C++ – std::vector needs to have dll-interface to be used by clients of class ‘X warning

cdll

I'm trying to make my library exportable as a DLL but I'm getting a lot of these warnings for one specific class that uses std::vector:

template <typename T>
class AGUI_CORE_DECLSPEC AguiEvent {
    typedef void (*AguiCallbackFptr)(T arg, AguiWidget* sender);
std::vector<AguiCallbackFptr> events;
public:
    void call(AguiWidget* sender, T arg) const;
    void addHandler(AguiCallbackFptr proc);
    void removeHandler(AguiCallbackFptr proc);
    void removeHandler();
    AguiEvent();
};

I get warnings like these:

Warning 57 warning C4251:
'AguiEvent::events' : class
'std::vector<_Ty>' needs to have
dll-interface to be used by clients of
class 'AguiEvent'

I tried to find how to do this properly but MSDN's documentation is very Windows Only, and I need this to be cross platform so that it only does MS specific stuff when AGUI_CORE_DECLSPEC is in fact defined.

What should I do to get rid of these warnings?

Thanks

Best Answer

Exporting from a DLL is platform-specific. You will have to fix this for Windows (basically use declspec(dllexport/dllimport) on the instantiated class template) and encapsulate the required code in your Windows-specific preprocessor macro.

My experience is that exporting STL classes from DLLs on Windows is fraught with pain, generally I try to design the interface such that this is not needed.

Related Solutions

C++ – Exporting classes containing `std::` objects (vector, map etc.) from a DLL

When you touch a member in your class from the client, you need to provide a DLL-interface. A DLL-interface means, that the compiler creates the function in the DLL itself and makes it importable.

Because the compiler doesn't know which methods are used by the clients of a DLL_EXPORTED class it must enforce that all methods are dll-exported. It must enforce that all members which can be accessed by clients must dll-export their functions too. This happens when the compiler is warning you of methods not exported and the linker of the client sending errors.

Not every member must be marked with with dll-export, e.g. private members not touchable by clients. Here you can ignore/disable the warnings (beware of compiler generated dtor/ctors).

Otherwise the members must export their methods. Forward declaring them with DLL_EXPORT does not export the methods of these classes. You have to mark the according classes in their compilation-unit as DLL_EXPORT.

What it boils down to ... (for not dll-exportable members)

If you have members which aren't/can't be used by clients, switch off the warning.
If you have members which must be used by clients, create a dll-export wrapper or create indirection methods.
To cut down the count of externally visible members, use approaches such as the PIMPL idiom.

template class DLL_EXPORT std::allocator<tCharGlyphProviderRef>;

This does create an instantiation of the template specialization in the current compilation unit. So this creates the methods of std::allocator in the dll and exports the corresponding methods. This does not work for concrete classes as this is only an instantiation of template classes.

Java – How to call a JNI DLL from C++

If you are trying to use VS 2005 to try and interface with a DLL that is built using VS2008, your attempts will be mostly doomed unless you can use a plain C interface. Given your description, this is not the case; The runtime libraries differ between VS2005 and VS2008 so there is little chance that the object layout has stayed the same between compilers. The 'something from Dinkumware' that you're referring to is most likely the C++ standard library as ISTR that Microsoft uses the Dinkumware one.

With your above example you're also missing several important pieces of information - the types you describe (Server::StringArray and Server::KeyValueMap) are standard library containers. OK fine, but standard library containers of what? These containers are templates and unless you know the exact types these templates have been instantiated with, you're a little stuck.

Is this DLL intended to be called from C++ at all? The fact that it export a JNI interface suggests that it might not be in the first place. Does it export any other public symbols apart from those that are of the format _Java_...?

Of course if there is no other way in and you must use C++ instead of Java, you might want to look into embedding a JVM into your C++ app and use that to call through to the C++ dll. It's not what I'd call an elegant solution but it might well work.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

C++ – Exporting classes containing `std::` objects (vector, map etc.) from a DLL

Java – How to call a JNI DLL from C++

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