CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c#c++visual-studio-2010
J Bradley
J Bradley

Reputation: 109

Debug mode works. Release mode generates ERRORs galore!

I have a solution that uses a native .DLL library that is wrapped by a .NET .DLL with a C# GUI.

All my plumbing works just fine in Debug mode. The moment I try going to Release mode, I get a whole whack of error messages, largely to do with the .CPP files in the native library. Errors include the following:

  1. definition of dllimport function not allowed
  2. TRACE_DEBUG_METHOD_CALL: identifier not found
  3. a lot of undeclared identifiers in my main .CPP file (eg: DLLAPI_Release: undeclared identifier)

I have to admit that the Properties configuration for a C/C++ project is overwhelming so I wonder if there is one or more simple settings somewhere that I simply need to modify.

ALSO, is there a book out there that is devoted to the project properties window in VS2010 specifically? I have a few books but none really spend anytime on what is obviously a very crucial component to serious app development.

I appreciate any assistance anyone can offer. Thanks!

Upvotes: 1

Views: 2107

Answers (2)

Hans Passant
Hans Passant

Reputation: 941455

This is not unlikely to happen when you made a bunch of setting changes but didn't also make them for the Release build. Easy to forget, the first time anyway. You can easily tell which settings were changed from the default, they are displayed in bold type. Step through the setting pages, flip back-and-forth with the Configuration combobox in the upper left corner.

About 15 minutes of your life, not counting the thinking time you need because the setting should be different for the Release build. Start another instance of Visual Studio with a dummy project to verify that.

Upvotes: 2

James McNellis
James McNellis

Reputation: 355049

Trying to compare the property pages can be a beating. My recommendation would be to open the property pages for your project, select the Debug configuration, and under "C/C++", select "Command Line" and copy the command line options into a text editor, then do the same for the Release configuration and see where they differ. You'll need to do the same for the "Linker" command line.

Some of the differences will be intentional (e.g. debug flags should be set for the Debug configuration), but you should be able to spot things that should be the same but are not.

Actually tracking down where the command line options are set can be a bit of a pain, especially if you are using property sheets to manage common properties between projects, but generally you should be able to track them down just by looking through the different options on the different pages.

As for a reference, the best reference is the actual compiler documentation on MSDN. There is a section containing all of the documented compiler options and one containing all of the documented linker options.

The property pages are just a GUI frontend for setting these various options. When you select one of the properties in the property pages, it should say in the help box at the bottom of the dialog which compiler options are used by that property.

Upvotes: 1

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