Using boost in WDK build environment for applications?

Question

I am using the Windows Driver Kit (WinDDK 6001.18001) to build my userspace application rather than Visual Studio 2005. I am taking this approach because we also have to build driver components, so I'd prefer to have a single build environment to build everything. Microsoft itself uses this approach for several products.

This was working fine until I started using Boost 1.38.0. I'm not using C++ in the kernel mode components, just the userspace applications. In C++ code, it's natural to use the boost libraries. Unfortunately, the WDK doesn't agree.

The first error I noticed is that "#include <cstddef>" doesn't put ptrdiff_t in the std namespace, as seems required by Annex D. Working around this left several errors in boost\lambda\detail\operator_return_type_traits.hpp about error C2976: 'std::basic_string' : too few template arguments. It appears redundant with iostream.

Has anyone successfully gotten the combination of Boost, iostream, and the WDK to work together?

My sources file:

TARGETNAME=foobar
TARGETTYPE=PROGRAM

USE_MSVCRT = 1
USE_STL = 1
USE_ATL = 1
ATL_VER = 30
STL_VER = 70
USE_NATIVE_EH = 1 
USE_IOSTREAM = 1

SUBSYSTEM_VERSION = 5.02

C_DEFINES = \
    -D_MT \
    -DWIN_32 \
    -DWIN32  \
    -D_WINDOWS \
    -DNT \
    -D_WIN32_DCOM \
    -DUNICODE \
    -D_UNICODE \
    -D_ATL_NO_DEBUG_CRT # because we are using USE_MSVCRT=1 

SOURCES=service.cpp

INCLUDES=\
    $(BOOST_INC_PATH)

TARGETLIBS=\
    $(SDK_LIB_PATH)\ole32.lib \
    $(SDK_LIB_PATH)\oleaut32.lib \
    $(SDK_LIB_PATH)\uuid.lib \

UMTYPE=console
UMBASE=0x400000

service.cpp:

#include <iostream>
#include <cstddef>

namespace std {
        typedef ::ptrdiff_t ptrdiff_t; // DDK C++ workaround
}

#include <boost/lambda/lambda.hpp>

int __cdecl main() {
    return 0;
}

Answer 1

Interesting question. Using STL as-is was a challenge in itself with the WDK. I have not ventured beyond. I can give this a try. Remember, the WDK has it's own compiler which is not the same as your VS2005/VS2008 complier (check the version numbers). It is highly likely there are a few bugs here and there.

Note, that USE_MSVCRT=1 and USE_STL=1 didn't gel well (at least for WDK 6001).

Answer 2

Boost may already include a work-around for your issues, but isn't applying it because it doesn't recognise the compiler you're using (probably because drivers rarely use boost).

Try examining (and possibly editing) boost/config/select_compiler_config.hpp and boost/config/compiler/visualc.hpp to make sure the compiler workarounds for MSVC are enabled.

Answer 3

I would suggest going different way, i.e compiling driver from VS200.x using this (ddkbuild) nice tool.

Being myself a command line person and using makefiles everywhere possible, i find build utility not useful for complex project.There is tons of limitation within MS build utility and i would recommend using VS environment for compiling your project.

I'm not sure if there is a howto in the ddkbuild, but it's straight forward to integrate ddkbuild.bat into VS custom build option.