1 Specmaker - A Wine DLL tool
2 ---------------------------
7 Most of the functions available in Windows, and in Windows applications, are
8 made available to applications from DLL's. Wine implements the Win32 API by
9 providing replacement's for the essential Windows DLLs in the form of Unix
10 shared library (.so) files, and provides a tool, winebuild, to allow Winelib
11 applications to link to functions exported from shared libraries/DLLs.
13 The first thing to note is that there are many DLLs that aren't yet
14 implemented in Wine. Mostly this doesn't present a problem because the native
15 Win32 versions of lots of DLLs can be used without problems, at least on
16 x86 platforms. However, one of Wine's goals is the eventual replacement of
17 every essential O/S DLL so that the whole API is implemented. This not only
18 means that a copy of the real O/S is not needed, but also that non-x86
19 platforms can run most Win32 programs after recompiling.
21 The second thing to note is that applications commonly use their own or 3rd
22 party DLLs to provide functionality. In order to call these functions with
23 a Winelib program, some 'glue' is needed. This 'glue' comes in the form of
24 a .spec file. The .spec file, along with some dummy code, is used to create
25 a Wine .so corresponding to the Windows DLL. The winebuild program can then
26 resolve calls made to DLL functions to call your dummy DLL. You then tell
27 Wine to only use the native Win32 version of the DLL, and at runtime your
28 calls will be made to the Win32 DLL. If you want to reimplement the dll,
29 you simply add the code for the DLL calls to your stub .so, and then tell
30 Wine to use the .so version instead [1].
32 These two factors mean that if you are:
34 A: Reimplementing a Win32 DLL for use within Wine, or
35 B: Compiling a Win32 application with Winelib that uses x86 DLLs
37 Then you will need to create a .spec file (amongst other things). If you
38 won't be doing either of the above, then you won't need specmaker.
40 Creating a .spec file is a labour intensive task during which it is easy
41 to make a mistake. The idea of specmaker is to automate this task and create
42 the majority of the support code needed for your DLL. In addition you can
43 have specmaker create code to help you reimplement a DLL, by providing
44 tracing of calls to the DLL, and (in some cases) automatically determining
45 the parameters, calling conventions, and return values of the DLLs functions.
47 You can think of specmaker as somewhat similar to the IMPLIB tool when
48 only its basic functionality is used.
54 Specmaker is a command line tool. Running it with no arguments or passing
55 it '-h' on the command line lists the available options:
57 Usage: specmaker [options] [-d dll | -S sym]
60 -d dll Use dll for input file (mandatory)
61 -S sym Demangle C++ symbol 'sym' and exit
62 -h Display this help message
63 -I dir Look for prototypes in 'dir' (implies -c)
64 -o name Set the output dll name (default: dll)
65 -c Generate skeleton code (requires -I)
66 -t TRACE arguments (implies -c)
67 -f dll Forward calls to 'dll' (implies -t)
68 -D Generate documentation
69 -C Assume __cdecl calls (default: __stdcall)
70 -s num Start prototype search after symbol 'num'
71 -e num End prototype search after symbol 'num'
72 -q Don't show progress (quiet).
73 -v Show lots of detail while working (verbose).
79 OPTION: -S sym Demangle C++ symbol 'sym' and exit
81 The -S option is used to demangle a C++ symbol as it appears in the exports
82 section of a dll. This is useful for testing the demangler or implementing
83 C++ functions in partially implemented wine DLLS. As an example:
85 specmaker -S "??3@YAXPAX@Z"
89 void __cdecl _global_operator_delete_1(void * arg0)
91 Which is enough information to begin implementing the function.
94 OPTION: -d dll Use dll for input file (mandatory)
96 The -d option tells specmaker which DLL you want to create a .spec file
97 for. You *must* give this option, unless you are demangling a single symbol
98 using the -S argument.
100 16 bit DLL's are not currently supported (Note that Winelib is intended
101 only for Win32 programs).
103 OPTION: -o name Set the output dll name (default: dll)
105 By default, if specmaker is run on DLL 'foo', it creates files called
106 'foo.spec', 'foo_main.c' etc, and prefixes any functions generated
107 with 'FOO_'. If '-o bar' is given, these will become 'bar.spec',
108 'bar_main.c' and 'BAR_' respectively.
