Q47501: Libraries Only Found When Linking in Environment

Article: Q47501
Product(s): See article
Version(s): 1.01 2.00 2.01
Operating System(s): MS-DOS
Keyword(s): ENDUSER | | mspl13_c
Last Modified: 10-OCT-1989

Question :

When I use the QuickC environment, my programs compile and link
properly, but when I compile and link from the command line, I get the
error "Cannot find library." I tried running the NMAKE file that was
produced by QuickC and that method did not work either. What is the
difference when I am in the QuickC environment?

Response :

The only reason this situation might occur is if your LIB environment
variable string was not typed in correctly. If the string contains any
spaces, then, although it may point to the correct directories, it is
not interpreted correctly.

Everything works correctly inside the QuickC environment because the
QuickC environment actually parses the environment strings, and passes
on the correct values without the spaces to the compiler and linker.
This parsing does not occur when you work outside the environment with
command line compiling and linking, or when using NMAKE.

Another reason a badly set environment string may not be noticed inside
the QuickC environment is because of the QuickC initialization file
QC.INI. This file is created the first time you run QuickC, and it is
updated on each subsequent usage. It is used to store environment
information such as compiler and linker flags, menu options, completed
Learn QuickC lessons, etc.

If you select the Environment option under the Options menu, you can
see the current LIB setting. If you modify this string, then the
modified string is used in place of the LIB environment variable, and
it is saved for future use in the QC.INI file. If, at a later time,
the LIB environment variable is set incorrectly, it will go unnoticed
inside of the QuickC environment as the string in QC.INI always
overrides it.

Environment variables are used by various programs as a source of
global configuration information. With Microsoft's C products, PATH,
LIB, INCLUDE, and TMP are the environment variables used. These values
must be set each time the computer is booted up or rebooted from the
keyboard. Therefore, a batch file is normally used to make these
settings -- usually AUTOEXEC.BAT. The SET command is used to set an
environment variable to a value. For example,

   SET LIB=C:\MSC\INCLUDE

sets LIB to the C:\MSC\INCLUDE directory and any program may use this
information if needed. No spaces may be entered anywhere in the string
and, if they are, then the programs utilizing this variable will not
find the correct information. It is especially important that no
spaces are entered at the end of the string because these are very
hard to detect. All of the following examples are incorrect:

   SET LIB = C:\MSC\LIB
   /* illegal spaces around equal sign - this will even cause a
      failure inside the QuickC environment */

   SET LIB=C:\MSC\LIB; C:\QC2\LIB
   /* illegal space after the semicolon - the first directory would
      be found, but not the second */

   SET LIB=C:\MSC\LIB<space>
   /* the space character at the end can cause problems */

You may find situations where some of these examples do not cause any
problems, but if you are experiencing problems that seem to involve
environment variables, it is best to delete the lines that SET them in
your batch files, and then completely retype them.

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