libtcc unresolved external symbol errors

Question

Trying to make libtcc work. Trying to run hello world example of libtcc library: https://bellard.org/tcc/

I downloaded the tcc-0.9.27-win64-bin.zip version.

I created C++ console application project in Visual Studio, added:

// MachineCodeGeneration.cpp : This file contains the 'main' function. Program execution begins and ends there.
//

#include <iostream>

#include <stdlib.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>

#include "libtcc.h"

/* this function is called by the generated code */
int add(int a, int b)
{
    return a + b;
}

/* this strinc is referenced by the generated code */
const char hello[] = "Hello World!";

char my_program[] =
"#include <tcclib.h>\n" /* include the "Simple libc header for TCC" */
"extern int add(int a, int b);\n"
"#ifdef _WIN32\n" /* dynamically linked data needs 'dllimport' */
" __attribute__((dllimport))\n"
"#endif\n"
"extern const char hello[];\n"
"int fib(int n)\n"
"{\n"
"    if (n <= 2)\n"
"        return 1;\n"
"    else\n"
"        return fib(n-1) + fib(n-2);\n"
"}\n"
"\n"
"int foo(int n)\n"
"{\n"
"    printf(\"%s\\n\", hello);\n"
"    printf(\"fib(%d) = %d\\n\", n, fib(n));\n"
"    printf(\"add(%d, %d) = %d\\n\", n, 2 * n, add(n, 2 * n));\n"
"    return 0;\n"
"}\n";

int main(int argc, char** argv)
{
    TCCState* s;
    int i;
    using MyFunctionType = int(int);
    MyFunctionType* func{};

    s = tcc_new();
    if(!s) {
        fprintf(stderr, "Could not create tcc state\n");
        exit(1);
    }

    /* if tcclib.h and libtcc1.a are not installed, where can we find them */
    for(i = 1; i < argc; ++i) {
        char* a = argv[i];
        if(a[0] == '-') {
            if(a[1] == 'B')
                tcc_set_lib_path(s, a + 2);
            else if(a[1] == 'I')
                tcc_add_include_path(s, a + 2);
            else if(a[1] == 'L')
                tcc_add_library_path(s, a + 2);
        }
    }

    /* MUST BE CALLED before any compilation */
    tcc_set_output_type(s, TCC_OUTPUT_MEMORY);

    if(tcc_compile_string(s, my_program) == -1)
        return 1;

    /* as a test, we add symbols that the compiled program can use.
       You may also open a dll with tcc_add_dll() and use symbols from that */
    tcc_add_symbol(s, "add", add);
    tcc_add_symbol(s, "hello", hello);

    /* relocate the code */
    if(tcc_relocate(s, TCC_RELOCATE_AUTO) < 0)
        return 1;

    /* get entry symbol */
    func = (MyFunctionType*)tcc_get_symbol(s, "foo");
    if(!func)
        return 1;

    /* run the code */
    func(32);

    /* delete the state */
    tcc_delete(s);

    return 0;
}

The libtcc.h is inside tcc\libtcc folder. There's also libtcc.def file. The tcc\lib has these files:

gdi32.def
kernel32.def
libtcc1-32.a
libtcc1-64.a
msvcrt.def
user32.def

I pasted the tcc folder inside the solution folder, and then defined additional include directories, library directories and added the .a files as input to Linker:

But then I get unresolved external symbol tcc_add_symbol and for all other functions error:

Is there anything else I have to do to make it work?

I linked libtcc1-32.a for the Win32 platform and libtcc1-64.a for x64 platform. The solution definitely finds the header and finds the .a files to link: if I change the name of the files to something else, it complains that it can't find the files to link.

Answer 1

Managed to solve this by first generating the .lib file from the .def file:

lib /def:libtcc.def /out:libtcc.lib

And then adding the libtcc.lib as a dependency. Then copy the libtcc.dll to the output directory.