MinGW .exe requires a few gcc dll's regardless of the code?

Question

When compiling with MinGW, I have to copy over certain dll files from the MinGW bin directory before the exe will run (Even when using "-static" and/or "-static-libstdc++".) How do I change that? Is there a special build of MinGW that I have to use? Ultimately I want to be able to run the program with nothing but the exe in the directory (and no windows environment variables set.) These File's are:

• libstdc++-6.dll
• libgcc_s_seh-1.dll
• libwinpthread-1.dll

And here is the complete list of step's I fallow:

1. Open Up Code::Blocks
2. Select "File->New->Project->Console"
3. Fill out the project settings for project "Hello World"
4. Right click Project->Build Options...->Hello World (Root target)->Other Options
5. Enter "-static" (or "-static-libstdc++") under the already set "-fexceptions"
6. CTRL-F9 : Build Project (Without executing)
7. Navigate to, in Windows Explorer, and run the built "Hello World.exe" file.
8. Click "OK" when a message pop's up saying "Error: libstdc++-6.dll is missing from your computer."
9. Copy "libstdc++-6.dll" from the /MinGW/bin/ directory, into the "Hello World.exe" directory.
10. Run "Hello World.exe"
11. Click "OK" for the message saying "Error: libgcc_s_seh-1.dll is missing from your computer."
12. Copy "libgcc_s_seh-1.dll" into the "Hello World.exe" directory.
13. Repeat and end up copying "libwinpthread-1.dll" over aswell.

14. View the message

    Hello World! 

Edit: My command line is:

g++.exe -Wall -fexceptions -static -static-libgcc -static-libstdc++ -g -static-libgcc -static-libstdc++ -L. -c "C:\Users\______\Desktop\Hello World\main.cpp" -o obj\Debug\main.o g++.exe -o "bin\Debug\Hello World.exe" obj\Debug\main.o 

With all the dll files mentioned above required. And, just to be safe, the code is:

// main.cpp #include <iostream>  using namespace std;  int main() {     cout << "Hello world!" << endl;     return 0; } 

Answer 1

Your commands are wrong !

Go to the directory where your main.cpp file is, and try the following.

g++.exe -Wall -c -g main.cpp -o obj\Debug\main.o g++.exe -static -static-libgcc -static-libstdc++ -o "bin\Debug\Hello World.exe" obj\Debug\main.o 

then you'll no longer need to copy the DLLs (for your Hello World program).

Other notes:

The MinGW installation instructions recommends setting

c:\minGW;c:\MinGW\bin; 

to the PATH environment variable.

Normally the

-static -static-libgcc -static-libstdc++ 

linker options should work (try all 3 of them at once). But not for libwinpthread-1.dll.

Also, try to clean before recompiling.

There's no "-static-something" command.

Only standard libraries libgcc and libstdc++ can be set to static linking.

For other libraries, you first switch to static linking with "-static" and then list the libraries to include with separate commands, i.e. "-lpthread".

Cmake users should try adding:

set(CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD_LIBRARIES "-static-libgcc -static-libstdc++ -lwsock32 -lws2_32 ${CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD_LIBRARIES}")  set(CMAKE_EXE_LINKER_FLAGS "${CMAKE_EXE_LINKER_FLAGS} -Wl,-Bstatic,--whole-archive -lwinpthread -Wl,--no-whole-archive") 

Answer 2

-static-libgcc may be a bad idea if exceptions are used. link options documentation states that

There are several situations in which an application should use the shared libgcc instead of the static version. The most common of these is when the application wishes to throw and catch exceptions across different shared libraries. In that case, each of the libraries as well as the application itself should use the shared libgcc.