16.18 The OLD Statement

The OLD statement directs the linker to search another DLL for export ordinals. This statement preserves ordinal values used from older versions of a DLL. For more information on ordinals, see the following sections on the EXPORTS and IMPORTS statements.

Exported names in the current DLL that match exported names in the old DLL are assigned ordinal values from the earlier DLL unless

The name in the old module has no ordinal value assigned, or

An ordinal value is explicitly assigned in the current DLL.

Only one DLL can be specified; ordinals can be preserved from only one DLL. If an export in the DLL was specified with the NONAME attribute, the exported name is not available and its ordinal cannot be preserved. The OLD statement has no effect on applications.

Syntax

OLD 'filename'

Remarks

The filename specifies the DLL to be searched. It must be enclosed in single or double quotation marks (' or ").