Q44003: QuickC 2.00 "Rebuild All" Doesn’t Necessarily Relink

Article: Q44003
Product(s): See article
Version(s): 2.00
Operating System(s): MS-DOS
Keyword(s): ENDUSER | | mspl13_c
Last Modified: 31-MAY-1989

The "Rebuild All" item under the "Make" menu in the QuickC 2.00
environment does not necessarily perform in the manner described in
the "Microsoft QuickC Up and Running" manual. Page 36 of this manual
states the following:

   When you choose the Rebuild All command from the Make menu, every
   .C file in the program list is compiled into a .OBJ file.  Then
   all of the .OBJ files are linked with .LIB files to create one
   .EXE file.

With the Incremental link option on, the object files may not be
relinked in all cases. Using the regular linker by disabling the
Incremental link option will relink the object files as intended.

The following program and sequence of steps will demonstrate the
problem:

#include <stdio.h>
main()
    {
    printf("Hello.\n");
    }

Create an additional subdirectory (e.g. LIB2) and copy SLIBCE.LIB into
it. Run LIB on this copy and delete the printf module. Clear the LIB
environment variable and enter QuickC, loading the above program.

From the Options menu, set the LIB environment variable to the LIB2
directory. Make sure that the Incremental Link option is selected.
Compile the program. The linker produces the following error message,
and no .EXE will be produced:

   Error L2029 : '_printf' : Unresolved external

To witness the problem, change the LIB variable to the original QuickC
2.00 LIB directory and Rebuild All. A good .EXE will be produced;
execute it to be sure. Now, change the LIB back to the LIB2 directory
and select Rebuild All. The dialog box will indicate that compilation
and linking have taken place; however, no linker error will be
generated. The program has not been fully relinked; even though the
timestamp on the .EXE indicates that it has been updated, the printf
code is still intact.

The workarounds are to shell out to DOS and delete the .EXE file prior
to performing a Rebuild All or to disable incremental linking prior to
linking.

This behavior will be dangerous if one set of libraries is initially
linked and then the LIB variable is changed to point to C 5.10 or
other libraries in which identically named functions have different
definitions.

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