How to link app manifest using clang build in MSYS2

[lovettchris]

Describe the issue

I'm trying to add the following *.rc file to my cmake library

Steps to Reproduce the Problem

1. Add "manifest.rc" to your add_library(shell OBJECT main .cpp )
2. Cmake and build your project.
3. The build compiles the RC using windres, great, Building RC object shell/CMakeFiles/shell.dir/manifest.rc.obj but the linker is unhappy with it bash: line 1: C:/msys64/home/.../CMakeFiles/shell.dir/manifest.rc.obj: cannot execute binary file: Exec format error even though the file is identical to the default-manifest.o that ships with gcc.
4. How to link a compiled resource containing an app manifest?

Additional Context: Operating System, Screenshots

If applicable, add screenshots to help explain your problem.

• OS: [ Windows 11 Pro version 21H2 build 22000.184]
• msys2: 20210725
• clang: pacman -S mingw-w64-x86_64-clang

[Biswa96]

Can you provide the cmake file? Generally, treat the .rc file as any other source code.

[lovettchris]

attached:
test.zip

build using:

cmake .. -G "Unix Makefiles"
make

I get a different error in this little test, so not sure what is happening above for the exec format error.

Scanning dependencies of target foo
[ 33%] Building CXX object CMakeFiles/foo.dir/main.cpp.obj
[ 66%] Building RC object CMakeFiles/foo.dir/manifest.rc.obj
[100%] Linking CXX executable foo.exe
C:/msys64/mingw64/bin/../lib/gcc/x86_64-w64-mingw32/10.3.0/../../../../x86_64-w64-mingw32/bin/ld.exe: .rsrc merge failure: multiple non-default manifests
[100%] Built target foo

this version of ld.exe has version 2.36.1

[lazka]

Your example works fine here (using an updated MSYS2 though), also using ninja

[Biswa96]

Yes, I agree with lazka. Here is the output of make command:

$ make
Scanning dependencies of target foo
[ 33%] Building CXX object CMakeFiles/foo.dir/main.cpp.obj
[ 66%] Building RC object CMakeFiles/foo.dir/manifest.rc.obj
[100%] Linking CXX executable foo.exe
[100%] Built target foo

[lovettchris]

Cool , but I only install MSYS2 the other day, so which version of MSYS2 do I need?

[Biswa96]

There is no version of msys2, just like rolling Linux distributions (e.g. ArchLinux). Make sure you have installed msys2 with latest installer and update all installed packages with pacman -Syyu command. You can search for any package details here https://packages.msys2.org/search

[lovettchris]

Ok, I ran "pacman -Syyu" and recreated my build output and I still get this warning:

C:/msys64/mingw64/bin/c++.exe -Wl,--whole-archive CMakeFiles/foo.dir/objects.a -Wl,--no-whole-archive -o foo.exe -Wl,--out-implib,libfoo.dll.a -Wl,--major-image-version,0,--minor-image-version,0 @CMakeFiles/foo.dir/linklibs.rsp
C:/msys64/mingw64/bin/../lib/gcc/x86_64-w64-mingw32/10.3.0/../../../../x86_64-w64-mingw32/bin/ld.exe: .rsrc merge failure: multiple non-default manifests

but it does produce a binary and the binary has one .rsrc section containing my updated manifest so all good, thanks.