110 This option is mostly useful when generating a forwarding DLL. See below
111 for more information.
113 OPTION: -q Don't show progress (quiet).
114 -v Show lots of detail while working (verbose).
116 There are 3 levels of output while specmaker is running. The default level,
117 when neither -q or -v are given, prints the number of exported functions
118 found in the dll, followed by the name of each function as it is processed,
119 and a status indication of whether it was processed OK. With -v given, a
120 lot of information is dumped while specmaker works: this is intended to help
121 debug any problems. Giving -q means nothing will be printed unless a fatal
122 error occurs, and could be used when calling specmaker from a script.
125 OPTION: -C Assume __cdecl calls (default: __stdcall)
127 This option determines the default calling convention used by the functions
128 in the DLL. If specbuild cannot determine the convention, __stdcall is
129 used by default, unless this option has been given.
131 Unless -q is given, a warning will be printed for every function that
132 specmaker determines the calling convention for and which does not match
133 the assumed calling convention.
139 If all you want to do is generate a stub DLL to allow you to link your
140 Winelib application to an x86 DLL, the above options are all you need.
142 As an example, lets assume the application you are porting uses functions
143 from a 3rd party dll called 'zipextra.dll', and the functions in the DLL
144 use the __stdcall calling convention. Copy zipextra.dll to an empty directory,
145 change to it, and run specmaker as follows:
147 specmaker -d zipextra (Note: this assumes specmaker is in your path)
149 The output will look something like the following:
151 22 named symbols in DLL, 22 in total ...
152 Export 1 - '_OpenZipFile' ... [Ignoring]
153 Export 2 - '_UnZipFile' ... [Ignoring]
156 "[Ignoring]" Just tells you that specmaker isn't trying to determine the
157 parameters or return types of the functions, its just creating stubs.
159 The following files are created:
162 This is the .spec file. Each exported function is listed as a stub:
168 This means that winebuild will generate dummy code for this function. That
169 doesn't concern us, because all we want is for winebuild to allow the
170 symbols to be resolved. At run-time, the functions in the native DLL will
171 be called; this just allows us to link.
173 zipextra_dll.h zipextra_main.c
174 These are source code files containing the minimum set of code to build
175 a stub DLL. The C file contains one function, ZIPEXTRA_Init, which does
179 This is a template for 'configure' to produce a makefile. It is designed
180 for a DLL that will be inserted into the Wine source tree. If your DLL
181 will not be part of Wine, or you don't wish to build it this way,
182 you should look at the Wine tool 'winemaker' to generate a DLL project.
184 FIXME: winemaker could run this tool automatically when generating projects
185 that use extra DLL's (*.lib in the "ADD LINK32" line in .dsp) ....
188 A shell script for adding zipextra to the Wine source tree (see below).
191 Inserting a stub DLL into the Wine tree
192 ---------------------------------------
194 To build your stub DLL as part of Wine, do the following:
196 chmod a+x ./zipextra_install
197 ./zipextra_install <wine-path>
204 Your application can now link with the DLL.
206 NOTE: **DO NOT** submit patches to Wine for 3rd party DLLs! Building DLLs
207 into your copy of the tree is just a simple way for you to link. When
208 you release your application you won't be distributing the Unix .so
209 anyway, just the Win32 DLL. As you update your version of Wine
210 you can simply re-run the procedure above (Since no patches are
211 involved, it should be pretty resiliant to changes).
217 This section discusses features of specmaker that are useful to Wine Hackers
218 or developers looking to reimplement a Win32 DLL for Unix. Using these
219 features means you will need to be able to resolve compilation problems and
220 have a general understanding of Wine programming.
223 OPTION: -I dir Look for prototypes in 'dir' (implies -c)
225 For all advanced functionality, you must give specmaker a directoryor file that
226 contains prototypes for the DLL. In the case of Windows DLLs, this could be
227 either the standard include directory from your compiler, or an SDK include
228 directory. If you have a text document with prototypes (such as documentation)
229 that can be used also, however you may need to delete some non-code lines to
230 ensure that prototypes are parsed correctly.
