Marc-Philip has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Hi, I'm trying to build perl 5.26.1 from source on Windows using the Visual Studio 2010 on a 64bit machine:
  1. edit win32/Makefile to set CCTYPE=MSVC100
  2. run vcvarsall.bat amd64 to open a command shell with the development environment
  3. cwd with that shell to the win32 folder
  4. run nmake

This succeeds. Now I want to build the Compress::Raw:Zlib extension, that comes with the perl tarball, against my prebuilt zlib. To do this, one needs to set the environment variables ZLIB_LIB and ZLIB_INCLUDE to the folders that contain zlib.lib resp. zlib.h and BUILD_ZLIB to "False". When I run nmake now, I get this error: 

        link -out:..\..\lib\auto\Compress\Raw\Zlib\Zlib.dll -dll -nolo
+go -nodefaultlib -debug -opt:ref,icf -ltcg  -libpath:"c:\perl\lib\COR
+E"  -machine:AMD64 Zlib.obj   "..\..\lib\CORE\perl526.lib" "C:\SAPDev
+elop\hmexternals\perl\import\content\src_zlib-1.2.11-sap7-ntamd64.tar
+.gz\zlib-1.2.11-sap7-ntamd64-release-msvc2010\lib\zlib.lib" "c:\Progr
+am Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\VC\\lib\oldnames.lib" "c:
+\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v7.0A\lib\x64\kernel32.li
+b" "c:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v7.0A\lib\x64\user3
+2.lib" "c:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v7.0A\lib\x64\g
+di32.lib" "c:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v7.0A\lib\x6
+4\winspool.lib" "c:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v7.0A\
+lib\x64\comdlg32.lib" "c:\Program Files(x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v
+7.0A\lib\x64\advapi32.lib" "c:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Win
+dows\v7.0A\lib\x64\shell32.lib" "c:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDK
+s\Windows\v7.0A\lib\x64\ole32.lib" "c:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft 
+SDKs\Windows\v7.0A\lib\x64\oleaut32.lib" "c:\Program Files (x86)\Micr
+osoft SDKs\Windows\v7.0A\lib\x64\netapi32.lib" "c:\Program Files (x86
+)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v7.0A\lib\x64\uuid.lib" "c:\Program Files (x
+86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v7.0A\lib\x64\ws2_32.lib" "c:\Program File
+s (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v7.0A\lib\x64\mpr.lib" "c:\Program Fil
+es (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v7.0A\lib\x64\winmm.lib" "c:\Program 
+Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v7.0A\lib\x64\version.lib" "c:\Pro
+gram Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v7.0A\lib\x64\odbc32.lib" "c:
+\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v7.0A\lib\x64\odbccp32.li
+b" "c:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v7.0A\lib\x64\comct
+l32.lib" "c:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\VC\\lib
+\msvcrt.lib" -def:Zlib.def
   Creating library ..\..\lib\auto\Compress\Raw\Zlib\Zlib.lib and obje
+ct ..\..\lib\auto\Compress\Raw\Zlib\Zlib.exp
Zlib.obj : error LNK2001: unresolved external symbol __security_check_
+cookie
Zlib.obj : error LNK2001: unresolved external symbol memcpy
zlib.lib(inflate.obj) : error LNK2001: unresolved external symbol memc
+py
zlib.lib(deflate.obj) : error LNK2001: unresolved external symbol memc
+py
zlib.lib(trees.obj) : error LNK2001: unresolved external symbol memcpy
Zlib.obj : error LNK2001: unresolved external symbol __imp_memmove
Zlib.obj : error LNK2001: unresolved external symbol memcmp
Zlib.obj : error LNK2001: unresolved external symbol strlen
Zlib.obj : error LNK2001: unresolved external symbol __imp__errno
Zlib.obj : error LNK2001: unresolved external symbol __imp_printf
Zlib.obj : error LNK2001: unresolved external symbol memset
zlib.lib(deflate.obj) : error LNK2001: unresolved external symbol mems
+et
LINK : error LNK2001: unresolved external symbol _DllMainCRTStartup
zlib.lib(zutil.obj) : error LNK2001: unresolved external symbol __imp_
+malloc
zlib.lib(zutil.obj) : error LNK2001: unresolved external symbol __imp_
+free
..\..\lib\auto\Compress\Raw\Zlib\Zlib.dll : fatal error LNK1120: 11 un
+resolved externals
NMAKE : fatal error U1077: '"c:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual S
+tudio 10.0\VC\BIN\amd64\link.EXE"' : return code '0x460'
Stop.

[download]

The problem is that the path to msvcrt.lib is wrong. It uses c:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\VC\\lib\msvcrt.lib, but there's the amd64 part missing. The correct path is C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\VC\lib\amd64\msvcrt.lib. Please note the missing amd64 is NOT where there's a double backslash.

Compiling against the very same prebuilt zlib with the very same procedure works in perl 5.24.1. I suspect a problem in perl 5.26.1. I've noticed that libpth in Config_heavy.pl in 5.26.1 is libpth='"c:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\VC\\lib"', where it's libpth='\lib' in perl 5.24.1.

Does anyone have an idea? Please note that

Thanks and Regards Marc-Philip

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: 5.26 and prebuilt libraries on Windows
by syphilis (Archbishop) on Nov 21, 2017 at 21:28 UTC
    The problem is that the path to msvcrt.lib is wrong

    I take it that C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\VC\lib\msvcrt.lib exists - otherwise I would expect that the 
    link -out ...... "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\
+VC\lib\msvcrt.lib" -def:Zlib.def

    [download]
    command would fail because that file could not be found.
    Are those 2 versions of msvcrt.lib different ? (Compare their respective Sha1 or MD5 values.)

    Maybe all you need to do is change the 'libpth' setting (permanently) to '\lib'.
    You can do this by changing the value assigned to "libpth" in both perl\lib\CORE\Config.pm and perl\lib\CORE\Config_heavy.pl.
    Having made those changes, just run perl -V:libpth to check that they have taken effect.
    (If they haven't taken effect then they haven't been made correctly.)

    If the current 'libpth' setting is incorrect for Compress::Raw::Zlib, then it is incorrect for all perl extensions - and needs to be changed to the correct value.

    Note that you could also build the module by cd'ing to the build directory and running that link command (corrected to include the missing "amd64").
    If your diagnosis of the problem is correct, then that link command should then succeed.
    Once you've got that link command successfully run, just re-run nmake to complete the build.

    •this is not a problem of the Compress:Raw:Zlib extensions, but of the perl itself.

    Yes - if the libpth setting is not correct then this does, indeed, appear to be a bug in the perl source and a perlbug report for it should be filed.

    Cheers,
    Rob
[reply]
[d/l]
[select]
      Hi Rob, I think I found the problem and I've created ticket 132484 for this on perlbug. I've attached a patch there that fixes it (at least for me).

      Let's see what happens.
      Thanks and Regards Marc-Philip

[reply]

Back to Seekers of Perl Wisdom