windres - manipulate Windows resources.
windres [options] [input-file] [output-file]
windres reads resources from an input file and copies them
into an output file. Either file may be in one of three formats:
- "rc"
- A text format read by the Resource Compiler.
- "res"
- A binary format generated by the Resource Compiler.
- "coff"
- A COFF object or executable.
The exact description of these different formats is available in
documentation from Microsoft.
When windres converts from the
"rc" format to the
"res" format, it is acting like the
Windows Resource Compiler. When windres converts from the
"res" format to the
"coff" format, it is acting like the
Windows "CVTRES" program.
When windres generates an
"rc" file, the output is similar but not
identical to the format expected for the input. When an input
"rc" file refers to an external filename,
an output "rc" file will instead include
the file contents.
If the input or output format is not specified, windres
will guess based on the file name, or, for the input file, the file
contents. A file with an extension of .rc will be treated as an
"rc" file, a file with an extension of
.res will be treated as a "res"
file, and a file with an extension of .o or .exe will be
treated as a "coff" file.
If no output file is specified, windres will print the
resources in "rc" format to standard
output.
The normal use is for you to write an
"rc" file, use windres to convert
it to a COFF object file, and then link the COFF file into your application.
This will make the resources described in the
"rc" file available to Windows.
- -i filename
- --input
filename
- The name of the input file. If this option is not used, then
windres will use the first non-option argument as the input file
name. If there are no non-option arguments, then windres will read
from standard input. windres can not read a COFF file from standard
input.
- -o filename
- --output
filename
- The name of the output file. If this option is not used, then
windres will use the first non-option argument, after any used for
the input file name, as the output file name. If there is no non-option
argument, then windres will write to standard output.
windres can not write a COFF file to standard output. Note, for
compatibility with rc the option -fo is also accepted, but
its use is not recommended.
- -J format
- --input-format
format
- The input format to read. format may be res, rc, or
coff. If no input format is specified, windres will guess,
as described above.
- -O format
- --output-format
format
- The output format to generate. format may be res, rc,
or coff. If no output format is specified, windres will
guess, as described above.
- -F target
- --target
target
- Specify the BFD format to use for a COFF file as input or output. This is
a BFD target name; you can use the --help option to see a list of
supported targets. Normally windres will use the default format,
which is the first one listed by the --help option.
- --preprocessor
program
- When windres reads an "rc" file,
it runs it through the C preprocessor first. This option may be used to
specify the preprocessor to use, including any leading arguments. The
default preprocessor argument is "gcc -E -xc-header
-DRC_INVOKED".
- --preprocessor-arg
option
- When windres reads an "rc" file,
it runs it through the C preprocessor first. This option may be used to
specify additional text to be passed to preprocessor on its command line.
This option can be used multiple times to add multiple options to the
preprocessor command line.
- -I directory
- --include-dir
directory
- Specify an include directory to use when reading an
"rc" file. windres will pass this
to the preprocessor as an -I option. windres will also
search this directory when looking for files named in the
"rc" file. If the argument passed to
this command matches any of the supported formats (as described in
the -J option), it will issue a deprecation warning, and behave
just like the -J option. New programs should not use this
behaviour. If a directory happens to match a format, simple prefix
it with ./ to disable the backward compatibility.
- -D target
- --define
sym[=val]
- Specify a -D option to pass to the preprocessor when reading an
"rc" file.
- -U target
- --undefine
sym
- Specify a -U option to pass to the preprocessor when reading an
"rc" file.
- -r
- Ignored for compatibility with rc.
- -v
- Enable verbose mode. This tells you what the preprocessor is if you didn't
specify one.
- -c val
- --codepage
val
- Specify the default codepage to use when reading an
"rc" file. val should be a
hexadecimal prefixed by 0x or decimal codepage code. The valid
range is from zero up to 0xffff, but the validity of the codepage is host
and configuration dependent.
- -l val
- --language
val
- Specify the default language to use when reading an
"rc" file. val should be a
hexadecimal language code. The low eight bits are the language, and the
high eight bits are the sublanguage.
- --use-temp-file
- Use a temporary file to instead of using popen to read the output of the
preprocessor. Use this option if the popen implementation is buggy on the
host (eg., certain non-English language versions of Windows 95 and Windows
98 are known to have buggy popen where the output will instead go the
console).
- --no-use-temp-file
- Use popen, not a temporary file, to read the output of the preprocessor.
This is the default behaviour.
- -h
- --help
- Prints a usage summary.
- -V
- --version
- Prints the version number for windres.
- --yydebug
- If windres is compiled with
"YYDEBUG" defined as
1, this will turn on parser debugging.
- @file
- Read command-line options from file. The options read are inserted
in place of the original @file option. If file does not
exist, or cannot be read, then the option will be treated literally, and
not removed.
Options in file are separated by whitespace. A
whitespace character may be included in an option by surrounding the
entire option in either single or double quotes. Any character
(including a backslash) may be included by prefixing the character to be
included with a backslash. The file may itself contain additional
@file options; any such options will be processed
recursively.
the Info entries for binutils.
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