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Q145937: FIX: DUMPBIN, LIB, and EDITBIN Fail on File Names with Spaces

Article: Q145937
Product(s): Microsoft C Compiler
Version(s): 
Operating System(s): 
Keyword(s): kbVC410fix
Last Modified: 31-JUL-2001

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The information in this article applies to:

- The Linker (LINK.EXE) 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

SYMPTOMS
========

The command-line utilities Dumpbin.exe, Editbin.exe, and Lib.exe do not accept
file names that contain embedded spaces. For example, this code:

     DUMPBIN /ALL "my test.obj"

results in this error:

  DUMPBIN : fatal error LNK1181: cannot open input file "my"

CAUSE
=====

Dumpbin.exe, Lib.exe, and Editbin.exe are front-end utilities that spawn and
pass their arguments to Link.exe. When the front-end utility parses its command
line, it strips the quotation marks. This stripped argument is passed to Link
.exe by the spawning program.

RESOLUTION
==========

Use LINK with the file names that contain embedded spaces instead of using the
front-end utilities. The syntax is:

     LINK  /<Link Utility Switch>  [Utility Arguments]

Here [Utility Arguments] is the list of arguments for the front-end utility.

Front-End Utility Link Utility Switch

EDITBIN.EXE         /EDIT
DUMPBIN.EXE         /DUMP
LIB.EXE             /LIB

For example, the equivalent of:

     DUMP /ALL "my test.obj"

is:

     LINK /DUMPBIN /ALL "my test.obj"

Similarly, LINK /LIB is equivalent to LIB and LINK /EDIT is equivalent to
EDITBIN.

STATUS
======

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a bug in the Microsoft products listed at the
beginning of this article. This bug was corrected in Visual C++ 4.1.

Additional query words: kbVC400bug 2.00 2.10 2.20 4.00 4.10

======================================================================
Keywords          : kbVC410fix 
Technology        : kbVCsearch kbAudDeveloper kbLINKSearch kbLINK100
Version           : :
Issue type        : kbbug
Solution Type     : kbfix

=============================================================================

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