Re: [Mingw-users] _argv and _argc

[Mumit K. <khan@NanoTech.Wisc.EDU>]

On Tue, 30 Jan 2001, Appaiah Kumaraswamy wrote:

> Hello! I am a novice programmer, just programming for fun. I have been 
> using MinGW for a long time, and while browsing the headers, I found 
> this cool feature in stdlib.h. Two variables, _argv and _argc are 
> defined there, which allow non-console, ie. Windows apps to use the dos 
> "main ()" style argument handling. I think it's much better than using 
> the LPSTR variable in WinMain.

If you're using main(), a better way to handle this the portable way --
use the argv and argc arguments passed to main by the underlying OS.
  
  #include <stdio.h>
  #include <stdlib.h>
  int 
  main (int argc, char *argv[]) 
  {
    int i;
    for (i = 0; i < argc; i++)
      printf ("argv[%d] = %s\n", i, argv[i]);
    
    exit (0);
  }

instead of using non-portable schemes like _argv and _argc. Guaranteed
to work on all "non-freestanding" or "hosted" implementations. 
Freestanding implementations include embedded systems, like your toaster
or refrigerator of the future, that may not have such facilities.

> This thing also lets me get the module file name, by accessing _argv 
> [0]. But there's one gotcha, about which I would like to ask:
> 
> I have made an application in, say D:\CC++\, by name abc.exe, which 
> prints the value of _argv [ 0 ]. Now, if I GCC 2.95.2 (CRTDLL), to 
> compile the application, then the printout is:
> D:\CC__~1\abc.exe
> 
> but if I use GCC 2.95.2-1 (MSVCRT), the output is:
> D:\CC++\abc.exe
> 
> Does this show that the problem is in CRTDLL.DLL (outdation, maybe?), or 
> am I doing something wrong?

Yes, CRTDLL is obsolete and MS is not going to update it other than
possibly fixing major bugs. MSVCRT is the way to go.

Regards,
Mumit