FIX: DUMPBIN, LIB, and EDITBIN Fail on File Names with Spaces

Last reviewed: September 19, 1997
Article ID: Q145937

2.00 2.10 2.20 4.00 WINDOWS NT kbtool kbbuglist kbfixlist

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Linker Front-End Utilities (Dumpbin.exe, Editbin.exe, and Lib.exe) included with: Microsoft Visual C++, 32-bit Edition, versions 2.0, 2.1, 2.2, 4.0

SYMPTOMS

The command-line utilities Dumpbin.exe, Editbin.exe, and Lib.exe do not accept file names that contain embedded spaces. For example, this code:

   DUMPBIN /ALL "my test.obj"

results in this error:

   DUMPBIN : fatal error LNK1181: cannot open input file "my"

CAUSE

Dumpbin.exe, Lib.exe, and Editbin.exe are front-end utilities that spawn and pass their arguments to Link.exe. When the front-end utility parses its command line, it strips the quotation marks. This stripped argument is passed to Link .exe by the spawning program.

RESOLUTION

Use LINK with the file names that contain embedded spaces instead of using the front-end utilities. The syntax is:

   LINK  /<Link Utility Switch>  [Utility Arguments]

Here [Utility Arguments] is the list of arguments for the front-end utility.

Front-End Utility   Link Utility Switch

EDITBIN.EXE         /EDIT
DUMPBIN.EXE         /DUMP
LIB.EXE             /LIB

For example, the equivalent of:

   DUMP /ALL "my test.obj"

is:

   LINK /DUMPBIN /ALL "my test.obj"

Similarly, LINK /LIB is equivalent to LIB and LINK /EDIT is equivalent to EDITBIN.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a bug in the Microsoft products listed at the beginning of this article. This bug was corrected in Visual C++ 4.1.

Additional reference words: 2.00 2.10 2.20 4.00 4.10
KBCategory: kbtool kbbuglist kbfixlist
KBSubcategory: TlsMisc vcbuglist400 vcfixlist410
Keywords : TlsMisc vcbuglist400 vcfixlist410 kbbuglist kbfixlist kbtool
Version : 2.00 2.10 2.20 4.00
Platform : NT WINDOWS
Solution Type : kbfix

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Last reviewed: September 19, 1997
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