[v5] Release .dll with v5 releases.

[divinity76]

Feature

• New architecture module
• Support for processor extension
• Add more instruction details (elaborated below)
• Binding support for: language
• Other (elaborated below)

Describe the feature you'd like
Can pre-compiled DLLs be released similar to how we release libcapstone-dev_5.0.5_amd64.deb for linux?
It would make it simpler for Windows developers to integrate capstone in their projects.
presumably similar to how the libcapstone-dev_5.0.5_amd64.deb release help Linux developers integrate capstone in their projects.

Additional context
attached a zip with pre-compiled capstone 5.0.5 static dlls for x86-64 and x86-32 here.
capstone_5_0_5_dlls.zip

it would have saved me at least 1 hour if capstone released dlls, given that my first naive attempt at creating a dll was met with

C:\Users\hans\projects\Patcher\capstone-5.0.5>mingw32-make
process_begin: CreateProcess(NULL, uname, ...) failed.
Makefile:11: pipe: No error
process_begin: CreateProcess(NULL, uname -s, ...) failed.
Makefile:89: pipe: No error
The system cannot find the path specified.
The system cannot find the path specified.
The system cannot find the path specified.
'grep' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.
'grep' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.
'grep' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.
A subdirectory or file -p already exists.
Error occurred while processing: -p.
A subdirectory or file . already exists.
Error occurred while processing: ..
mingw32-make: *** [Makefile:588: cs.o] Error 1

and my second naive attempt was met with

$ ./make.sh cygwin-mingw64
+ MAKE_JOBS=4
++ uname
+ UNAME=CYGWIN_NT-10.0-19045
+ '[' CYGWIN_NT-10.0-19045 = SunOS ']'
+ MAKE=make
+ echo CYGWIN_NT-10.0-19045
+ grep -q BSD
+ MAKE='make -j4'
+ TARGET=cygwin-mingw64
+ '[' 1 -gt 0 ']'
+ shift
+ case "$TARGET" in
+ CROSS=x86_64-w64-mingw32-
+ make -j4
  CC      cs.o
  CC      utils.o
make: x86_64-w64-mingw32-gcc: No such file or directory
make: *** [Makefile:590: cs.o] Error 127
make: *** Waiting for unfinished jobs....
  CC      MCInstrDesc.o
make: x86_64-w64-mingw32-gcc: No such file or directory
  CC      SStream.o
make: *** [Makefile:590: utils.o] Error 127
make: x86_64-w64-mingw32-gcc: No such file or directory
make: *** [Makefile:590: MCInstrDesc.o] Error 127
make: x86_64-w64-mingw32-gcc: No such file or directory
make: *** [Makefile:590: SStream.o] Error 127

[Rot127]

Can pre-compiled DLLs be released similar to how we release libcapstone-dev_5.0.5_amd64.deb for linux?

Yes, this would be nice. With CPack it should hopefully not too difficult to ship a proper installer.

Regarding your error:

It looks like you used make?
I highly recommend to use Cmake! This is also how our CI builds on Windows. See: https://github.com/capstone-engine/capstone/blob/next/BUILDING.md

[torsts]

I would really love officially released dlls (although right now I would need one for xtensa cpu :)) .. One note on released dlls.. it would be awesome to bundle the dlls with the according pdb files. This makes it easier for beginners to debug their own code and understand the interaction between own code and capstone code.

[Rot127]

It was just added: #2675.
This is not a debug build though, so no pdb files (I am not sure if cmake enables them for a debug builds by default).
You can wait for the Alpha4 release today (see #2682).

I would close this issue. If you find issues with the package, please open another one so we can track it separately.

[Rot127]

Sorry, this asked about the v5 branch. We would need to cherry-pick it there.
So let's keep this open until then.

[torsts]

Please note, on Windows pdb files are not just generated for debug builds. The pdb symbol files allow a release environment to be debugged with symbols that are not build in into the binaries themself. The common technique here is to create a memory dump in the production environment and being able to debug this.

[Rot127]

Thanks for the explanation, never used Windows seriously before.
For cmake the way to go it apparently the CMAKE_MSVC_DEBUG_INFORMATION_FORMAT variable.

cc @stevenjoezhang

[torsts]

Not developer, never used cmake seriously before.. when it comes to Windows native debugging, I will be here to help.

For me it is kind of a wonder that all of this build so "smooth" on Windows with Visual Studio.

I just had to disable the ARM code as that code made compilation fail with Visual Studio. VS reports errors in 2 of the ARM files for me.

[Rot127]

I just had to disable the ARM code as that code made compilation fail with Visual Studio. VS reports errors in 2 of the ARM files for me.

Please open an issue about this one.

I will be here to help.

Feel free to make a PR if you want to try (you can take the CAPSTONE_BUILD_STATIC_MSVC_RUNTIME flag in CMakeLists.txt as an example). We really appreciate contributions, especially for Windows.

[stevenjoezhang]

I previously added the script for building the installation package on Windows (see #2675), but there’s still a minor issue — currently, only the .lib (static library) and .dll (shared library) files are generated, while the .pdb file is missing. I’ll try to make adjustments to include it.