windres reads resources from an input file and copies them into
an output file. Either file may be in one of three formats:
A text format read by the Resource Compiler.
A binary format generated by the Resource Compiler.
A COFF object or executable.
The exact description of these different formats is available in
documentation from Microsoft.
When windres converts from the "rc" format to the "res"
format, it is acting like the Windows Resource Compiler. When
windres converts from the "res" format to the "coff"
format, it is acting like the Windows "CVTRES" program.
When windres generates an "rc" file, the output is similar
but not identical to the format expected for the input. When an input
"rc" file refers to an external filename, an output "rc" file
will instead include the file contents.
If the input or output format is not specified, windres will
guess based on the file name, or, for the input file, the file contents.
A file with an extension of .rc will be treated as an "rc"
file, a file with an extension of .res will be treated as a
"res" file, and a file with an extension of .o or
.exe will be treated as a "coff" file.
If no output file is specified, windres will print the resources
in "rc" format to standard output.
The normal use is for you to write an "rc" file, use windres
to convert it to a COFF object file, and then link the COFF file into
your application. This will make the resources described in the
"rc" file available to Windows.
OPTIONS
"-i
"--input
The name of the input file. If this option is not used, then
windres will use the first non-option argument as the input file
name. If there are no non-option arguments, then windres will
read from standard input. windres can not read a COFF file from
standard input.
"-o
"--output
The name of the output file. If this option is not used, then
windres will use the first non-option argument, after any used
for the input file name, as the output file name. If there is no
non-option argument, then windres will write to standard output.
windres can not write a COFF file to standard output. Note,
for compatability with rc the option -fo is also
accepted, but its use is not recommended.
"-J
"--input-format
The input format to read. format may be res, rc, or
coff. If no input format is specified, windres will
guess, as described above.
"-O
"--output-format
The output format to generate. format may be res,
rc, or coff. If no output format is specified,
windres will guess, as described above.
"-F
"--target
Specify the BFD format to use for a COFF file as input or output. This
is a BFD target name; you can use the --help option to see a list
of supported targets. Normally windres will use the default
format, which is the first one listed by the --help option.
"--preprocessor
When windres reads an "rc" file, it runs it through the C
preprocessor first. This option may be used to specify the preprocessor
to use, including any leading arguments. The default preprocessor
argument is "gcc -E -xc-header -DRC_INVOKED".
"-I
"--include-dir
Specify an include directory to use when reading an "rc" file.
windres will pass this to the preprocessor as an -I
option. windres will also search this directory when looking for
files named in the "rc" file. If the argument passed to this command
matches any of the supported formats (as descrived in the -J
option), it will issue a deprecation warning, and behave just like the
-J option. New programs should not use this behaviour. If a
directory happens to match a format, simple prefix it with ./
to disable the backward compatibility.
"-D
"--define
Specify a -D option to pass to the preprocessor when reading an
"rc" file.
"-U
"--undefine
Specify a -U option to pass to the preprocessor when reading an
"rc" file.
"-r"
Ignored for compatibility with rc.
"-v"
Enable verbose mode. This tells you what the preprocessor is if you
didn't specify one.
"-l
"--language
Specify the default language to use when reading an "rc" file.
val should be a hexadecimal language code. The low eight bits are
the language, and the high eight bits are the sublanguage.
"--use-temp-file"
Use a temporary file to instead of using popen to read the output of
the preprocessor. Use this option if the popen implementation is buggy
on the host (eg., certain non-English language versions of Windows 95 and
Windows 98 are known to have buggy popen where the output will instead
go the console).
"--no-use-temp-file"
Use popen, not a temporary file, to read the output of the preprocessor.
This is the default behaviour.
"-h"
"--help"
Prints a usage summary.
"-V"
"--version"
Prints the version number for windres.
"--yydebug"
If windres is compiled with "YYDEBUG" defined as 1,
this will turn on parser debugging.
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1
or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation;
with no Invariant Sections, with no Front-Cover Texts, and with no
Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the
section entitled ``GNU Free Documentation License''.
