LINK : fatal error LNK1181: cannot open input file 'gdi32.lib'

[nickzuber]

• My machine is running on Windows 10
• Using node v4.1.2
• Using npm v3.8.3
• Using node-gyp v3.3.1

Following the very basic set up tutorial to get a Node Addon working, which you can find here (my set up and configuration is exactly the same as this directory):

https://github.com/kkaefer/node-cpp-modules/tree/master/01_bare_minimum

When I node-gyp configure everything seems to configure fine and no errors are thrown, however when I try to node-gyp build I always end up with this fatal linking error to some input file named gdi32.lib. Here is the response I get when I perform both of these commands:

C:\~projects\needle\scripts\testing>node-gyp configure
gyp info it worked if it ends with ok
gyp info using node-gyp@3.3.1
gyp info using node@4.1.2 | win32 | x64
gyp info spawn C:\Python27\python.EXE
gyp info spawn args [ 'C:\\Users\\Nicholas\\AppData\\Roaming\\npm\\node_modules\\node-gyp\\gyp\\gyp_main.py',
gyp info spawn args   'binding.gyp',
gyp info spawn args   '-f',
gyp info spawn args   'msvs',
gyp info spawn args   '-G',
gyp info spawn args   'msvs_version=auto',
gyp info spawn args   '-I',
gyp info spawn args   'C:\\~projects\\needle\\scripts\\testing\\build\\config.gypi',
gyp info spawn args   '-I',
gyp info spawn args   'C:\\Users\\Nicholas\\AppData\\Roaming\\npm\\node_modules\\node-gyp\\addon.gypi',
gyp info spawn args   '-I',
gyp info spawn args   'C:\\Users\\Nicholas\\.node-gyp\\4.1.2\\include\\node\\common.gypi',
gyp info spawn args   '-Dlibrary=shared_library',
gyp info spawn args   '-Dvisibility=default',
gyp info spawn args   '-Dnode_root_dir=C:\\Users\\Nicholas\\.node-gyp\\4.1.2',
gyp info spawn args   '-Dnode_gyp_dir=C:\\Users\\Nicholas\\AppData\\Roaming\\npm\\node_modules\\node-gyp',
gyp info spawn args   '-Dnode_lib_file=node.lib',
gyp info spawn args   '-Dmodule_root_dir=C:\\~projects\\needle\\scripts\\testing',
gyp info spawn args   '--depth=.',
gyp info spawn args   '--no-parallel',
gyp info spawn args   '--generator-output',
gyp info spawn args   'C:\\~projects\\needle\\scripts\\testing\\build',
gyp info spawn args   '-Goutput_dir=.' ]
gyp info ok

C:\~projects\needle\scripts\testing>node-gyp build
gyp info it worked if it ends with ok
gyp info using node-gyp@3.3.1
gyp info using node@4.1.2 | win32 | x64
gyp info spawn C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\12.0\bin\msbuild.exe
gyp info spawn args [ 'build/binding.sln',
gyp info spawn args   '/clp:Verbosity=minimal',
gyp info spawn args   '/nologo',
gyp info spawn args   '/p:Configuration=Release;Platform=x64' ]
Building the projects in this solution one at a time. To enable parallel build, please add the "/m" switch.
  win_delay_load_hook.c
LINK : fatal error LNK1181: cannot open input file 'gdi32.lib' [C:\~projects\needle\scripts\testing\build\modulename.vcxproj]
gyp ERR! build error
gyp ERR! stack Error: `C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\12.0\bin\msbuild.exe` failed with exit code: 1
gyp ERR! stack     at ChildProcess.onExit (C:\Users\Nicholas\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\node-gyp\lib\build.js:276:23)
gyp ERR! stack     at emitTwo (events.js:87:13)
gyp ERR! stack     at ChildProcess.emit (events.js:172:7)
gyp ERR! stack     at Process.ChildProcess._handle.onexit (internal/child_process.js:200:12)
gyp ERR! System Windows_NT 10.0.10586
gyp ERR! command "C:\\Program Files (x86)\\nodejs\\node.exe" "C:\\Users\\Nicholas\\AppData\\Roaming\\npm\\node_modules\\node-gyp\\bin\\node-gyp.js" "build"
gyp ERR! cwd C:\~projects\needle\scripts\testing
gyp ERR! node -v v4.1.2
gyp ERR! node-gyp -v v3.3.1
gyp ERR! not ok

Any help would be greatly appreciated - I'm still relatively new with Node Addons and I'm a bit lost here as to what could be going wrong.

[bnoordhuis]

Can you post the exact contents of your binding.gyp?

[nickzuber]

@bnoordhuis

{
  "targets": [
    {
      "target_name": "modulename",
      "sources": [ "modulename.cpp" ]
    }
  ]
}

And my modulename.cpp is in the same directory as my binding.gyp

[bnoordhuis]

I can't tell you exactly what goes wrong but gdi32 is a system library; the .lib for it is normally shipped with the Windows SDK or Visual Studio. Is it anywhere on your hard drive?

[nickzuber]

@bnoordhuis Thanks for the tip; so I redownloaded Microsoft Visual Studio 2015 and made sure to do a custom that included the Microsoft Visual SDK. That resolved my LINK error, but now I have a new error:

TRACKER : error TRK0005: Failed to locate: "CL.exe". The system cannot find the file specified.

I tried googling this error and people were saying to try the command npm config set msvs_version 2013 --global but that had no effect.

Any ideas?

EDIT:

I found a cl.exe file in the path C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 12.0\VC\bin. How can I configure node-gyp to find this file?

[nickzuber]

So I booted up VS15 and downloaded some C++ SDK and now everything works perfectly! Thank you @bnoordhuis for all your help. I'm going to close this issue as it is resolved.