Is Visual-C++-2017 binary compatible with VC++-2015?

Asked 28/11, 2016 at 22:49 Answered 14/10, 2020 at 1:52

Solved visual-studio visual-c++visual-studio-2017 visual-c++-2015 visual-c++-2017

Steve tells me that VC 2015 and VC 2017 are actually (gonna be) binary compatible.

I found zero info wrt. this in the release notes for 2017 (RC) - or pretty much anywhere for that matter, so here goes:

Is a C++ (C++ interface) DLL built with VC++-2017 binary compatible with a DLL built by VC++-2015?
Do 2017 and 2015 use the same (dynamic) runtime library?
If so, what, if any, is the runtime difference between Platform Toolset Visual Studio 2017 (v141) and Visual Studio 2015 (v140)? (*)

(*): Yeah, I actually went ahead and installed the 2017 RC, and from what I can see on the surface, at least the identical MSVCRT is used, that is msvcp140.dll and vcruntime140.dll (despite the platform toolset being called "v141".

Gagger answered 28/11, 2016 at 22:49 Comment(1)

MS has since added an "official" blurb: learn.microsoft.com/en-us/cpp/porting/… – Gagger 7/11, 2018 at 9:25

Yes, the 141 and 140 libraries are almost identical. The version was bumped for a side-by-side issue. The v140 toolset in VisualC++ 2015 and v141 toolset in VC++ 2017 are binary compatible.

Carbuncle answered 30/11, 2016 at 18:57 Comment(7)

Is this still the case for VS2017 15.3? We're getting linker errors ("different compiler version") with 2015 static libs now. – Lemniscus 24/8, 2017 at 18:36

I'm unable to install VC++2015Redist on a machine that has VC++2017Redist #45967979 – Dayledaylight 30/8, 2017 at 18:40

Kevin, are you using libraries compiled with /GL (link-time codegen)? Those are not supported across major compiler versions. They worked with 15.0-15.2, but that was just dumb luck. – Carbuncle 9/9, 2017 at 19:53

@KevinRichardson Maybe this is supposed to work, but you're hitting the following bug? I'm getting this error myself: developercommunity.visualstudio.com/content/problem/112448/… – Ergo 15/9, 2017 at 12:24

Yes, we recently talked to Microsoft and it was the /GL issue. – Lemniscus 15/9, 2017 at 15:45

To clarify @Carbuncle comment which points to the root of the issue, /GL (link-time codegen) is misleading. In VS project settings, /GL is associated with "Whole Program Optimization", so look for that to disable. LTCG is implied with /GL however. learn.microsoft.com/en-us/cpp/build/reference/… – Unvoice 6/9, 2018 at 0:59

@Carbuncle - Hi Andrew. Maybe you would like to take a look at #53187652 ... official docs confuse me some. – Gagger 7/11, 2018 at 10:4

Microsoft has been updating their CRT in an incremental manner.

Visual C++ 14.0 (2015) CRT has 4 files:

vcruntime140.dll (C Runtime; from refactored msvcr*.dll)
concrt140.dll (the Concurrency Runtime; also from msvcr*.dll)
msvcp140.dll (C++ Runtime)
vccorlib140.dll (C++/CX Platform::*)

Visual C++ 14.1 (2017) CRT adds only 2 files:

vcruntime140_1.dll (seems like a patch to SEH in vcruntime140.dll)
msvcp140_1.dll (C++17 Polymorphic Memory Resources)

Visual C++ 14.2 (2019) CRT adds only 2 files:

msvcp140_2.dll (C++17 Mathematical Special Functions and std::hypot(x, y, z))
msvcp140_codecvt_ids.dll (bug fix for std::codecvt; see the Stack Overflow question)

If some of the additional features listed above are not used, the binary can work with older versions of C Runtime.

Unbelt answered 3/3, 2020 at 13:1 Comment(1)

Note that msvcp140_2.dll is actually in VS 2017 (added in an update), and vcruntime140_1.dll was added in VS 2019 to support a new x64 exception handling implementation (see this blog post). Note that concrt140.dll is only used for Windows XP platform support for <future>; it's not used on newer versions of Windows. – Factfinding 16/6, 2020 at 19:35

Yes, visual 2019(14.2),2017(14.1),2015(14.0) are all binary compatible, they are all 14.x version. See more on https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/cpp/porting/binary-compat-2015-2017?view=vs-2017. New versions add some new features or patches.

