[Mingw-users] Help - App works under gdb but fails when directly executing it

[Chander M A. <cha...@sa...>]

Hi,

Help! I am seeing a strange problem using MinGW (first project with
mingw) and maybe someone can easily recognize what i have / haven't done
right. I am moving an app from MSVC to MinGW...

Problem:

 After compilation & linking in IDE --> in a DOS window, i can use gdb
to load and run (or step thru) the program as expected (Program exits
normally).

However if i directly start the program at the prompt it immediately
quits with a windows Application error popup and the message "the
instruction at 0x7c911404 referenced memory at 0xfffffff8. the memory
cannot be "read".

Environment:   I installed the MinGWStudio full IDE package and am
building using that. The various versions of mingw included by this
package install were:
  gcc 3.3.1
  binutils  2.14.90
  mingw-runtime  3.2
  w32api 2.4
  gdb 6.0
  gnu make 3.80.0

The link line is:

gcc -o <list of object.o files> -L. -lbgd -lxml2

bgd.dll  is in the same directory as executable when running app and
   i created the libbgd.a import lib and def file etc. using info on the
   web
xml i got came as libxml2.a already and seems to satisfy the linker

The linked application (0 errors) runs from within the IDE or within gdb
from the command line, but fails when executed directly. I was expecting
mingw to produce "native" Win32 apps that could execute off cmd line ?
true ?? Is this possibly something due to the MinGWStudio IDE ??

My application doesn't use any Windows API (slated as a web CGI
eventually).

[
As a side-note:
 - I also had problems putting all the object code into a "Static
library" (project type per MingGWStudio) as there were interlibrary
"undefined references" generated altho the libs were in correct order on
the command line (caller first). -  anyhow, currently all the objects
are listed on the link command line itself s given above.
I want to compile & link it statically (as far as possible), but right
now i cannot even get it working standalone.

 - the IDE's exported Makefile does not run as-is but i think thats
probably because i do not have MSYS installed on my system (the
/ and \  in filenames is the first issue...) - and i haven't got
to change it and use it for compiling without IDE yet (linking works).

end-sidenote]

Any ideas, suggestions and "u newbie - you forgot to ....." comments are
all welcome (...i am a newbie with mingw, but been using gcc on *nix for
years)


Thanks in advance for responding.

-chander
PS>> Is anyone using / supporting MinGWStudio (no mailing list) ? Anyone
recommend another IDE thats easy to setup and provide a better fit to
mingw and is actively used by community...and most importantly produce
an executable that will execute natively with no dll's etc to accompany
the exe.