232 The 'dir' argument can also be a file specification (e.g. "include/*"). If
233 it contains wildcards you must quote it to prevent the shell from expanding it.
235 If you have no prototypes, specify /dev/null for 'dir'. Specmaker may still
236 be able to generate some working stub code for you.
238 Once you have created your DLL, if you generated code (see below), you can
239 backup the DLL header file created and use it for rebuilding the DLL (you
240 should remove the DLLNAME_ prefix from the prototypes to make this work). This
241 allows you to add names to the function arguments, for example, so that the
242 comments and prototype in the regenerated DLL will be clearer.
244 Specmaker searches for prototypes using 'grep', and then retrieves each
245 prototype by calling 'function_grep.pl', a Perl script. When you pass the -v
246 option on the command line, the calls to both of these programs are logged.
247 This allows you to see where each function definition has come from. Should
248 specmaker take an excessively long time to locate a prototype, you can check
249 that it is searching the right files; you may want to limit the number of files
250 searched if locating the prototype takes too long.
252 You can compile function_grep.pl for a slight increase in performance; see
253 'man perlcc' for details.
256 OPTION: -s num Start prototype search after symbol 'num'
257 -e num End prototype search after symbol 'num'
259 By passing the -s or -e options you can have specmaker try to generate code
260 for only some functions in your DLL. This may be used to generate a single
261 function, for example, if you wanted to add functionality to an existing DLL.
263 They is also useful for debugging problems, in conjunction with -v.
266 OPTION: -D Generate documentation
268 By default, specmaker generates a standard comment at the header of each
269 function it generates. Passing this option makes specmaker output a full
270 header template for standard Wine documentation, listing the parameters
271 and return value of the function.
274 OPTION: -c Generate skeleton code (requires -I)
276 This option tells specmaker that you want to create function stubs for
277 each function in the DLL. This is the most basic level of code generation.
278 As specmaker reads each exported symbol from the source DLL, it first tries
279 to demangle the name. If the name is a C++ symbol, the arguments, class and
280 return value are all encoded into the symbol name. Specmaker converts this
281 information into a C function prototype. If this fails, the file(s) specified
282 in the -I argument are scanned for a function prototype. If one is found it
283 is used for the next step of the process, code generation.
285 Note: C++ name demangling is currently under development. Since the algorithm
286 used is not documented, it must be decoded. Many simple prototypes are already
289 If specmaker does not find a prototype, it emits code like the following:
297 /* __cdecl ZIPEXTRA__OpenZipFile() */
299 in the C source file:
301 /*********************************************************************
302 * _OpenZipFile (ZIPEXTRA.@)
306 __stdcall ZIPEXTRA__OpenZipFile()
308 /* '@Stubbed'ed in .spec */
312 If a prototype is found, or correctly demangled, the following is emitted:
315 @ stdcall _OpenZipFile ZIPEXTRA__OpenZipFile
318 BOOL __stdcall ZIPEXTRA__OpenZipFile(LPCSTR pszFileName);
321 BOOL __stdcall ZIPEXTRA__OpenZipFile(LPCSTR pszFileName)
327 Note that if the prototype does not contain argument names, specmaker will
328 add them following the convention arg0, arg1 ... argN. If the function is
329 demangled C++, the first argument will be called '_this' if an implicit this
330 pointer is passed (i.e. the function is a non-static class member function).
333 OPTION: -t TRACE arguments (implies -c)
335 This option produces the same code as -c, except that arguments are printed
336 out when the function is called, so the FIXME in the above example becomes:
338 FIXME("(%s) stub", pszFileName);
340 Structs that are passed by value are printed as "struct", and functions
341 that take variable argument lists print "...".
