From: Roger P. <rog...@gm...> - 2009-12-04 00:48:03
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>> however, we as developers *can* link against >> a different version and/or distribute our released binaries with >> that version, if desired? > > If you, as a developer, choose to link to some other version, then > you have to have a licence to redistribute that version. AFAIK, > such licences must be PURCHASED from Microsoft; I may be wrong, but > I don't think the EULAs of MSVC-Express versions permit it. Thank you everyone, for your replies. So if I understand correctly, I *could* link against other versions of msvcrt.dll, however it doesn't link by default because 1) the maintainers of mingw would have to have a license of MSVC in order to distribute the dll's and 2) the developers who use mingw would need to re-distribute the newer msvcrt.dll with their apps, thus they would also need a license. I.e. the only *real* obstacle is money for licensing, not a technical limitation. Guess that's reasonable. As a note, here's the license from MSVC 2008 express. This file exists: ./Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0/VC/redist/x86/Microsoft.VC90.CRT/msvcr90.dll In the file redist.txt it says "The following list is a list of files available with Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 for redistribution under the Visual Studio 2008 license. If the Microsoft software you have licensed is not Visual Studio 2008, only the files that are installed by the Microsoft software may be redistributed under such license." and includes the above msvcr90.dll So it's not totally clear to me whether you can redistribute it or not... >> Is there an option to static link using mingw's gcc? > > Not to the OS provided runtime library. You would need to find, or > create an alternative runtime, which you could build as a staticly > linkable library, but that takes you out of MinGW's bailiwick. Interesting. I wonder how MSVC does it... The existence of C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0/VC/lib/msvcmrt.lib within VC 2008 express might be a clue. Cheers. -r |