Wine interface definition language (idl) compiler
widl [options] IDL_file
widl [options] --dlldata-only name1 [name2...]
When no options are used the program will generate a header file, and possibly client and server stubs, proxy and dlldata files, a typelib, and a UUID file, depending on the contents of the IDL file. If any of the options -c, -h, -p, -s, -t, -u or --local-stubs is given, widl will only generate the requested files, and no others. When run with --dlldata-only, widl will only generate a dlldata file, and it will contain a list of the names passed as arguments. Usually the way this file is updated is that each time widl is run, it reads any existing dlldata file, and if necessary regenerates it with the same list of names, but with the present proxy file included.
When run without any arguments, widl will print a help message.
General options:
Print version number and exit.
Set the name of the output file. When generating multiple output files, this sets only the base name of the file; the respective output files are then named name.h, name_p.c, etc.
Set the target architecture when cross-compiling. The target specification is in the standard autoconf format as returned by config.sub.
Header options:
Generate header files. The default output filename is infile.h.
Use old naming conventions.
Type library options:
Generate a type library. The default output filename is infile.tlb. If the output file name ends in .res, a binary resource file containing the type library is generated instead.
Generate a Win32 or Win64 type library respectively.
UUID file options:
Generate a UUID file. The default output filename is infile_i.c.
Proxy/stub generation options:
Generate a client stub file. The default output filename is infile_c.c.
Generate inline stubs.
Generate old-style interpreted stubs.
Generate new-style fully interpreted stubs.
Generate a proxy. The default output filename is infile_p.c.
Prefix to put on the name of both client and server stubs.
Prefix to put on the name of client stubs.
Prefix to put on the name of server stubs.
Generate a server stub file. The default output filename is infile_s.c.
Only generate 32-bit or 64-bit code respectively (the default is to generate both 32-bit and 64-bit versions into the same destination file).
Enable additional language extensions for IDL to support WinRT.
Registration script options:
Generate a registration script. The default output filename is infile_r.rgs. If the output file name ends in .res, a binary resource file containing the script is generated instead.
Dlldata file options:
Regenerate the dlldata file from scratch using the specified proxy names. The default output filename is dlldata.c.
Preprocessor options:
Add a header search directory to path. Multiple search directories are allowed.
Define preprocessor macro id with value val.
Preprocess only.
Do not preprocess input.
Debug options:
Enable pedantic warnings.
Set debug level to the non negative integer n. If prefixed with 0x, it will be interpreted as an hexadecimal number. For the meaning of values, see the DEBUG section.
Miscellaneous options:
Ignored, present for midl compatibility.
Generate empty stubs for call_as/local methods in an object interface and write them to file.
Debug level n is a bitmask with the following meaning:
* 0x01 Tell which resource is parsed (verbose mode)
* 0x02 Dump internal structures
* 0x04 Create a parser trace (yydebug=1)
* 0x08 Preprocessor messages
* 0x10 Preprocessor lex messages
* 0x20 Preprocessor yacc trace
Bugs can be reported on the
Wine bug tracker
widl was originally written by Ove Kåven. It has been improved by Rob Shearman, Dan Hipschman, and others. For a complete list, see the git commit logs. This man page was originally written by Hannu Valtonen and then updated by Dan Hipschman.
widl is part of the Wine distribution, which is available through WineHQ, the
Wine development headquarters
Wine documentation and support