Compile a C / SDL program with Visual C++ 2013 from the Command Line

Question

How do I that? I don't want to use the Visual Studio IDE, yet I want to use the provided compiler (cl.exe) and the Developer Command Prompt for VS2013.

score 5 · Answer 1 · answered Oct 02 '15 at 18:48

5

I used to do it to via command line

cl /EHsc /MD  main.cpp /Fetest.exe /I F:\C++_Libraries\SDL2\SDL2-2.0.3\include /link /LIBPATH:F:\C++_Libraries\SDL2\SDL2-2.0.3\lib\x86 SDL2.lib SDL2main.lib /SUBSYSTEM:CONSOLE

answered Oct 02 '15 at 18:48

CroCo

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`/SUBSYSTEM:WINDOWS` works as an alternative to `/SUBSYSTEM:CONSOLE` if you don't want console output. – Tom Palmer Jul 09 '18 at 13:41

ouah · Accepted Answer · 2015-05-11T22:42:47.970

2

cl.exe /Wall /Tc main.c

will generate a proper main.exe.

and before that:

ensure that c:\Windows\System32 is in the PATH
execute vcvarsall.bat from your install directory of VC

If you want to use a library (e.g., SDL) you need to list the libraries with /link option (library paths can be added with /LIBPATH) and the library include directories with /I option.

edited May 11 '15 at 22:42

answered May 11 '15 at 22:37

ouah

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Thanks! Also, maybe I won't need to execute the .bat file, since the Developer Command Prompt sets up the environment variables for me, right? Thanks again. – Fernando Karpinski May 11 '15 at 22:44
@FernandoKarpinski I don't know the Developer Command Prompt, but I think it's a fair assumption. – ouah May 11 '15 at 23:00

score 2 · Answer 3 · edited Aug 06 '20 at 15:30

I faced this problem as well. I had to do two things to fix it:

Add the /SUBSYSTEM:CONSOLE as mentioned in previous answers. Note that this gives a different error along the lines of error LNK2019: unresolved external symbol __imp_CommandLineToArgvW referenced in function main_getcmdline. This can be solved with doing the next step.
Link the Shell32.lib as mentioned in the SDL forums: https://discourse.libsdl.org/t/windows-build-fails-with-missing-symbol-imp-commandlinetoargvw/27256/2

So my final command line command looks like:

cl.exe /Zi /I "C:\...\SDL2-2.0.12\include" sdl_program.c /link  "C:\...\lib\x64\SDL2main.lib" "C:\...\lib\x64\SDL2.lib" "C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10\Lib\10.0.18362.0\um\x64\shell32.lib" /SUBSYSTEM:CONSOLE

Compile a C / SDL program with Visual C++ 2013 from the Command Line

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