The following are the files in 2017 and 2019, you can find the new files added in 2019.


C:\Users\Liu.D.H>dir "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Community\VC\Redist\MSVC\14.16.27012\x64\Microsoft.VC141.CRT"
 Volume in drive C is System
 Volume Serial Number is 0CAC-076E

 Directory of C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Community\VC\Redist\MSVC\14.16.27012\x64\Microsoft.VC141.CRT

2020-09-25  14:41    <DIR>          .
2020-09-25  14:41    <DIR>          ..
2020-09-25  14:41           332,568 concrt140.dll
2020-09-25  14:41           627,992 msvcp140.dll
2020-09-25  14:41            31,512 msvcp140_1.dll
2020-09-25  14:41           206,104 msvcp140_2.dll
2020-09-25  14:41           366,872 vccorlib140.dll
2020-09-25  14:41            85,784 vcruntime140.dll
               6 File(s)      1,650,832 bytes
               2 Dir(s)  57,822,343,168 bytes free

C:\Users\Liu.D.H>dir "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\Community\VC\Redist\MSVC\14.27.29016\x64\Microsoft.VC142.CRT"
 Volume in drive C is System
 Volume Serial Number is 0CAC-076E

 Directory of C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\Community\VC\Redist\MSVC\14.27.29016\x64\Microsoft.VC142.CRT

2020-09-25  13:07    <DIR>          .
2020-09-25  13:07    <DIR>          ..
2020-09-25  13:07           317,224 concrt140.dll
2020-09-25  13:07           590,632 msvcp140.dll
2020-09-25  13:07            31,528 msvcp140_1.dll
2020-09-25  13:07           193,832 msvcp140_2.dll
2020-09-25  13:07            27,936 msvcp140_codecvt_ids.dll
2020-09-25  13:07           337,696 vccorlib140.dll
2020-09-25  13:07           101,672 vcruntime140.dll
2020-09-25  13:07            44,328 vcruntime140_1.dll
               8 File(s)      1,644,848 bytes
               2 Dir(s)  57,822,343,168 bytes free

C:\Users\Liu.D.H>

Because I can't install 2015 files. I extract it (D:\apps\wix311-binaries\dark.exe -nologo -x "D:\tmp\vcredist_x64-2015" "C:\Users\Liu.D.H\Downloads\vc_redist.x64-2015.exe") and you can find the files below.

