On Sunday, 9 April 2023 at 09:54:26 UTC, Ki Rill wrote:
Why can't it find these libraries? I tell where to look for
them:
```D
version(Windows) {
import bindbc.loader;
setCustomLoaderSearchPath("libs"); // tried using absolute
path as well
}
```
That is strange...
I've tried your project out two ways, one that succeeds and one
that fails. I'm guessing you've put your 'libs' directory is
'bin/libs'. Am I right? If so, then the following should help you.
When dub runs the exectuable, it sets the current working
directory to the project's root directory by default.
`setCustomLoaderPath` passes whatever you give it directly to the
system API unmodified. You've passed a relative path. By default,
the system API associates relative paths with the current working
directory.
So given a project root directory of `$ROOT`, and your executable
in `$ROOT/bin`, the system is looking for the libraries in
`$ROOT/libs` and *not* in `$ROOT/bin/libs`. If the libs are in
the former, everything loads. If they're in the latter, then it's
going to fail.
If you cd into `bin` and run the executable manually, then libs
in `$ROOT/bin/libs` will load, as your current working directory
is `bin`.
The quick fix for this is to add `"workingDirectory" : "bin"` to
your dub.json. Then your relative paths will be relative to
`$ROOT/bin/`.
Bear in mind that when using relative paths like this, any file
reading is bound to break if someone runs your executable from
outside its directory. You can test this by going into `$ROOT`
from the command line and executing
`bin/d-sfml-project-template`. Then you'll be doing the same
thing dub does, i.e., your working directory will be `$ROOT`.
The way to guarantee your relative paths are always relative to
the executable are to either set the current working directory to
the executable's path, or to prepend all relative paths with the
executable's path before handing them off to the system.
There are two ways you can get the full path to the executable in
Phobos/DRuntime: via `std.file.thisExePath`, or
`core.runtime.Runtime.args[0]`. (The former is failing to compile
for me on Windows right now due to a bug in the Phobos Win32 API
bindings. I'll look into it.)
Strip the file name from the returned path, then you can use it
as required.
