Cross compiling fails to build

[3m0W33D]

Hi I am trying to cross compile a .dll on linux for windows using x86_64-pc-windows-gnu as, my target, however, the build keeps failing. Is this library not compatible for cross compiling yet?

[OpenByteDev]

How are you trying to compile and what is the result?

[3m0W33D]

I am compiling from linux to windows using the nightly x86_64-pc-windows-gnu. My code is as follows, but I have removed some of the path information.

use std::path::Path;
use netcorehost::{pdcstring,nethost};
use std::error::Error;
use path_absolutize::Absolutize;

fn main() ->  Result<(), Box <dyn Error>> {
    use pdcstring::PdCString;
    
    let test_out_dir = Path::new("C:\\some\\pathonwindows\\").absolutize()?;
    let f_path = Path::join(&test_out_dir, "test.dll");
    let assembly_path = PdCString::from_os_str(f_path)?;
    let hostfxr = nethost::load_hostfxr()?;
    let context = hostfxr.initialize_for_dotnet_command_line(assembly_path)?;
    let result = context.run_app();
    
    Ok(())
}

The error I am getting is when compiling with cargo build --target x86_64-pc-windows-gnu this is the first line of error
linking with x86_64-w64-mingw32-gcc failed: exit status: 1

(netcorehost-016d8406b5cff019.netcorehost.2490ce6b-cgu.14.rcgu.o): in function 'netcorehost::nethost::get_hostfxr_path_with_parameters':
 $PATH/netcorehost-0.3.0/src/nethost.rs:40: undefined reference to `get_hostfxr_path'
          collect2: error: ld returned 1 exit status

  = help: some `extern` functions couldn't be found; some native libraries may need to be installed or have their path specified
  = note: use the `-l` flag to specify native libraries to link
  = note: use the `cargo:rustc-link-lib` directive to specify the native libraries to link with Cargo (see https://doc.rust-lang.org/cargo/reference/build-scripts.html#cargorustc-link-libkindname)  

[OpenByteDev]

I just pushed some changes can you try it again with the current version on master?

[3m0W33D]

Hi I am still pretty new to rust and I dont know if I am doing this right, but this is my cargo.toml

[package]
name = "dotnettest"
version = "0.1.0"
edition = "2018"

[dependencies]
netcorehost = { git = "https://github.com/OpenByteDev/netcorehost"}
path-absolutize = "3.0"

I tried compiling with cargo build --target x86_64-pc-windows-gnu but I am still getting the same errors as above. Code has not change at all.

[OpenByteDev]

Can you run cargo clean and try again?

[3m0W33D]

I have tried and changed to use the latest cargo version 0.3.1 and there is a different error now.

  = note: /usr/bin/x86_64-w64-mingw32-ld:$PATH/target/x86_64-pc-windows-gnu/debug/nethost/win-x64/libnethost.lib: error adding symbols: file format not recognized
          collect2: error: ld returned 1 exit status


error: aborting due to previous error; 1 warning emitted

error: could not compile `dotnettest`

[OpenByteDev]

Can you take a look into target/debug/nethost and tell me what files are inside?

[OpenByteDev]

Could you share a repo where the error occurs?

[OpenByteDev]

I have tried and changed to use the latest cargo version 0.3.1 and there is a different error now.

  = note: /usr/bin/x86_64-w64-mingw32-ld:$PATH/target/x86_64-pc-windows-gnu/debug/nethost/win-x64/libnethost.lib: error adding symbols: file format not recognized
          collect2: error: ld returned 1 exit status


error: aborting due to previous error; 1 warning emitted

error: could not compile `dotnettest`

You should make a new comment instead of replacing an old one.

[OpenByteDev]

I'm not sure what the problem is. I assume the libnethost.lib available for windows x64 ist incompatible with the gnu toolchain.

As an alternative you could try to target x86_64-pc-windows-msvc using cross.