dynamic dependancy

G

Guest

In a previous thread I was trying to find the dependencys of an applicaiton
that was working in xp but not xpe. I was told to use depends and it would
show me the static and dynamic dependancys. Basically, all I get is a long
alphabetized list of dll's to include in a target designer filter. Is there
another way to figure out what this app is dependant on. How can I tell
which com objects are needed. Is there a way to take a snapshot before I
install and run the app and after I install and run the app to determine what
is used before and after. Does this make sence to you?
 
S

Slobodan Brcin \(eMVP\)

Hi Eric,

First you can check your image for presence of these dll files before using time consuming filter option.
Second static dependencies you must satisfy. (You can run your program on XPe and if there are some static dependencies missing XPe
will complain on them).

Dynamic dependencies are tricky since application can load and use them at any time. There are no program that can tell you with
100% what they are since some dll function can be used when you terminate your application for instance or at any other rare time.
Some rare tool applications can depend on presence of certain services.
Regular applications can depend on presence of COM components.

The way that will give you the most accurate picture is to run application on XP and use debugger to break in to this application
and to examine all loaded binaries.

Also you should use regmon and filemon tools to determine some of binaries and registry entries touched by this application on
XP/XPe system.

Installation is only one part and it will not help you determine what will application need to work properly.
For instance look at Windows Media Player, it can start without almost any of codec's. But you will be able to see problems only
when you try to play some media type, and not before.

Best regards,
Slobodan
 
K

KM

Eric,

It is the way how Windows works. We can't change it but only adopt.

There are a bunch of tools out there that will help you to take a snapshot
of a running app to find out all its dependencies. And as Slobodan
mentioned, the best one would probable be a debugger. However, all the tools
are not XPe specific and they will not produce a result output in the form
TD or CD can load and understand. Therefore you will end up translating
listed Dll's/Exe's to a component list anyway.
To add to the list of tools you may be using for "very hard to find
dependencies" apps, you can add OleView (VS package), VC++ Resource editor
and many Hex/Bin/PE editors.

Setting up tools properly and making sure you've got enough RAM to cache XPe
DB, you can faster things.

If you want to play with filter more comfortable way, try using
DependencyExplorer component from XPeTools package on www.xpefiles.com. It
will allow you to search for components contanting specified file by name
and also create a TD filter after the search.

KM
 

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