zcc

Tool scripts/zcc.sh (script, Scripts). zcc: rustc's linker for 32-bit Windows DLLs (i686-pc-windows-gnu).

Run it as scripts/zcc.sh. Source on GitHub.

Its own help

This is the help text in the tool itself, as ./gameframe tool zcc prints it.

zcc: rustc's linker for 32-bit Windows DLLs (i686-pc-windows-gnu). It links through `zig cc`
and needs no MinGW. Use it for replacement libraries that a game imports by exact name, such
as glide.dll with `_grGlideInit@0`, S3DTKW.dll with `S3DTK_InitLib` or a ddraw.dll.

Usage: in the crate's .cargo/config.toml (or CARGO_TARGET_I686_PC_WINDOWS_GNU_LINKER):

  [target.i686-pc-windows-gnu]
  linker = "/path/to/gameframe/scripts/zcc.sh"      # ./gameframe root prints the path

  ZCC_DEF_DIR=DIR cargo build --release --target i686-pc-windows-gnu

Set panic = "abort" in the crate's profiles. zcc runs `zig cc -target x86-windows-gnu` with
rustc's arguments. It drops the ones zig's lld does not take (-fno-use-linker-plugin,
--disable-auto-image-base, --large-address-aware, -O1, -lgcc, -lmsvcrt, -lmingwex,
-lmingw32, -l:libpthread.a). It uses zig's libunwind for -lgcc_eh. It leaves out rsbegin.o
and rsend.o, which register DWARF frames that panic=abort never needs.

Exports: rustc writes its own .def file, which exports a stdcall function undecorated
(`grGlideInit`). When DIR/NAME.def exists (NAME from `-o .../NAME.dll`), zcc links with that
file instead, or else DIR/*/NAME.def (a workspace with one .def in each crate, as
wrappers/). The DLL then exports exactly the names the game imports. A line such as
`_grGlideInit@0=grGlideInit@0` exports the decorated name a 1990s EXE asks for. ZCC_DEF
names one .def file for every DLL instead.

Inputs: rustc's linker arguments. Output: the file rustc asked for (-o). It does not install
zig or the Rust target. Add the target with `rustup target add i686-pc-windows-gnu`, and zig
with scripts/setup.sh --install. tests/run.sh tests it with a two-export crate.