[Openexr-devel] Re: "baking" openExr into plugin dll (thread discussion summary)

[Anders Egleus]

It seems I haven't really gotten the hang of mailing lists so a lot of
the replies in this thread didn't make the mailing list/archive, so
I'm just posting this to summarize the discussion (first post at the top),
since it seems like a lot of useful info if other people have the same problems.
Sorry for the inconvenience.





2009/7/21 Anders Egleus <address@hidden>:
> Hey there.
>
> I'm using openExr in a plugin for Maya and I'm wondering if there's a
> way to "bake" the exr libraries into my plugin dll (or mll as it
> happens to be called in this case) so I don't have to distribute the
> openExr dll files to every user.
>
> I've successfully compiled both the exr libraries (following the
> instructions in the readme files which come with the ilmbase and
> openexr packages) and my own plugin and it's working fine as long as
> the exr dll:s reside in my Maya bin directory. If I remove them
> however, the plugin won't load (giving the error "the specified module
> could not be found" of course). This is what I want to fix, i.e. I
> want to be able to load my plugin without dependencies to the exr dll
> files. Is this possible?
>
> Let me make it clear that I'm very much a noob with all the linking
> and preprocessor stuff, I've had a lot of help from this mailing list
> as well as Hebbut's page in order to get this far. I believe that what
> I want to do is called static linking, but I'm not sure.
>
> If anyone has Maya (or not) and want to take a look at the vc++
> project I'd be happy to upload it.
>
> Thanks for any help.
>


2009/7/21 Michael Wolf <address@hidden>:
>
> You'd want to link with a static link library for that (unlike a DLL which is 
> a Dynamic Link Library) . We're using one for our exr plugin for LW which is 
> also distributed as a single file.
>
>
> You need to change the OpenEXR project.
>
> Here's a short (and probably incomplete) description:
>
> * Open OpenEXR.sln
> * Kick out makelib
> * In the properties of: half, Iex, IlmImf, IlmThread, Imath change 
> General->Project Defaults->Configuration Type to Static Library(.lib)
> * In the properties of all projects, change C/C++->Code Generation->Runtime 
> Library to a non-DLL version (otherwise you'll still need to ship with the 
> msvc runtime DLLs).
>
> Build
> In your Maya plugin project, also change the runtime library to a non-dll 
> version.
> Link with the OpenEXR Libs as before.
>
> That should be it unless I forgot something...
>


2009/7/21 Paul Miller <address@hidden>:
>
> You can do it but you'll have to build all of the EXR libs statically, then
> link against the static .lib files. This can be tricky to get right though.
>
> Fortunately the only OpenEXR plugin I've written works with a standalone app
> I've written so I just bundle the EXR DLLs with it.
>


2009/7/21 Anders Egleus <address@hidden>:
(in reply to 2009/7/21 Michael Wolf <address@hidden>:)
> Hi Michael!
>
> Thanks for the quick reply :)
>
> Your suggestions seem pretty straightforward and vc++ - adapted, which is
> exactly what I needed, cheers for that :)
>
> There's only one step that confuses me:
>
>> * Kick out makelib
>
> I didn't find anything in any solution with that name. I'm using the 1.6.1
> version of OpenExr and the 1.0.1 version of IlmBase.
>
> Thanks in advance.
>
> Anders.
>


2009/7/21 Michael Wolf <address@hidden>:
>
> That may be from an older version then. Basically, if any of the .bat files 
> that are run during the compile screw up... disable them :)
>
> Cheers,
> Mike
>


2009/7/21 Anders Egleus <address@hidden>:
(in reply to 2009/7/21 Paul Miller <address@hidden>:)
> Thanks Paul :)
>
> That's my escape plan If I don't get the static linking to work, and it's
> fine to have the dlls there while I develop. I just like to keep things
> clean and slim, plus then I don't have to worry about people having the
> right dlls in the bin folder for future versions of exr.
>
>


2009/7/22 Anders Egleus <address@hidden>:
(in reply to 2009/7/21 Michael Wolf <address@hidden>:)
> Hi again Mike.
>
>> That may be from an older version then. Basically, if any of the .bat
>> files that are run during the compile screw up... disable them :)
>
>
> Sorry for my disgraceful noobness, but  [blushing]...
>
> how do I do that?
>
>
>


2009/7/22 Michael Wolf <address@hidden>:
> On Wed, 22 Jul 2009 00:04:39 +0200, Anders Egleus <address@hidden> wrote:
>
>
> They are usually in the properties for a project, post-build actions and the 
> like. You can just exclude them from the build (which, as all these settings, 
> is for the current Configuration only, i.e. Release/Debug etc...).
>
> Cheers,
> Mike
>


2009/7/22 Anders Egleus <address@hidden>:
> Ok, I get it now :) Thanks
>
> I compiled IlmBase statically according to your suggestions, and the
> libraries seemed to compile without errors (and the .lib files are much
> larger now) so I guess that's a good sign. The test projects didn't compile
> error free, but I guess that's to be expected, and hopefully nothing to
> worry about. So on to OpenExr and the ilmImf lib...
>
> Thanks a million for all the help, I'll let you know how it goes.
>
>


2009/7/22 Michael Wolf <address@hidden>:
> On Wed, 22 Jul 2009 00:26:34 +0200, Anders Egleus <address@hidden> wrote:
>
> Hi Anders,
>
>
> You're welcome. And don't forget the C/C++ language->runtime library option 
> will need to be the same for all binaries (your plugin and the .lib files 
> you're just creating) - otherwise you'll be bombarded with linker errors.
>
> Cheers,
> Mike
>


2009/7/22 Anders Egleus <address@hidden>:
> Well, everything seems to be working, except I still need to distribute the
> zlib1.dll file, but I guess I could try to do a static build of that too,
> right? Do you remember if you did that too for your LW plugin?
>
> Also, the plugin is working funcionality-wise, but debugging seems not to be
> working anymore (I get "no symbols have been loaded" when I attach vc++ to
> maya and set a breakpoint). But I guess that's no problem since I should be
> able to do a static build for the release version and a dynamic build for
> the debug version as long as I'm consistent right? Like I said before, I
> don't mind distributing the dlls to myself for debugging :)
>
> Once again, many many thanks for the help, cheers :)
>
> Anders
>
>


2009/7/22 Michael Wolf <address@hidden>:
> On Wed, 22 Jul 2009 01:05:26 +0200, Anders Egleus <address@hidden> wrote:
>
>
> Yes, It's the same procedure.
>
> You can change the debug builds to be static as well.
>
> Great to hear it's working!
>
> Cheers,
> Mike
>
>


2009/7/22 Wesley Smith <address@hidden>:
(in reply to 2009/7/21 Paul Miller <address@hidden>:)
> For these kinds of situations, I just build OpenEXR directly into my
> project by including all of the source files.
> wes
>


2009/7/22 Anders Egleus <address@hidden>:
> Hey thanks paul :)
>
> I thought about doing that, but I realized I wouldn't know where to
> begin to troubleshoot if anything went wrong, so I decided to take the
> path a lot of others seem to be taking (using static libraries).
>


2009/7/22 Anders Egleus <address@hidden>:
> Sorry, I meant Hey thanks Wes and Paul :)
>