Thread: Need help understanding msvcrt.dll dependency

Hello everyone,

So far I have been building my project with the CRT dll statically linked to the executable. However I have no particular reason to do this other than this idea of mine that if I don't do it, users without the msvcrt.dll won't be able to run the application.

Question though is, is this expected when the target systems are windows 2000 and up?

Another question is, when I run the dependency walker on my executable, it still lists msvcrt.dll as a dependency and the dll shows as loaded on Process Explorer. What gives? Why is the dll loaded when I have it linked statically?

Originally Posted by Codeplug

Why is the dll loaded when I have it linked statically?
You may be using other libraries that use it dynamically. The "depends.exe" will tell you what is being used and by who.

But wouldn't that generate symbol redeclaration errors in my project? However, I'll take a better look at depends and see where it is coming from..

Originally Posted by Codeplug

For VC 6.0, you can expect CRT and C++ DLL's to be there. For anything newer, you'll want to provide the needed DLL's in your own installer or use a MS redistro package like this:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...DisplayLang=en

I'm unsure as to how I should use that package or if I'm allowed to distribute msvcrt.dll with my executable. It seems I'm expected to direct users to that link in case they can't run my application, or simply ship my application with the CRT dll. However, this is entirely not what I see everywhere where applications developed for windows ship without any of these complications. Even those developed with wxWidgets, which is my case.

I have tested my app on several computers. It always runs fine. But when will it not? On what occasions should I expect a user to complain with a "Windows cannot run this application" derived from the lack of msvcrt.dll?

You will, probably with the aid of a legal professional, read the license agreement on the MS libraries - but it's highly likely that they are redistributable in a package along with your software without a license fee. It is fairly pointless to produce a compiler that allows you to build applications to or give away, if you can't then actually distribute libraries upon which those applications rely.

--
Mats

> Just for fun, do a recursive search of your Program Files directory for "MSV*.DLL".

hmm... that was scary indeed.

Ok. Thanks both. I believe this puts me in the right track.