How do I create both a .lib file and an .exe file in Visual C++?

I currently have a console project which creat开发者_开发知识库es an .exe file; I want it to also create a .lib file so other projects, compiled as DLLs, would be able to call functions from the original project.

I know it is possible, but I couldn't find how to do that. How do I tell the linker to also link a .lib?

Posting this just as a reference I know the original post was posted long time ago but this still applies to anyone who needs a solution to this problem.

Go to the project you want to make a .lib file for and follow these steps:

1. Right click on the project.
2. Select Properties.
3. Select Build Events.
4. Select Pre-Link Event .

5. Finally in the Command Line paste this:

   @ECHO ON @ECHO "$(VC_ExecutablePath_x86)\lib.exe" /out:"$(OutDir)$(ProjectName).lib" "$(IntermediateOutputPath)*.obj" "$(VC_ExecutablePath_x86)\lib.exe" /out:"$(OutDir)$(ProjectName).lib" "$(IntermediateOutputPath)*.obj"

This will call the lib tool to generate the lib file out of the generated object files.

It's not possible in general - static libraries and executables are completely different kinds of animal. The way to handle this situation is to create two projects - one for the library, which contains all the functionality. and one for the executable, which is a thin wrapper that simply calls functions in the library.

If any symbol in a Application (.exe) project is exported (e.g. with __declspec(dllexport) ), both the .exe and the .lib files will be generated See: Why does my Visual C++ .exe project build create .lib and .exp files?

It is amazing how many contributors arrogantly insists on an answer that is wrong, when they simply don't know the answer.

To generate a .lib associated with your .exe place the following line in Pre-Link Event:

"$(VC_ExecutablePath_x86)\lib.exe" /out:"$(OutDir)$(ProjectName).lib" "$(IntermediateOutputPath)*.obj"

You don't "also link a lib", you create a static library project. The latter doesn't call the linker at all -- instead it compiles all your files with cl /c and combines the resulting .objs into a lib using lib.exe.