application. There isn't very much that they can do as well as straight code anyway, though it may take some time to write alternative logic.
Okay, I am trying to write an installer that installs multiple programs. The installer needs to be able to either get the files from a web server, or be able to package the files into a single installer file.
The end result I am looking for is a user hits a webpage, they can click a link to download a single installer file and the installer goes ahead and installs each of the programs. Quiet installations would be preferable but not absolutely necessary. I am trying to make this as user friendly and idiot proof as possible.
Grabbing the installers for each program from a web server would be preferable so it always grabs the latest version and I will not have to tweak the installer script each time the programs are updated.
I have looked into NSIS and MSI, and neither seem to be able to do what I need. I have entertained the idea of using Java Web Start to run a Java program that can install everything, but I am not sure the plausibility of that. If that is possible, then the user would not even need to run a file the Java Web Start would just take care of everything.
Perhaps Ninite will help.
If not, there are two possible solutions:
You can try using a MSI wrapper which installs the applications as prerequisites or through custom actions. It's dirty and complicated, but MSI is a standard.
You can write your own application which handles the installers. This is most likely the best approach.