Re: Libtool: Microsoft dumpbin as name lister

[Tim Van Holder]

>>>Regarding dumpbin not being present in the 2003 version, I
>>>*think* it's just missing from the free toolkit and that it is
>>>still going strong in "the real" releases of Visual Studio.
>>
>>OK.  I just can't test it then.
>>
>>
>>>>Also, there seem to be third-party programs named `dumpbin'.  
>>>>Does your1> test av oid them or do they work with 
>>
>>your macro?  Are
>>
>>>they in
>>>
>>>>wide-spread use?  (We can just wait till someone reports 
>>
>>a bug, if you
>>
>>>>don't know; but maybe you do, or I just missed that info.)
>>>
>>>Hmm, I was not aware of other dumpbins, so if they are similar
>>>there might be a problem.
>>
>>Completely untested (and no idea about trustworthiness):
>>http://www.freedownloadscenter.com/Best/coff-dumpbin.html
>>
>>
>>>But, as the test is currently, the located dumpbin must
>>>not choke on the -symbols option and it must output a line
>>>with both "External" and "some_variable" on it. So false
>>>positives seem unlikely to me, but the test can always be
>>>hardened.

FYI, the dumpbin.exe provided by Visual C++ is really just a stub
that calls link.exe (rather like symlinking unzip as zipinfo).

Running "link /dump" has the same effect as running "dumpbin"; so
perhaps checking for MS Link is enough - if you have identified
the MS linker, you can use it to list symbols (and I imagine
libtool may need to know about the linker anyway).