LIB Error U2155 When Hyphen in File or Directory Name

MS-DOS                                      | OS/2

The information in this article applies to:

• Microsoft LIB for MS-DOS, versions 3.1, 3.11, 3.17, 3.18, 3.2, 3.20.010, 3.31, and 3.4
• Microsoft LIB for OS/2, versions 3.1, 3.11, 3.17, 3.2

SUMMARY

The Microsoft Library Manager utility LIB.EXE does not allow file or directory names to contain a hyphen (-) character. If a file or directory name containing a hyphen is passed to LIB.EXE, the following error will be generated:

   LIB : error U2155: <path> : module not in library; ignored

MORE INFORMATION

Although a hyphen is a valid character for an MS-DOS or OS/2 filename, LIB interprets this character as the extraction operator that tells LIB to remove an object module from an existing library. Since LIB is assuming everything following the hyphen is the name of an object module that you want removed, and since this is not an actual module name, the U2155 error is generated.

A common situation where this error may occur is while installing one of the Microsoft language products that build combined libraries during the installation process. You may receive the U2155 error when running a Setup program if you have specified a directory name during setup that contains a hyphen. For example, many C users install the C compiler in a directory called MS-C, but Setup then fails when LIB is called to build the combined libraries in that directory.

This is expected behavior for LIB.EXE and is the result of the established command-line syntax. Unless the command-line syntax is changed, the hyphen cannot be recognized as a filespec character instead of an operator.