344 OPTION: -f dll Forward calls to 'dll' (implies -t)
346 This is the most complicated level of code generation. The same code is
347 generated as -t, however support is added for forwarding calls to another
348 DLL. The DLL to forward to is given as 'dll'. Lets suppose we built the
349 examples above using "-f real_zipextra". The code generated will look like
353 As for -c, except if a function prototype was not found:
355 @ forward _OpenZipFile real_zipextra._OpenZipFile
357 In this case the function is forwarded to the destination DLL rather
365 A variable "hDLL" is added to hold a pointer to the DLL to forward to, and
366 the initialisation code in ZIPEXTRA_Init is changed to load and free the
367 forward DLL automatically:
369 HMODULE hDLL = 0; /* DLL to call through to */
371 BOOL WINAPI ZIPEXTRA_Init(HINSTANCE hinstDLL, DWORD fdwReason, LPVOID lpvReserved)
373 TRACE("(0x%08x, %ld, %p)\n", hinstDLL, fdwReason, lpvReserved);
375 if (fdwReason == DLL_PROCESS_ATTACH)
377 hDLL = LoadLibraryA( "real_zipextra" );
378 TRACE ("Forwarding DLL (real_zipextra) loaded\n" );
380 else if (fdwReason == DLL_PROCESS_DETACH)
383 TRACE ("Forwarding DLL (real_zipextra) freed\n" );
389 The stub function is changed to call the forwarding DLL and return that value.
391 BOOL __stdcall ZIPEXTRA__OpenZipFile(LPCSTR pszFileName)
393 BOOL (__stdcall *pFunc)(LPCSTR) = (void*)GetProcAddress(hDLL,"_OpenZipFile");
395 TRACE("((LPCSTR)%s) stub", pszFileName);
396 retVal = pFunc(pszFileName);
397 TRACE("returned (%ld)\n",(LONG)retVal));
401 This allows you to investigate the workings of a DLL without interfering in
402 its operation in any way (unless you want to).
404 In the example I have been using, we probably should have used the -o option
405 to change the ouput name of our DLL to something else, and used the -f
406 option to forward to the real zipextra DLL:
408 specmaker -d zipextra -f zipextra -o myzipextra -I "~/zipextra/include/*h"
410 Then in the .spec file for our Winelib application, we add the line:
414 When we build our application, winebuild resolves the calls to our Unix .so.
415 As our application runs we can see the values of all parameters passed to
416 the DLL, and any values returned, without having to write code to dump
417 them ourselves (see below for a better way to wrap a DLL for forwarding).
419 This isn't a very realistic example of the usefulness of this feature,
420 however, since we could print out the results anyway, because it is our
421 application making the calls to the DLL. Where DLL forwarding is most useful
422 is where an application or DLL we didn't write calls functions in the DLL.
423 In this case we can capture the sequence of calls made, and the values passed
424 around. This is an aid in reimplementing the DLL, since we can add code for a
425 function, print the results, and then call the real DLL and compare. Only
426 when our code is the same do we need to remove the function pointer and the
427 call to the real DLL. A similar feature in wine is +relay debugging. Using a
428 fowarding DLL allows more granular reporting of arguments, because you can
429 write code to dump out the contents of types/structures rather than just
430 their address in memory. A future version of specmaker may generate this
431 code automatically for common Win32 types.
433 See below for more information on setting up a forwarding DLL.
436 Problems compiling a DLL containing generated code
437 --------------------------------------------------
439 Unless you are very lucky, you will need to do a small amount of work to
440 get a DLL generated with -c, -t or -f to compile. The reason for this is
441 that most DLLs will use custom types such as structs whose definition
442 is not known to the code in the DLL.
444 Heres an example prototype from crtdll:
446 double __cdecl _cabs(struct _complex arg0)
448 The definition for the _complex struct needs to be given. Since it is passed
449 by value, its size also needs to be correct in order to forward the call
450 correctly to a native DLL. In this case the structure is 8 bytes in size, which
451 means that the gcc compile flag -freg-struct-return must be given when
452 compiling the function in order to be compatable with the native DLL. (In
453 general this is not an issue, but you need to be aware of such issues if you
454 encounter problems with your forwarding DLL).
