From mboxrd@z Thu Jan  1 00:00:00 1970
From: Ross Johnson <rpj@ise.canberra.edu.au>
To: Thomas Pfaff <tpfaff@gmx.net>
Cc: pthreads-win32@sources.redhat.com
Subject: Re: mingw32 DLLs, threads and exceptions HOWTO
Date: Sun, 10 Dec 2000 06:08:00 -0000
Message-id: <3A338F13.69B85171@ise.canberra.edu.au>
References: <002c01c06036$827a7da0$69856286@pcs.ditec.de>
X-SW-Source: 2000/msg00137.html

Hi Thomas,

This is great news! I followed your instructions
for the same result. Brilliant!

As you noted, the exception1.c test fails. For some reason
catch(...) isn't catching the deliberate zero divide exception.
I've substituted a different exception, which passes. (The
test simply confirms that the redefinition of catch in
pthread.h works.)

Your message will be in the FAQ.

Cheers and thanks.
Ross

Thomas Pfaff wrote:
> 
> Dear all,
> 
> this is a summary that should help users to have thread safe exception
> handling over DLL exported functions.
> If you don't care about c++ exceptions you can stop reading here.
> 
> The first time i struggled with c++ exceptions was when i tried to throw an
> exception in a dll exported function where the exception handler resides in
> the program module.
> Instead of catching the exception the program stopped with an abnormal
> termination.
> The reason was that the exception code is in libgcc.a. Since this is a
> static library the code and some static variables are both in the dll and in
> the program module, each module runs in its own context.
> It was Franco Bez that pointed me in the right direction, that is convert
> libgcc.a into a dll.
> 
> That done i tried to build the pthreads-win32 library, but some tests failed
> with an access violation. Due to the fact that the dll was not build
> was -mthreads support, eh_context_static instead of eh_context_specific (the
> mthreads version) was used for exception handling.
> I did a rebuild of the gcc dll with -mthreads, now all tests are passed
> (except a nonportable exception test that relies on a MSVC feature).
> 
> To build the gcc dll i did the following steps.
> 
> 1. create a temporary directory libgcc
> 2. copy libgcc.a from gcc-2.95.2\lib\gcc-lib\i386-mingw32\gcc-2.95.2 to that
> directory
> 3. ar -x libgcc.a
> 4. create a directory tmp and move __main.o, _exit.o and __dummy.o in that
> directory
> 5. build the dll
> gcc -shared -mthreads -o gcc.dll *.o
> strip gcc.dll
> Move this dll into your gcc\bin directory
> 6. Move _chkstk.o and frame.o to the tmp directory, otherwise you break the
> builtin alloca.
> 7. Build the import library libgcc.a
> dllwrap --export-all --dllname=gcc.dll --output-def=libgcc.def --output-lib=
> libgcc.a *.o
> ar -q libgcc.a tmp/*.o
> strip --strip-debug libgcc.a
> ranlib libgcc.a
> 8. save your old libgcc.a, copy the new libgcc.a into
> gcc-2.95.2\lib\gcc-lib\i386-mingw32\gcc-2.95.2
> 
> I am using gcc-2.95.2-1 with Mumits patched binutils-19990818-1and msvcrt
> runtime-2000-03-27.
> I don't know if this is still required with the current binutils and gcc
> since i have seen no sources until now.
> 
> I believe that these steps are at least necessary if you are trying to use
> the pthreads-win32 library (which is required if you want to use gtk+ on
> win32).
> They will make mingw32 a real replacement for MSVC (at least for me).
> 
> What is left:
> 
> 1. Include the mingwm10.dll function into the gcc.dll to have only one dll
> left.
> 2. make -mthreads and -fnative-struct default compiler options.
> 3. convert libstdc++ to a dll by adding the declspec dllexport and dllimport
> to every class definition.
> 
> Regards,
>     Thomas