Manually migrate Embedded Visual C++ workspace to Visual Studio 2005 (Beta 2) without using Migration Assistant (Upgrade Wizard)

Manually migrate Embedded Visual C++ workspace to Visual Studio 2005 (Beta 2) without using Migration Assistant (Upgrade Wizard)

My Embedded Visual C++ 4.0 workspace has more than 10 projects. Some projects are built into EXEs, some DLLs, some static linked libs, and one CPL. If working within EVC IDE I use "batch build" to generate all the binaries, then call a .bat to generate a CAB file. Outside the IDE (for example, overnight build), I have an Ant script that calls "evc" command line to generate binaries and the CAB file.

Recently I obtained a copy of Visual Studio 2005 Beta 2 DVD. So I need to migrate the EVC4 workspace to VS2005.

Microsoft published an article to help migrate the EVC workspace to VS2005 as a solution. You may have two choices:

• Using MS-provided "EVC Upgrade Wizard" (download here), which is a Visual Studio Addon. I downloaded a copy and read the installation .bat file. I was scared, as the so-called Visual Studio Addon needs to REPLACE a bunch of existing DLLs, rather than adding some ADDITIONAL DLLs. (So Addon looks like is not a good name.)
• Manual migration. This turns out to be a rough road, and that article apparently does not help much.

Here it is a recoup of what I did for the manual migration. As a starting point, I picked one project which builds a simple DLL and has no dependency on other projects. I first created an empty solution, and then add a project by choosing the following from "Add New Project" dialog:
Visual C++ => Smart Device => Win32 Smart Device Project

This pops up a "Win32 Smart Device Project Wizard" dialog, in which I choose "DLL" and "Empty project". VS2005 created the .vcproj file and then I started to add the source files to this project.

Before building the solution, of course some common project settings need to be transferred. For example, "Addtional Include Directories", "Additional Dependencies", and "Ignore Specific Library" (OLDNAMES.lib).

Notice that I did not copy the "Preprocess Definitions" from EVC++ to VS2005. The system-provided definitions are actually a bit different. For example, in VS2005, "_DEBUG" is defined along with "DEBUG", inline with WIN32 desktop project. Also "$(CePlatform)" and "$(CEVersion)" are replaced by "$(PLATFORMDEFINES)" and "$(CEVER)" respectively. (From the command line, you could easily figure out how VS2005 is expanding them: /D "_WIN32_WCE=0x420" /D "WIN32_PLATFORM_PSPC")

Next I kicked start "Build". I was glad to find that all source files build successfully, but linker seems not happy. It printed out zillions of errors that I'd never seen before in my EVC++ environment. Luckily all errors belong to either of the following two:

- error LNK2001: unresolved external symbol __security_check_cookie, or error LNK2001: unresolved external symbol __security_cookie

- error LNK2001: unresolved external symbol "const type_info::`vftable'" (??_7type_info@@6B@), or error LNK2001: unresolved external symbol "void __cdecl `eh vector destructor iterator'(void *,unsigned int,int,void (__cdecl*)(void *))" (??_M@YAXPAXIHP6AX0@Z@Z)

So linker is not happy as it could not find some libraries or object files. As usual, Microsoft help does not provide good information, so I googled a few links.

Linker Error 1. __security_check_cookie & __security_cookie

There is actually an MS KB for this issue. Out of good intention, Microsoft compiler injects some code to detect (but not to prevent) buffer overflow attack. Apparently "__security_cookie" is one function call the complier injects. The KB articles suggests adding "BufferOverflowU.lib" to the library list. However, looks like there is simply no such file under the wce420 (Windows Mobile 2003) SDK directory. The other walkaround is to remove "/GS" switch (or define "/GS-") to instruct the compiler not to inject the code. You could achieve this via "Project Settings"=>"Configuration Properties"=>"C/C++"=>"Code Generation"=>"Buffer Security Check" set to "No".

Thinking that I should give it a try and retain this buffer overflow detection capability, I did a binary-content search under wce420/lib folder, and find "secchk.lib" contains those two functions. So I add this lib to the dependencies list.

Linker Error 2. const type_info::`vftable'" (??_7type_info@@6B@)

This has something to do with exception handling, which needs dynamic cast (RunTime Type Information, dynamic_cast, typeid, and type_info). MS has a KB article instructing where to download RTTI library for Windows Mobile 2003 devices. I did a binary-content search again, and found the library "ccrtrtti.lib" under Windows Mobile 2003 SDK. So I just simply add this lib to the dependencies list.

Please notice that the above two libraries are not available from the Windows Mobile 2003 SDK download, but they do apprear in the SDK directory shipped along with VS2005.

After I manually add "secchk.lib" and "ccrtrtti.lib" to the additional dependency list, linker is happy, and all 20-around projects build successfully.

Category: [Development Environment]

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