[openssl-users] newer openSSL no longer produce libeay32 on Windows?

[Ludwig, Mark]

> From: Jakob Bohm, Thursday, June 08, 2017 12:32 PM
> 
> On 08/06/2017 18:48, Baojun Wang wrote:
> > Also on Windows (64-bit), openssl produces libssl-1_1-x64.dll as well
> > as libcrypto-1_1-x64.dll, this could be painful for application who
> > has to specify openssl dependency, for example now I have to choose
> > ssl-1_1-x64 and crypto-1_1-x64 as extra-libs, but I imagine there's a
> > more idiomatic way to make linking on windows (not only 64-bit)
> > easier, do you have any idea?
> Traditionally, Windows (like Unix) uses the same file name for
> 32 and 64 bits, but puts them in different directories.  If
> they need to be in the same directory for some applications,
> the traditional solution is to insert "32" or "64" on its own,
> while still using the same file name for different architectures
> with the same bitness.  For example a compile for 32 bit MIPS
> (supported by older Windows releases) or 32 bit ARM (supported
> by newer releases) would have the same name as for 32 bit x86.
> Similar for the 4 64 bit architectures supported at various
> times (Alpha 64 bit, Itanium, AMD x86_64, 64 bit ARM).
> 
> Microsoft did some crazy experiments with a directory scheme
> called SxS for versioned DLLs, its badly done and should be
> avoided if possible.

The side-by-side (SxS) stuff has its place, but to use it
effectively requires using a "manifest" to identify the
dependencies explicitly.  I also don't recommend it for
general use.

Regarding the "32" suffix, you'll see that throughout
Windows itself, on modern 64-bit versions, because the "32"
dates back to the 1990s when Windows was trying to grow out
of being a 16-bit DOS program (WIN.EXE) into a 32-bit
"operating system" (Windows NT).  Many people are
misdirected with the term "Win32" into thinking that means
32-bit when it really only means "not 16-bit."  Anything
labeled "Win32" could be either 32-bit or 64-bit.

I haven't started working with OpenSSL 1.1.n, but in OpenSSL
1.0.2, all 64-bit builds produce identically-named binaries
such as libeay32.lib and libeay32.dll in the "out32"
directory.

Hope this helps,
Mark