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How to build the program, so that DLLs won't be required at the location of EXE ( CodeBlocks )

I have, after some effort, successfully built a little piece of example code and make it run. I am using C++ in CodeBlocks 13.12 on a Win 7 x64 machine. The program makes use of wxWidgets and OpenGL libraries.

The problem is, that in order to make the EXE run successfully, I had to copy these DLL files to the location of EXE :

  • wxbase30ud_gcc481TDM.dll
  • wxmsw30u_core_gcc481TDM.dll
  • wxmsw30u_gcc48.dll
  • wxmsw30ud_core_gcc481TDM.dll
  • wxmsw30ud_gl_gcc481TDM.dll

I would like to know how to build the program ( what settings to change in project) so that the EXE file will be able to run on its own ( and also on other machines ) - without "missing DLL" error messages ? It would be nice if answer could be general and useful as a reference in future, similar issues.

Solution

  • In the linker, you could add lines similar to this one:

    -static wxbase30ud_gcc481TDM

    However, this isn't terribly effective or good practice. Better would be to go ahead and include the dll's with your .exe, and simply supply a shortcut to your program that the user could move anywhere. This allows you to install and keep all your program files together, but still let the user only worry about one for the entire thing.