Whats a manifest file for vc++

[tgreaves]

Whats the purpose of using the Microsoft.VC90.CRT.manifest file? My program wont run on my testing machine without it..

[wysota]

It contains information about dependencies of your application.

[tgreaves]

Understood.. Now I read in the Qt deployment article that I need the msvc runtime files and also the manifest file.. Problem is the "version" thats in the manifest for my program is different than the "version" of the manifest where my msvc runtime dlls are kept.. Any idea why this is?

Just to make sure im correct here.. The manifest is to make sure that my program is using the version of the msvc dll's that it was built/tested on correct?

I looked at google earth(written in Qt) and it doesnt have a *.manifest file in the program directory, why is that?

[stinos]

Understood.. Now I read in the Qt deployment article that I need the msvc runtime files and also the manifest file.. Problem is the "version" thats in the manifest for my program is different than the "version" of the manifest where my msvc runtime dlls are kept.. Any idea why this is?

you might be looking in the wrong place.. look in %windir%/WinSxs: there are several versions of the runtime dlls.

Just to make sure im correct here.. The manifest is to make sure that my program is using the version of the msvc dll's that it was built/tested on correct?

correct. If the versions do not match, you'll get the "Application failed to start ..." error.

I looked at google earth(written in Qt) and it doesnt have a *.manifest file in the program directory, why is that?

the manifest is embedded. If you open the executable with a text/hex editor, scroll to the bottom and you'll find the manifest, example:

<dependency>
    <dependentAssembly>
      <assemblyIdentity type="win32" name="Microsoft.VC90.CRT" version="9.0.21022.8" processorArchitecture="x86" publicKeyToken="1fc8b3b9a1e18e3b"></assemblyIdentity>
    </dependentAssembly>
  </dependency>

<dependency>
    <dependentAssembly>
      <assemblyIdentity type="win32" name="Microsoft.VC90.CRT" version="9.0.21022.8" processorArchitecture="x86" publicKeyToken="1fc8b3b9a1e18e3b"></assemblyIdentity>
    </dependentAssembly>
  </dependency>

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also have a look at dependency walker, a very usefull program to spot dependency problems.