Re: [Mingw-users] .EXE is "not in proper format"?

[Greg C. <chi...@mi...>]

Wayne Davison wrote:
> 
> Hi folks.  I'm a bit new to the mingw thing, and though I've been able to
> get the latest libxml (2.2.4) and pcre (3.4) compiled into DLLs, I've run
> into a weird problem when I try to link them (plus zlib) into another DLL
> of mine and then into my 4 programs.  One of the programs works just
> great, but two of them won't load at all (see below) and the 4th crashes
> on load (which I haven't looked into yet).
> 
> The error I'm getting is that the program is "not in the proper format".
> Can someone enlighten me as to what this might mean?  Does this indicate
> that the compiler generated a bad file?  Or might this mean that I'm doing
> something stupid?  Any hints on what I should be on the look-out for would
> be appreciated.  (In case you're curious, the programs I'm working on are
> the "rbmake" project at sourceforge -- http://rbmake.sourceforge.net/ .)
> 
> [I hope this isn't a FAQ or something, but the mailing-list search isn't
> working at the moment, and I couldn't find anything that appeared to
> mention this with a quick manual search.]

It may be related to a problem I had. Since the mailing-list search
isn't working for you, I'll copy the entire thing below.

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [mingw] Fixed [Was: "program is in an invalid format"]
Date: Mon, 24 Jul 2000 23:18:47 -0400
From: Greg Chicares <chi...@mi...>
Reply-To: mi...@eg...
To: mi...@eg...
References: <386...@mi...>

Responding to my own message from 1999 Dec 28, in case
anyone else encounters a similar problem. I suspect it's
particularly likely to come up when porting a borland
OWL application (as this one was).

The problem was windres. Switching to the sdk compiler and
running windres on its output was the fix. I found that
idea in a message from Bruce Dodson dated 2000 Mar 23.

In a little more detail: this rule:

%.res.o : %.rc %.rh
	windres \
		--include-dir $(a_bunch_of_include_dirs) \
		--define __GNUG__ \
		--use-temp-file \
		-I rc -i $< \
		-O coff -o $@

gives the problem reproducibly; this set does not:

%.res : %.rc %.rh
	/sdktools/rc \
		/i/whateverl/include \
		/d__GNUG__ \
		/r /fo$@ $<
	ren $(srcdir)/%.res %.res

# Rename command is used above because SDK outputs '.RES'
# but I try to keep everything lower-case e.g. '.res'

%.res.o : %.res
	windres --use-temp-file -I res -O coff -i $< -o $@

In both cases, I link as follows:

ihsnodll.exe : $(a_bunch_of_dependencies)
	$(CXX) \
		-o $@ \
		$(objects) \
		myresources.res.o \
		$(CXXFLAGS) $(LIBS) $(LDFLAGS) \

Greg Chicares wrote:
> 
> My program compiles and links without errors, but
> when I try to run it I see:
> 
> ...a message box:
>   Error Starting Program
>   The C:\TEST\PMGCC1.EXE file appears to be corrupt.
>   Reinstall the file, and then try again.
> 
> ...on the command line:
>   The program is in an invalid format, and cannot be run.
>   It may be damaged.
> 
> ...when trying to run it in gdb:
>   Starting program: C:\test/pmgcc1.exe
>   Error creating process C:\test/pmgcc1.exe, (error 11)
> 
> What should I do to fix this?
> 
> Background info:
> 
> Unmodified gcc2.95.2 (crtdll version)

Same problem with 2.95.2-1 (msvcrt version)
 
> win95 OSR2
> 
> Static linked--the only DLLs used are part of the OS
> 
> Program compiles and runs correctly using borland C++ 5.02
> 
> Source is about 100 KLOC; binary is 6.6MB

On Thu, 23 Mar 2000 20:43:33 -0800,
"Bruce Dodson" <bru...@bi...> wrote:
> 
> I recently added a VERSIONINFO resource to one of my programs, 
> and just noticed that QuickView is now able to read the EXE
> correctly.  Take out the resource, and it's garbled.  Add it 
> back in, and it's fixed.  Perhaps some others could try this 
> on their apps and see if it is just a coincidence?

I have no VERSIONINFO resource, and the QuickView display
of my .exe is not garbled.