what is the use of a .lib file

Hello

I was wondering if you guys told me what the is the function of a .lib file.

I created this dll file and the two main outputs besides the other files(.exp,.ilk,.obj,.pch,.pdb,idb which i think are intermediate files) are a.dll and a .lib file.

my main program which needs the dll just seems to use the .dll, hence i was wondering what is the use of the .lib file

the lib is used as a sort of catalog for the linker to know where in the DLL to link to.
It's only needed when writing applications that use the DLL, you don't need to distribute it (unless you're distributing an SDK for the DLL).

thanks for the reply


i generated a test application to test my dll and it seemed to work without the use of the .lib file

isn't that the equivalent of an SDK for the DLL?