Exporting functions from a DLL with dllexport

If you want plain C exports, use a C project not C++. C++ DLLs rely on name-mangling for all the C++isms (namespaces etc…). You can compile your code as C by going into your project settings under C/C++->Advanced, there is an option “Compile As” which corresponds to the compiler switches /TP and /TC.

If you still want to use C++ to write the internals of your lib but export some functions unmangled for use outside C++, see the second section below.

Exporting/Importing DLL Libs in VC++

What you really want to do is define a conditional macro in a header that will be included in all of the source files in your DLL project:

#ifdef LIBRARY_EXPORTS
#    define LIBRARY_API __declspec(dllexport)
#else
#    define LIBRARY_API __declspec(dllimport)
#endif

Then on a function that you want to be exported you use LIBRARY_API:

LIBRARY_API int GetCoolInteger();

In your library build project create a define LIBRARY_EXPORTS this will cause your functions to be exported for your DLL build.

Since LIBRARY_EXPORTS will not be defined in a project consuming the DLL, when that project includes the header file of your library all of the functions will be imported instead.

If your library is to be cross-platform you can define LIBRARY_API as nothing when not on Windows:

#ifdef _WIN32
#    ifdef LIBRARY_EXPORTS
#        define LIBRARY_API __declspec(dllexport)
#    else
#        define LIBRARY_API __declspec(dllimport)
#    endif
#elif
#    define LIBRARY_API
#endif

When using dllexport/dllimport you do not need to use DEF files, if you use DEF files you do not need to use dllexport/dllimport. The two methods accomplish the same task different ways, I believe that dllexport/dllimport is the recommended method out of the two.

Exporting unmangled functions from a C++ DLL for LoadLibrary/PInvoke

If you need this to use LoadLibrary and GetProcAddress, or maybe importing from another language (i.e PInvoke from .NET, or FFI in Python/R etc) you can use extern "C" inline with your dllexport to tell the C++ compiler not to mangle the names. And since we are using GetProcAddress instead of dllimport we don’t need to do the ifdef dance from above, just a simple dllexport:

The Code:

#define EXTERN_DLL_EXPORT extern "C" __declspec(dllexport)

EXTERN_DLL_EXPORT int getEngineVersion() {
  return 1;
}

EXTERN_DLL_EXPORT void registerPlugin(Kernel &K) {
  K.getGraphicsServer().addGraphicsDriver(
    auto_ptr<GraphicsServer::GraphicsDriver>(new OpenGLGraphicsDriver())
  );
}

And here’s what the exports look like with Dumpbin /exports:

  Dump of file opengl_plugin.dll

  File Type: DLL

  Section contains the following exports for opengl_plugin.dll

    00000000 characteristics
    49866068 time date stamp Sun Feb 01 19:54:32 2009
        0.00 version
           1 ordinal base
           2 number of functions
           2 number of names

    ordinal hint RVA      name

          1    0 0001110E getEngineVersion = @ILT+265(_getEngineVersion)
          2    1 00011028 registerPlugin = @ILT+35(_registerPlugin)

So this code works fine:

m_hDLL = ::LoadLibrary(T"opengl_plugin.dll");

m_pfnGetEngineVersion = reinterpret_cast<fnGetEngineVersion *>(
  ::GetProcAddress(m_hDLL, "getEngineVersion")
);
m_pfnRegisterPlugin = reinterpret_cast<fnRegisterPlugin *>(
  ::GetProcAddress(m_hDLL, "registerPlugin")
);