WIDL(1)

💖 WIDL(1) 💖

okay bestie, gather round — this is the Wine Developers Manual page for widl, the Wine Interface Definition Language (IDL) compiler. She compiles IDL files, she generates code, she's lowkey the backbone of a whole lot of Wine internals, and today you're gonna understand her. 🎀

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✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

widl [options] IDL_file
widl [options] --dlldata-only name1 [name2...]

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🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

So here's the tea, bestie: when you run widl with no options at all, she goes off and generates a header file — and possibly client and server stubs, proxy and dlldata files, a typelib, and a UUID file, depending on what's actually inside your IDL file. She's reading the room and deciding what you need. 💅

But the moment you pass any of -c, -h, -p, -s, -t, -u or --local-stubs, she snaps into only mode: she will generate only the files you asked for, and no others. No extras, no surprise bonus files, periodt. 👑

When you run her with --dlldata-only, she only generates a dlldata file, and that file will contain a list of the names you passed as arguments. And here's how that file usually gets updated: every single time widl runs, she reads any existing dlldata file, and if it needs to, she regenerates it with the same list of names — but with the present proxy file included. Like, she remembers your exes but makes them current. 😭

And if you run her with no arguments at all? She just prints a help message. A little "hi, here's what I do." 🫶

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💅 OPTIONS 💅

🌈 General options

• -V — Print the version number and dip. That's it, that's the whole job.
• -o, --output=name — Sets the name of the output file. When she's generating multiple output files, this only sets the base name; the individual output files then get named name.h, name_p.c, etc. But if you specify a full file name with an extension, then only that one file gets generated. Choose your fighter. ✨
• -b, --target=cpu-manufacturer[-kernel]-os — Set the target architecture when cross-compiling. The target spec is in the standard autoconf format, the same one config.sub returns. 🦋
• -m32, -m64, --win32, --win64 — Force the target architecture to 32-bit or 64-bit. Pick a lane, babe.
• --sysroot=dir — Prefix the standard include paths with dir.
• --nostdinc — Do not search standard include paths like /usr/include and /usr/local/include. She's going rogue, she's independent, she doesn't need them. 💀

🎀 Header options

• -h — Generate header files. The default output filename is infile.h.
• --oldnames — Use old naming conventions. Vintage, retro, nostalgic-core.

⭐ Type library options

• -t — Generate a type library. The default output filename is infile.tlb. And plot twist: if the output file name ends in .res, a binary resource file containing the type library is generated instead. 🌸
• -L path — Add a directory to the library search path for imported typelibs. You can specify this option multiple times — stack 'em, she doesn't mind. 💖
• --oldtlb — Generate a type library in the old format (SLTG format). Grandma's typelib.

🦋 UUID file options

• -u — Generate a UUID file. The default output filename is infile_i.c.

🔥 Proxy/stub generation options

• --align=n, --packing=n — Set the structure packing to n. Supported values are 2, 4, and 8. Those are the options, bestie, don't get creative.
• -c — Generate a client stub file. The default output filename is infile_c.c.
• -Os — Generate inline stubs.
• -Oi — Generate old-style interpreted stubs.
• -Oif, -Oic, -Oicf — Generate new-style fully interpreted stubs. This is the default. She's already doing this, you just didn't know. 👑
• -p — Generate a proxy. The default output filename is infile_p.c.
• --prefix-all=prefix — Prefix to put on the name of both client and server stubs. Two birds, one prefix.
• --prefix-client=prefix — Prefix to put on the name of client stubs.
• --prefix-server=prefix — Prefix to put on the name of server stubs.
• -s — Generate a server stub file. The default output filename is infile_s.c.
• --winrt — Enable Windows Runtime mode. Entering her WinRT era.
• --ns_prefix — Prefix namespaces with the ABI namespace.

💜 Registration script options

• -r — Generate a registration script. The default output filename is infile_r.rgs. And same plot twist as the typelib: if the output file name ends in .res, a binary resource file containing the script is generated instead. 🎀

🌈 Dlldata file options

• --dlldata-only name1 [name2...] — Regenerate the dlldata file from scratch using the specified proxy names. The default output filename is dlldata.c.

🧚 Preprocessor options

• -I path — Add a directory to the include search path. Multiple include directories are allowed. Collect them all. ✨
• -D id[=val] — Define preprocessor macro id with value val.
• -E — Preprocess only. Just the appetizer, no main course.
• -N — Do not preprocess input. Raw. Unfiltered. 💅

🙈 Debug options

• -W — Enable pedantic warnings. She will be in your business about it.
• -d n — Set debug level to the non-negative integer n. If prefixed with 0x, it gets interpreted as a hexadecimal number. For the meaning of the values, go look at the DEBUG section below, bestie. 😭

🍓 Miscellaneous options

• -app_config — Ignored, present for midl compatibility. She's just standing there. Menacingly. 💀
• --acf=file — Use the specified application configuration file.
• --local-stubs=file — Generate empty stubs for call_as/local methods in an object interface and write them to file.

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🔍 DEBUG 🔍

Debug level n is a bitmask, and here's what each bit is giving:

• 0x01 — Tell which resource is parsed (verbose mode)
• 0x02 — Dump internal structures
• 0x04 — Create a parser trace (yydebug=1)
• 0x08 — Preprocessor messages
• 0x10 — Preprocessor lex messages
• 0x20 — Preprocessor yacc trace

Stack those bits like accessories, bestie. ✨

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💀 BUGS 💀

Found a bug? Bugs can be reported on the Wine bug tracker. She's not mad, she just wants to know. 🫶

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👑 AUTHORS 👑

widl was originally written by Ove Kåven. It has been improved by Rob Shearman, Dan Hipschman, and others. For a complete list, see the git commit logs — the receipts are all there. 📜

This man page was originally written by Hannu Valtonen and then updated by Dan Hipschman. Iconic lineage, honestly.

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🌈 AVAILABILITY 🌈

widl is part of the Wine distribution, which is available through WineHQ, the Wine development headquarters. Go get her. 🎀

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🌸 SEE ALSO 🌸

Wine documentation and support.

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and that's the whole page, bestie!! 💖 this one's from the Wine Developers Manual, version Wine 10.0, dated October 2007 — yeah, she's a little vintage but she still ate. mwah 💅✨