Running 32bit Borland XE2 app under Win 7 64bit with /3gb switch (-GF LARGEADDRESSAWARE )?

Question

As the title states, I am running a 32-bit application under win 7 64-bit. The application is made in C++ in Embarcadero XE2. I need more than 2GB of memory.

Steps:

I enabled the 3GB switch and I rebooted the pc.
I tried adding -GF: LARGEADDRESSAWARE to project options/c++ linker/Output Flags but then linking failed. It said: "Failed command GF:" or something like that.

I then found on a forum that you should do it manually in the .bpr file under FLAGS section. I added the flag and then the project linked. However, my memory available indicator in the app tells me i'm still getting under 2 GB.

Questions:

how to properly make this work ?
how to tell if I got 3GB of memory or not?

If you can't get the Embarcadero linker to add the flag, you can always use a custom build step with `editbin` from the SDK to add the flag. — Cody Gray - on strike, Jan 28 '16 at 15:48

David Heffernan · Accepted Answer · 2016-01-28T15:46:44.783

4

The /3GB switch is for 32 bit systems only. Your system is a 64 bit system. That means that a 32 bit executable with the LARGEADDRESSAWARE PE flag will have a 4GB address space. Don't attempt to use the /3GB boot option.

You can check whether or not your executable has the LARGEADDRESSAWARE PE flag set by using any PE viewing tool. With the MS toolchain you would use dumpbin. The Embarcadero toolchain equivalent is tdump. In addition, there are countless GUI PE viewers. Find a tool that works and make sure that you have properly set this PE flag.

edited Jan 28 '16 at 15:46

answered Jan 28 '16 at 15:39

David Heffernan

601,492
42
1,072
1,490

ok. i get it. let me see what i can do and i'll get back to you. thanks ! – Alexandru Lucian Susma Jan 28 '16 at 15:45
i cant get it to work. I added the flag /largeaddressaware in BUilder XE2 under C++ linker/Output/Flags – Alexandru Lucian Susma Jan 28 '16 at 16:08
What does "can't get it to work mean". The documentation here (http://docwiki.embarcadero.com/RADStudio/XE2/en/ILINK32.EXE,_the_Incremental_Linker) tells you what to do. How have you diagnosed the failure. Bear in mind that we cannot see your screen and comments like "can't get it to work" convey no real meaning. – David Heffernan Jan 28 '16 at 16:18
sorry for that. i did edit my comment but it didn't get saved. I got the error [ILINK32 Error] Fatal: Illegal option: GF: – Alexandru Lucian Susma Jan 28 '16 at 16:20
1

The docs are somewhat confusing. They suggest `-GF LARGEADDRESSAWARE` rather than `-GF:LARGEADDRESSAWARE` – David Heffernan Jan 28 '16 at 16:24
I'm not quite sure what you are actually doing. It would seem odd for the documentation to claim support for something it did not support. – David Heffernan Jan 28 '16 at 18:14
I don't have the compiler to hand. Try `-GF:LARGEADDRESSAWARE` or `-GF LARGEADDRESSAWARE` or `LARGEADDRESSAWARE` etc. – David Heffernan Jan 28 '16 at 18:51
OK, according to this page (http://blong.com/Articles/TrimTheFat/) it should be `LARGEADDRESSAWARE` – David Heffernan Jan 28 '16 at 18:54
I was informed by a colleague that the IDE adds -GF automatically so that's why you don't need to add it. -GF is for command line only. In IDE just use the flag directly – Alexandru Lucian Susma Jan 28 '16 at 19:33
Yeah. I've never used the Emba c++ compiler from an ide so I'm working this all out from docs. – David Heffernan Jan 28 '16 at 19:38

Running 32bit Borland XE2 app under Win 7 64bit with /3gb switch (-GF LARGEADDRESSAWARE )?

1 Answers1