windres(1) — Linux manual page

NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | OPTIONS | SEE ALSO | COPYRIGHT | COLOPHON

WINDRES(1)                GNU Development Tools               WINDRES(1)

NAME         top

       windres - manipulate Windows resources

SYNOPSIS         top

       windres [options] [input-file] [output-file]

DESCRIPTION         top

       windres reads resources from an input file and copies them into
       an output file.  Either file may be in one of three formats:

       "rc"
           A text format read by the Resource Compiler.

       "res"
           A binary format generated by the Resource Compiler.

       "coff"
           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         top

       -i filename
       --input filename
           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 filename
       --output filename
           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 compatibility with rc the option
           -fo is also accepted, but its use is not recommended.

       -J format
       --input-format 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 format
       --output-format 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
       --target 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 program
           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.  The default preprocessor is "gcc".

       --preprocessor-arg option
           When windres reads an "rc" file, it runs it through the C
           preprocessor first.  This option may be used to specify
           additional text to be passed to preprocessor on its command
           line.  This option can be used multiple times to add multiple
           options to the preprocessor command line.  If the
           --preprocessor option has not been specified then a default
           set of preprocessor arguments will be used, with any
           --preprocessor-arg options being placed after them on the
           command line.  These default arguments are "-E", "-xc-header"
           and "-DRC_INVOKED".

       -I directory
       --include-dir directory
           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
           described 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 target
       --define sym[=val]
           Specify a -D option to pass to the preprocessor when reading
           an "rc" file.

       -U target
       --undefine sym
           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.

       -c val
       --codepage val
           Specify the default codepage to use when reading an "rc"
           file.  val should be a hexadecimal prefixed by 0x or decimal
           codepage code. The valid range is from zero up to 0xffff, but
           the validity of the codepage is host and configuration
           dependent.

       -l val
       --language val
           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.

       @file
           Read command-line options from file.  The options read are
           inserted in place of the original @file option.  If file does
           not exist, or cannot be read, then the option will be treated
           literally, and not removed.

           Options in file are separated by whitespace.  A whitespace
           character may be included in an option by surrounding the
           entire option in either single or double quotes.  Any
           character (including a backslash) may be included by
           prefixing the character to be included with a backslash.  The
           file may itself contain additional @file options; any such
           options will be processed recursively.

SEE ALSO         top

       the Info entries for binutils.

COPYRIGHT         top

       Copyright (c) 1991-2023 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

       Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this
       document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License,
       Version 1.3 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".

COLOPHON         top

       This page is part of the binutils (a collection of tools for
       working with executable binaries) project.  Information about the
       project can be found at ⟨http://www.gnu.org/software/binutils/⟩.
       If you have a bug report for this manual page, see
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binutils-2.41                  2023-12-22                     WINDRES(1)