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delphidelphi-xe7win64

Why Delphi does not output the DCU files in the correct folder?

I have a project (C:\Test\Test.dpr) that uses a file (External.pas) belonging to library (MyLib.DPK). All files in the library are accessible via 'Search' path but I also included External.pas directly in my DPR file:

program Test;

uses
  External in '..\Packages\MyLib\External.pas',   <------ the 'external' file
  FormMain in 'FormMain.pas' {frmMain};

For this project I set the 'Output directory' and 'Output DCU dir' to ".\$(Platform)_$(Config)".

When I compile, the exe file all DCUs of this project are written in the correct output folder: c:\Test\Win64_Debug\

However, the External.dcu is generated in ..\Packages\MyLib\External.dcu
instead of c:\Test\Win64_Debug\

Why is that?

Let me ask the question in a different way: if to a DPR project I append a PAS file that is in a different folder, shouldn't all DCU files (including the external file) be generated in the same folder as the EXE file?

Solution

  • From the documentation:

    Output directory

    Specifies where the compiler should put the executable file.

    Unit output directory

    Specifies a separate directory to contain the compiled units (.dcu).

    It sounds like you need to specify the unit output directory as well as the output directory. Personally I tend to keep these two directories separate.