456 For third party (non C++) DLL's, the header(s) supplied with the DLL can
457 normally be added as an include to the generated DLL header. For other DLLs
458 I suggest creating a seperate header in the DLL directory and adding any
459 needed types to that. This allows you to rebuild the DLL at whim, for example
460 if a new version of specmaker brings increased functionality, then you
461 only have to overwrite the generated files and re-include the header to take
464 Usually there isn't much work to do to get the DLL to compile if you have
465 headers. As an example, building a forwarded crtdll, which contains 520
466 functions, required 20 types to be defined before it compiled. Of these,
467 about half were structures, so about 35 lines of code were needed. The only
468 change to the generated code was one line in the header to include the type
471 To save some typing in case you don't have headers for your DLL type, specmaker
472 will dump dummy declarations for unknown classes and types it encounters,
473 if you use the -v option. These can be piped directly into a fix-up header
474 file for use in compiling your DLL. For example, if specmaker encounters the
477 ??0foobar@@QAE@ABV0@@Z (Which is a constructor for a foobar object)
479 It will emit the following with -v set:
481 struct foobar { int _FIXME; };
483 (Classes are mapped to C structs when generating code).
485 The output should be piped through 'sort' and 'uniq' to remove multiple
488 specmaker -d foo -c -I "inc/*.h" -v | grep FIXME | sort | uniq > fixup.h
490 By adding '#include "fixup.h"' to foobar_dll.h your compile errors will be
493 If specmaker encounters a type it doesnt know that is passed by value (as in
494 the _cabs example above), it also prints a FIXME message like:
496 /* FIXME: By value type: Assumed 'int' */ typedef int ldiv_t;
498 If the type is not an int, you will need to change the code and possibly
499 the .spec entry in order to forward correctly. Otherwise, include the typedef
500 in your fixup header to avoid compile errors.
503 Using a forwarding DLL
504 ----------------------
506 To create and use a forwarding DLL to trace DLL calls, you need to first
507 create a DLL using the -f option as outlined above, and get it to compile.
508 In order to forward calls the following procedure can be used (for this
509 example we are going to build a forwarding msvcrt.dll for the purpose
510 of reimplementing it).
512 First we create the forwarding DLL. We will rename the real msvcrt.dll on our
513 system to ms_msvcrt.dll, and our msvcrt implementation will call it:
515 specmaker -d msvcrt -C -f ms_msvcrt -I "inc/*.h"
517 We then install this DLL into the Wine tree and add the types we need to
518 make it compile. Once the DLL compiles, we create a dummy ms_msvcrt DLL so
519 winebuild will resolve our forward calls to it (for the cases where specmaker
520 couldn't generate code and has placed an '@forward' line in the .spec file):
522 specmaker -d msvcrt -C -o ms_msvcrt
524 Install this DLL into the wine tree (since its a stub DLL, no changes are
527 Now uncomment the line that specmaker inserted into msvcrt.spec:
529 #inport ms_msvcrt.dll
533 Finally, we must tell Wine to only use the builtin msvcrt.dll and to only use
534 the native (Win32) ms_msvcrt.dll. Add the following two lines to ~/.wine/config
535 under the [DllOverrides] section:
537 ;Use our implmentation of msvcrt
538 "msvcrt" = "builtin, so"
539 ;Use only the Win32 ms_msvcrt
540 "ms_msvcrt" = "native"
542 At this point, when any call is made to msvcrt.dll, Our libmsvcrt.so recieves
543 the call. It then forwards or calls ms_msvcrt.dll, which is the native dll. We
544 recieve a return value and pass it back to our caller, having TRACEd the
545 arguments on the way.
547 At this point you are ready to start reimplementing the calls.
553 If you have any suggestions for improving this tool, please let me know.
554 If anyone can help answer the FIXME questions in msmangle.c or can fill me in
555 on any aspect of the C++ mangling scheme, I would appreciate it. In particular
556 I want to know what _E and _G represent.
558 If you encounter a C++ symbol that doesn't demangle **AND** you have the
559 prototype for it, please send me the symbol as reported by specmaker and the
560 prototype. The more examples I have the easier it is to decypher the scheme,
561 and generating them myself is very slow.
563 Finally, although it is easy to generate a DLL, I _very strongly_ suggest that
564 you dont submit a generated DLL for inclusion into Wine unless you have
565 actually implemented a fairly reasonable portion of it. Even then, you should
566 only send the portions of the DLL you have implemented. Thousands of lines of
567 stub code don't help the project at all.
569 Please send questions and bug reports to jon_p_griffiths@yahoo.com.
575 [1] See the Wine and Wine.conf man pages for details on how to tell Wine
576 whether to use native (Win32) or internal DLLs.