Error linking with 3rd party static library built with previous version of Visual Studio.

Question

I am working on a project that links to a 3rd party static library (herin refered to as EXTERNALLIB). In Visual Studio 2005 I was able to link to EXTERNALLIB and create a usable executable. Now we are using Visual Studio 2008 and I am receiving the following error:

fatal error C1047: The object or library file EXTERNALLIB was created with an older compiler than other objects; rebuild old objects and libraries.

Is there a way for me to tell the compiler to correctly link to EXTERNALLIB? I believe the problem may be related to specific calling conventions (__stdcall, __cdecl, __clrcall, __thiscall). Can I indicate in the new program the correct calling convention for the old library? Is there specific feedback that I can give to our vendor (such as using APIENTRY in the header files) such that this problem does not occur with future compiler upgrades?

The code is writen in C++. I do not have access to the code for EXTERNALLIB and thus I am unable to rebuild it myself.

Answer 1

You problem is likely to result from "the code is written in C++". The ABI for C++ linkage is essentially completely unspecified by any standard, and is notoriously changeable from compiler to compiler. I suspect that VS is trying to tell you that the ABI has changed again, and that as a result it cannot link directly to the library.

This problem is often exacerbated by wanting to implement C++ objects in a DLL, but luckily you don't have that problem here.

One approach to a solution that should work is to skin the published API of EXTERNALLIB with a C-callable adaptor, and to link that whole thing into a DLL. Build the skin with the older VS version (at worst, the free edition should still be findable). Make sure that only extern "C" functions are exposed. Especially make sure that no global objects are exposed from the DLL (although they may need to exist within your skin).

The best answer is go back to the supplier of EXTERNALLIB and politely report the failure to link with the current VS as a bug and request a rebuilt version.