How to See the Contents of Windows library (*.lib)

Question

I have a binary file - Windows library (*.lib). Is there a simple way to find out names of the functions and their interface from that library?

Please adivise smth similar to emfar and elfdump utilities.

Answer 1

DUMPBIN /EXPORTS Will get most of that information and hitting MSDN will get the rest.

Get one of the Visual Studio packages; C++

Answer 2

LIB.EXE is the librarian for VS

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/7ykb2k5f(VS.80).aspx

(like libtool on Unix)

Answer 3

Assuming you're talking about a static library, DUMPBIN /SYMBOLS shows the functions and data objects in the library. If you're talking about a import library (a .lib used to refer to symbols exported from a DLL), then you want DUMPBIN /EXPORTS.

Note that for functions linked with the "C" binary interface, this still won't get you return values, parameters, or calling convention. That information isn't encoded in the LIB at all; you have to know that ahead of time (via prototypes in header files, for example) in order to call them correctly.

For functions linked with the C++ binary interface, the calling convention and arguments are encoded in the exported name of the function (also called "name mangling"). DUMPBIN /SYMBOLS will show you both the "mangled" function name as well as the decoded set of parameters.