Helper Tools ‐ Compiling

Compiler Helper Tool

The project includes a PowerShell script (tool/compilerHelper.ps1) to automate building the C source files into DLLs for both x86 and x64 architectures.

Features

• Automatically looks for .c files in the ../src/ directory
• Prompts the user to select which files to compile (with interactive selection)
• Supports command-line arguments for batch processing
• Cleans up old build artifacts
• Compiles each selected file for both x86 and x64 using Visual Studio's cl.exe
• Places the resulting DLLs in pyCTools/bin/x86 and pyCTools/bin/x64
• Automatically detects Visual Studio installation paths
• Handles missing Visual Studio installations by prompting for the path

Usage

Basic Usage

1. Open PowerShell in the project root or tool directory
2. Run:

   tool\compilerHelper.ps1

3. For each .c file found, answer Y to compile or N to skip
4. The script will build and place DLLs in the appropriate output folders

Advanced Usage

Automatic Acceptance

To compile all found files without prompting:

tool\compilerHelper.ps1 -y

Specific Files

To compile only specific files:

tool\compilerHelper.ps1 file1.c file2.c

Output

• DLL naming: [filename]_[architecture].dll (e.g., hRng_x64.dll, hRng_x86.dll)
• Output folders: ../bin/x64/ and ../bin/x86/
• Build artifacts (.obj, .lib, .exp files) are also placed in the output folders

Troubleshooting

• If Visual Studio is not detected automatically, you will be prompted to enter the path manually
• The script requires the Visual Studio C++ build tools to be installed
• Set $debug = $true at the top of the script to see more detailed error messages

See Also

• DLL Discovery