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windowsstatic-librarieslibraries

How to See the Contents of Windows library (*.lib)

I have a binary file - Windows static library (*.lib).
Is there a simple way to find out names of the functions and their interface from that library ?

Something similar to emfar and elfdump utilities (on Linux systems) ?

Solution

  • Assuming you're talking about a static library, DUMPBIN /SYMBOLS shows the functions and data objects in the library. If you're talking about an import library (a .lib used to refer to symbols exported from a DLL), then you want DUMPBIN /EXPORTS.

    Note that for functions linked with the "C" binary interface, this still won't get you return values, parameters, or calling convention. That information isn't encoded in the .lib at all; you have to know that ahead of time (via prototypes in header files, for example) in order to call them correctly.

    For functions linked with the C++ binary interface, the calling convention and arguments are encoded in the exported name of the function (also called "name mangling"). DUMPBIN /SYMBOLS will show you both the "mangled" function name as well as the decoded set of parameters.