I am trying to add a *.def file to my program to hide the console window on launch, as it doesn't need to display anything to function. It is a Windows only application.

I saw at this post (https://forum.dlang.org/post/ilj5vn$ef4$1@digitalmars.com) that I could either use a linker flag, -L/exet:nt/su:windows, or add a module definition file. I decided on the definition file.

EXETYPE NT
SUBSYSTEM WINDOWS

I have this file named deflector.def, and I compile with the command as follows.

ldc2 source/* -of="build/SearchDeflector-x86.exe" -O3 -ffast-math -release


All of my source code and the *.def file is in the source/ directory. I am not using DUB. The issue when compiling says that those two definitions(?) aren't supported for my target. That doesn't make sense because I am using the MSVC linker with LDC2.

source\deflector.def(1) : warning LNK4017: EXETYPE statement not supported for the target platform; ignored
source\deflector.def(2) : warning LNK4017: SUBSYSTEM statement not supported for the target platform; ignored

Any help would be appreciated.

I would also like to know how to add a PNG or ICO file to my compiled executable. I have icons in the resolutions of 16, 32, 64, 128, 256. Currently I'm adding them in using GitHub's RCEDIT tool (https://github.com/electron/rcedit) but I would like a more proper way.

On Monday, 20 August 2018 at 13:42:58 UTC, spikespaz wrote:
> I am trying to add a *.def file to my program to hide the console window on launch, as it doesn't need to display anything to function. It is a Windows only application.
>
> [...]

Also adding that the linker flag I have stated above also is ignored by the linker.

LINK : warning LNK4044: unrecognized option '/exet:nt/su:windows'; ignored

On 21/08/2018 1:42 AM, spikespaz wrote:
> I am trying to add a *.def file to my program to hide the console window on launch, as it doesn't need to display anything to function. It is a Windows only application.
> 
> I saw at this post (https://forum.dlang.org/post/ilj5vn$ef4$1@digitalmars.com) that I could either use a linker flag, -L/exet:nt/su:windows, or add a module definition file. I decided on the definition file.
> 
> EXETYPE NT
> SUBSYSTEM WINDOWS

That is for Optlink not for MSVC link which ldc uses.

On Monday, 20 August 2018 at 13:49:19 UTC, rikki cattermole wrote:
> That is for Optlink not for MSVC link which ldc uses.

Exactly. For LDC, just rename your main() to WinMain().

> For LDC, just rename your main() to WinMain().

Or alternatively, `-L/SUBSYSTEM:WINDOWS -L/ENTRY:mainCRTStartup` in the LDC cmdline.

On Monday, 20 August 2018 at 13:42:58 UTC, spikespaz wrote:
> I would also like to know how to add a PNG or ICO file to my compiled executable. I have icons in the resolutions of 16, 32, 64, 128, 256. Currently I'm adding them in using GitHub's RCEDIT tool (https://github.com/electron/rcedit) but I would like a more proper way.

Compile resource files with windres utility from mingw https://sourceware.org/binutils/docs/binutils/windres.html
Example:
--- deflector.rc ---
1 ICON "icon001.ico"
2 ICON "icon002.ico"
3 ICON "icon003.ico"
4 ICON "icon004.ico"
5 ICON "icon005.ico"
6 ICON "icon006.ico"
7 ICON "icon007.ico"
8 ICON "icon008.ico"
9 ICON "icon009.ico"
---

windres deflector.rc deflector.o

MS has resource compiler too: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/desktop/menurc/resource-compiler