Skip to content
New issue

Have a question about this project? Sign up for a free GitHub account to open an issue and contact its maintainers and the community.

Sign up for GitHub

By clicking “Sign up for GitHub”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy statement. We’ll occasionally send you account related emails.

Already on GitHub? Sign in to your account

Mention VC++ Redistributable in docs #805

Merged
merged 1 commit into from
Nov 20, 2024
Merged

Mention VC++ Redistributable in docs #805

Changes from all commits
Commits
Show all changes
1 commit
Select commit
File filter

Filter by extension

Filter by extension
Conversations
Failed to load comments.
Loading
Jump to
Jump to file
Failed to load files.
Loading
Diff view
Diff view
4 changes: 2 additions & 2 deletions docs/guides/static_linking.md
View file
Open in desktop
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -64,11 +64,11 @@ Windows doesn't support fully static linking because the Win32 libraries are not

In order to distinguish static libraries from DLL import libraries, when the compiler searches for a library `foo.lib` in a given directory, `foo-static.lib` will be attempted first while linking statically, and `foo-dynamic.lib` will be attempted first while linking dynamically. The official Windows MSVC packages are distributed with both static and DLL import libraries for all third-party dependencies, except for LLVM, which is only available as an import library.

Static linking implies using the static version of Microsoft's Universal C Runtime (`/MT`), and dynamic linking implies the dynamic version (`/MD`); extra C libraries should be built with this in mind to avoid linker warnings about mixing CRT versions. There is currently no way to use the dynamic CRT while linking statically.
Static linking implies using the static version of Microsoft's Universal C Runtime (`/MT`), and dynamic linking implies the dynamic version (`/MD`); extra C libraries should be built with this in mind to avoid linker warnings about mixing CRT versions. All dynamically linked binaries, including the Crystal compiler itself, also require the [Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/cpp/windows/latest-supported-vc-redist?view=msvc-170#latest-microsoft-visual-c-redistributable-version) to be installed. There is currently no way to use the dynamic CRT while linking statically.

#### MinGW-w64

MinGW-w64 provides import libraries for the Win32 APIs and the C runtimes; therefore, unlike the MSVC toolchain, all libraries link against the C runtime dynamically, even for static builds.
MinGW-w64 provides only import libraries for the Win32 APIs and the C runtimes; therefore, unlike the MSVC toolchain, all libraries link against the C runtime dynamically, even for static builds. These binaries do not require the VC++ Redistributable since they use GCC's C++ ABI instead.

The default C runtime depends on MinGW-w64's build-time configuration, and this default is always called `libmsvcrt.a`. On an MSYS2 UCRT64 environment, this is a copy of `libucrt.a`, the Universal C Runtime, whereas on a MINGW64 environment, this is a copy of `libmsvcrt-os.a` instead, the old system MSVCRT runtime. This can be overridden using `--link-flags=-mcrtdll=ucrt` or `--link-flags=-mcrtdll=msvcrt-os`, provided the MinGW-w64 installation understands it.

Expand Down