# APR Win32 Builds and Debugging

## Configuration and Flavors

The Win32 APR Developer Studio projects consist of

apr/apr.dsp
  Builds the static apr.lib library (-D APR_DECLARE_STATIC)
apr/libapr.dsp
  Builds the dynamic libapr.dll library (no define required)
apr-util/aprutil.dsp
  Builds the static aprutil.lib library (-D APU_DECLARE_STATIC)
apr-util/libaprutil.dsp
  Builds the dynamic libaprutil.dll library (no define required)
apr-iconv/apriconv.dsp
  Builds the static apriconv.lib library (-D API_DECLARE_STATIC)
apr-iconv/libapriconv.dsp
  Builds the dynamic libapriconv.dll library (no define required)

In order to prepare to use one of the static libraries above, your application must be compiled with the define shown above, so that the correct linkage is created. The APR authors intended the use of dynamic libraries by default, so application authors do not need any special defines in order to link to the dynamic library flavors.

In order to build APR, you must use the proper dependencies. A good example of those dependencies is given in the apr-util/aprutil.dsw Developer Studio workspace. You can borrow the parts of that structure your application needs, that workspace defines both the dynamic and static library dependencies.

The APR libraries (dynamic and static) are compiled with debugging symbols, even in Release builds. The dynamic library symbols are always usable, simply keep the correspond .pdb file in the same path as the library .dll. (E.g. both libapr.dll and libapr.pdb should be copied to the same path.)

The static symbols will only be fully usable if your application does not link with the /pdbtype:sept flag! At the time your application links to an APR library, the corresponding _src.pdb file should exist in the original path the library was built, or it may be sufficient to keep the _src.pdb file in the same path as the library file. (E.g. apr.lib and apr_src.pdb should reside together in your lib directory.) The later option is unconfirmed.

In order to keep the symbols compiled into the static library, your application must use the linker's /debug flag. If you do not want the application to be debuggable with its corresponding .pdb file, omit the /debug flag and all debug symbolic information is discarded. Note that your application can only be debugged with the corresponding .pdb file created by the linker, unless you use /debugtype:coff or /debugtype:both in your link options.