Inline::CPP with Visual Studio

esno has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Hello, I'm trying to get Inline-CPP to work with Visual Studio 2012. This is on Windows 7, with StrawberryPerl installed. I need to use Visual Studio instead of GCC because I have to link to a closed source 3rd party library that has only been compiled with Visual Studio. When asked to choose the C++ compiler, it only gives me the option of g++ or -xc++. Any ideas on how to make it detect VC++?

C:\>cpan install Inline::CPP
CPAN: CPAN::SQLite loaded ok (v0.204)
CPAN: LWP::UserAgent loaded ok (v6.13)
CPAN: Time::HiRes loaded ok (v1.9726)
Fetching with LWP:
http://cpan.strawberryperl.com/authors/01mailrc.txt.gz
CPAN: YAML::XS loaded ok (v0.59)
Fetching with LWP:
http://cpan.strawberryperl.com/modules/02packages.details.txt.gz
Fetching with LWP:
http://cpan.strawberryperl.com/modules/03modlist.data.gz
Creating database file ...
Done!
Running install for module 'Inline::CPP'
Fetching with LWP:
http://cpan.strawberryperl.com/authors/id/D/DA/DAVIDO/Inline-CPP-0.71.
+tar.gz
CPAN: Digest::SHA loaded ok (v5.95)
Fetching with LWP:
http://cpan.strawberryperl.com/authors/id/D/DA/DAVIDO/CHECKSUMS
CPAN: Compress::Zlib loaded ok (v2.068)
Checksum for C:\STRAWB~1\cpan\sources\authors\id\D\DA\DAVIDO\Inline-CP
+P-0.71.tar
.gz ok
CPAN: Archive::Tar loaded ok (v2.04)
CPAN: File::Temp loaded ok (v0.2304)
CPAN: Parse::CPAN::Meta loaded ok (v1.4414)
CPAN: CPAN::Meta loaded ok (v2.143240)
CPAN: Module::CoreList loaded ok (v5.20150220)
---- Unsatisfied dependencies detected during ----
----       DAVIDO/Inline-CPP-0.71.tar.gz      ----
    ExtUtils::CppGuess [build_requires]
Running install for module 'ExtUtils::CppGuess'
Fetching with LWP:
http://cpan.strawberryperl.com/authors/id/E/ET/ETJ/ExtUtils-CppGuess-0
+.09.tar.gz

Fetching with LWP:
http://cpan.strawberryperl.com/authors/id/E/ET/ETJ/CHECKSUMS
Checksum for C:\STRAWB~1\cpan\sources\authors\id\E\ET\ETJ\ExtUtils-Cpp
+Guess-0.09
.tar.gz ok
Configuring E/ET/ETJ/ExtUtils-CppGuess-0.09.tar.gz with Makefile.PL
Checking if your kit is complete...
Looks good
Generating a dmake-style Makefile
Writing Makefile for ExtUtils::CppGuess
Writing MYMETA.yml and MYMETA.json
  ETJ/ExtUtils-CppGuess-0.09.tar.gz
  C:\Strawberry\perl\bin\perl.exe Makefile.PL -- OK
Running make for E/ET/ETJ/ExtUtils-CppGuess-0.09.tar.gz
cp lib/ExtUtils/CppGuess.pm blib\lib\ExtUtils\CppGuess.pm
  ETJ/ExtUtils-CppGuess-0.09.tar.gz
  C:\STRAWB~1\c\bin\dmake.exe -- OK
Running make test
"C:\Strawberry\perl\bin\perl.exe" "-MExtUtils::Command::MM" "-MTest::H
+arness" "-
e" "undef *Test::Harness::Switches; test_harness(0, 'blib\lib', 'blib\
+arch')" t/
*.t
t/001_load.t .......... 1/2 # EUMM:$VAR1 = {
#           'dynamic_lib' => {
#                              'OTHERLDFLAGS' => ' -lstdc++ '
#                            },
#           'CCFLAGS' => ' -xc++ '
#         };
# ---
# MB:$VAR1 = {
#           'extra_linker_flags' => ' -lstdc++ ',
#           'extra_compiler_flags' => ' -xc++ '
#         };
t/001_load.t .......... ok
t/010_module_build.t .. ok
t/011_makemaker.t ..... ok
All tests successful.
Files=3, Tests=4, 10 wallclock secs ( 0.06 usr +  0.02 sys =  0.08 CPU
+)
Result: PASS
  ETJ/ExtUtils-CppGuess-0.09.tar.gz
  C:\STRAWB~1\c\bin\dmake.exe test -- OK
Running make install
Installing C:\STRAWB~1\perl\site\lib\ExtUtils\CppGuess.pm
Appending installation info to C:\STRAWB~1\perl\lib/perllocal.pod
  ETJ/ExtUtils-CppGuess-0.09.tar.gz
  C:\STRAWB~1\c\bin\dmake.exe install UNINST=1 -- OK
  DAVIDO/Inline-CPP-0.71.tar.gz
  Has already been unwrapped into directory C:\STRAWB~1\cpan\build\Inl
+ine-CPP-0.
71-SnHQG0
Configuring D/DA/DAVIDO/Inline-CPP-0.71.tar.gz with Makefile.PL
Warning: prerequisite Inline version 0.78 not found. at Makefile.PL li
+ne 123.
Warning: prerequisite Inline::C version 0.67 not found. at Makefile.PL
+ line 123.

!!! PREREQUISITES NOT MET !!! at Makefile.PL line 35.
What C++ compiler would you like to use? [g++ -xc++]
[download]

Comment on Inline::CPP with Visual Studio Download Code

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Inline::CPP with Visual Studio by davido (Cardinal) on Jun 25, 2015 at 01:34 UTC
If I recall, ExtUtil::Cppguess determines how Perl was compiled. Well, strawberry Perl was compiled with a GNU toolchain, not MSVC++. ...and even if you did tell Inline::CPP to use MSVC++ instead, you may discover that the output is not byte compatible with how Perl was compiled. I don't know for sure, as I haven't tested such cross-toolchain situations. But you have another problem: `Configuring D/DA/DAVIDO/Inline-CPP-0.71.tar.gz with Makefile.PL Warning: prerequisite Inline version 0.78 not found. at Makefile.PL li +ne 123. Warning: prerequisite Inline::C version 0.67 not found. at Makefile.PL + line 123. !!! PREREQUISITES NOT MET !!! at Makefile.PL line 35.` [download] See that part about needing Inline::C and Inline? How did you get this far with Inline::CPP without those being installed first? I would think that the cpan installers would have handled this recursively for you. Dave	[reply] [d/l]
Re: Inline::CPP with Visual Studio by syphilis (Archbishop) on Jun 25, 2015 at 03:05 UTC
I need to use Visual Studio instead of GCC because I have to link to a closed source 3rd party library that has only been compiled with Visual Studio. You should still be able to link to that library using GCC - and that's the path I'd be going down if I had to use Strawberry Perl. Assuming this library is a dll (let's call it 'some.dll') then you just need to create a def file for it (unless you already have the def file): `gendef some.dll` [download] then create the import library for the dll: `dlltool --kill-at --input-def some.def --output-lib libsome.a` [download] Of course, at runtime, 'some.dll' still needs to be found. Strawberry ships with both 'dlltool' and 'gendef', afaik. And I::CPP should install trivially if you let it use the mingw toolset it expects to use. Cheers, Rob	[reply] [d/l] [select]