Visual Studio: What exactly are lib files (used for)?

Question

I\'m learning C++ and came across those *.lib files that are obviously used by the linker. I had to set some additional dependencies for OpenGL.

• What exactly a

Answer 1

.lib files are "libraries" and contain "collections" of compiled code so-to-speak. So it is a way to provide software components, without giving away the internal source-code for example. They can be generated as "output" of a "build" just like executables are.

The specific contents depend on your platform / development environment, but they will contain symbols for the linker to "hook up" function-calls provided by e.g. the header-file of the library.

Some libraries are "dynamic" (.DLL's on Windows), which means the "hooking" of function-calls is setup when the executable using the library is loaded, allowing the library implementation to be changed without rebuilding the executable.

One last thing. You say you're learning C++, and a common confusing point is, that "symbols" generated by C++ compilers are "mangled" (in order to allow e.g. function overloading), and this "mangling" is not standardized across different compilers, so libraries often resort to C for the "API" of the library (just like OpenGL), even though the library may be implemented in C++ internally.

I hope shed some light on .lib-files. Happy OpenGL coding :-)