WINDMC(1)

💖 NAME 💖

okay so bestie, meet windmc from the GNU Development Tools lineup — she generates Windows message resources. that's the whole gig. slay.

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✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

windmc [options] input-file

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🎀 DESCRIPTION 🎀

so windmc reads message definitions out of an input file (the .mc file, iykyk) and translates them into a whole lil set of output files. and there are four kinds of output files, periodt:

• "h" — a C header file that contains the message definitions.
• "rc" — a resource file that's compilable by the windres tool.
• "bin" — one or more binary files holding the resource data for a specific message language.
• "dbg" — a C include file that maps message id's to their symbolic name.

the exact description of these different formats lives in documentation from Microsoft, bestie, not here. 🙈

when windmc converts from the mc format to the bin format, rc, h, and the optional dbg, she's acting like the Windows Message Compiler. main character behavior honestly. 👑

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💅 OPTIONS 💅

• -a, --ascii_in — says the input file you gave her is ASCII. this is the default behavior, no cap. ✨
• -A, --ascii_out — says the messages in the output bin files should be in ASCII format.
• -b, --binprefix — says the bin filenames gotta be prefixed by the basename of the source file.
• -c, --customflag — sets the customer bit in all message id's. very demure.
• -C codepage, --codepage_in codepage — sets the default codepage used to convert the input file to UTF16. the default is ocdepage 1252. (yes the manpage literally says "ocdepage" — we don't make the rules 😭)
• -d, --decimal_values — outputs the constants in the header file in decimal. default is hexadecimal output.
• -e ext, --extension ext — the extension for the header file. default is the .h extension.
• -F target, --target target — specify the BFD format to use for a bin file as output. this is a BFD target name; you can use the --help option to see a list of supported targets. normally windmc uses the default format, which is the first one listed by the --help option. 🦋
• -h path, --headerdir path — the target directory of the generated header file. default is the current directory.
• -H, --help — displays a list of command-line options and then exits. bye bestie 🫶
• -m characters, --maxlength characters — tells windmc to generate a warning if the length of any message exceeds the number you specified. she's watching 👀
• -n, --nullterminate — terminate message text in bin files by zero. by default they're terminated by CR/LF.
• -o, --hresult_use — not yet implemented, bestie, don't get your hopes up. instructs windmc to generate an OLE2 header file, using HRESULT definitions. status codes are used if the flag isn't specified.
• -O codepage, --codepage_out codepage — sets the default codepage used to output text files. the default is ocdepage 1252. (again with the ocdepage, iconic honestly 💀)
• -r path, --rcdir path — the target directory for the generated rc script and the generated bin files that the resource compiler script includes. default is the current directory.
• -u, --unicode_in — says the input file is UTF16.
• -U, --unicode_out — says the messages in the output bin file should be in UTF16 format. this is the default behavior. ⭐
• -v, --verbose — enable verbose mode. she will yap (affectionately).
• -V, --version — prints the version number for windmc.
• -x path, --xdgb path — the path of the dbg C include file that maps message id's to the symbolic name. no such file is generated without specifying the switch. no switch, no file, periodt.
• @file — read command-line options from file. the options read are inserted in place of the original @file option. if file doesn't exist, or can't be read, then the option gets treated literally, and is 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. it's giving nesting doll energy 🪆

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👑 SEE ALSO 👑

the Info entries for binutils. go read them bestie, they're right there. 📚

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📜 COPYRIGHT 📜

Copyright (c) 1991-2025 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".

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okay that's the whole thing, you ate that 💅✨ this came from binutils-2.44, dated 2025-03-28 — go forth and compile, bestie, mwah 🎀🦋💖