liudonghua@desktop-ldh:/mnt/d/tmp/vcredist_x64-2015$ /usr/bin/tree .
.
├── AttachedContainer
│   └── packages
│       ├── Patch
│       │   ├── x64
│       │   │   ├── Windows6.0-KB2999226-x64.msu
│       │   │   ├── Windows6.1-KB2999226-x64.msu
│       │   │   ├── Windows8-RT-KB2999226-x64.msu
│       │   │   └── Windows8.1-KB2999226-x64.msu
│       │   └── x86
│       │       ├── Windows6.0-KB2999226-x86.msu
│       │       ├── Windows6.1-KB2999226-x86.msu
│       │       ├── Windows8-RT-KB2999226-x86.msu
│       │       └── Windows8.1-KB2999226-x86.msu
│       ├── vcRuntimeAdditional_amd64
│       │   ├── cab1
│       │   │   ├── mfc140.dll
│       │   │   ├── mfc140chs.dll
│       │   │   ├── mfc140cht.dll
│       │   │   ├── mfc140deu.dll
│       │   │   ├── mfc140enu.dll
│       │   │   ├── mfc140esn.dll
│       │   │   ├── mfc140fra.dll
│       │   │   ├── mfc140ita.dll
│       │   │   ├── mfc140jpn.dll
│       │   │   ├── mfc140kor.dll
│       │   │   ├── mfc140rus.dll
│       │   │   ├── mfc140u.dll
│       │   │   ├── mfcm140.dll
│       │   │   └── mfcm140u.dll
│       │   ├── cab1.cab
│       │   └── vc_runtimeAdditional_x64.msi
│       └── vcRuntimeMinimum_amd64
│           ├── cab1
│           │   ├── api_ms_win_core_console_l1_1_0.dll
│           │   ├── api_ms_win_core_datetime_l1_1_0.dll
│           │   ├── api_ms_win_core_debug_l1_1_0.dll
│           │   ├── api_ms_win_core_errorhandling_l1_1_0.dll
│           │   ├── api_ms_win_core_file_l1_1_0.dll
│           │   ├── api_ms_win_core_file_l1_2_0.dll
│           │   ├── api_ms_win_core_file_l2_1_0.dll
│           │   ├── api_ms_win_core_handle_l1_1_0.dll
│           │   ├── api_ms_win_core_heap_l1_1_0.dll
│           │   ├── api_ms_win_core_interlocked_l1_1_0.dll
│           │   ├── api_ms_win_core_libraryloader_l1_1_0.dll
│           │   ├── api_ms_win_core_localization_l1_2_0.dll
│           │   ├── api_ms_win_core_memory_l1_1_0.dll
│           │   ├── api_ms_win_core_namedpipe_l1_1_0.dll
│           │   ├── api_ms_win_core_processenvironment_l1_1_0.dll
│           │   ├── api_ms_win_core_processthreads_l1_1_0.dll
│           │   ├── api_ms_win_core_processthreads_l1_1_1.dll
│           │   ├── api_ms_win_core_profile_l1_1_0.dll
│           │   ├── api_ms_win_core_rtlsupport_l1_1_0.dll
│           │   ├── api_ms_win_core_string_l1_1_0.dll
│           │   ├── api_ms_win_core_synch_l1_1_0.dll
│           │   ├── api_ms_win_core_synch_l1_2_0.dll
│           │   ├── api_ms_win_core_sysinfo_l1_1_0.dll
│           │   ├── api_ms_win_core_timezone_l1_1_0.dll
│           │   ├── api_ms_win_core_util_l1_1_0.dll
│           │   ├── api_ms_win_crt_conio_l1_1_0.dll
│           │   ├── api_ms_win_crt_convert_l1_1_0.dll
│           │   ├── api_ms_win_crt_environment_l1_1_0.dll
│           │   ├── api_ms_win_crt_filesystem_l1_1_0.dll
│           │   ├── api_ms_win_crt_heap_l1_1_0.dll
│           │   ├── api_ms_win_crt_locale_l1_1_0.dll
│           │   ├── api_ms_win_crt_math_l1_1_0.dll
│           │   ├── api_ms_win_crt_multibyte_l1_1_0.dll
│           │   ├── api_ms_win_crt_private_l1_1_0.dll
│           │   ├── api_ms_win_crt_process_l1_1_0.dll
│           │   ├── api_ms_win_crt_runtime_l1_1_0.dll
│           │   ├── api_ms_win_crt_stdio_l1_1_0.dll
│           │   ├── api_ms_win_crt_string_l1_1_0.dll
│           │   ├── api_ms_win_crt_time_l1_1_0.dll
│           │   ├── api_ms_win_crt_utility_l1_1_0.dll
│           │   ├── concrt140.dll
│           │   ├── msvcp140.dll
│           │   ├── ucrtbase.dll
│           │   ├── vcamp140.dll
│           │   ├── vccorlib140.dll
│           │   ├── vcomp140.dll
│           │   └── vcruntime140.dll
│           ├── cab1.cab
│           └── vc_runtimeMinimum_x64.msi
└── UX
    ├── 1028
    │   ├── license.rtf
    │   └── thm.wxl
    ├── 1029
    │   ├── license.rtf
    │   └── thm.wxl
    ├── 1031
    │   ├── license.rtf
    │   └── thm.wxl
    ├── 1036
    │   ├── license.rtf
    │   └── thm.wxl
    ├── 1040
    │   ├── license.rtf
    │   └── thm.wxl
    ├── 1041
    │   ├── license.rtf
    │   └── thm.wxl
    ├── 1042
    │   ├── license.rtf
    │   └── thm.wxl
    ├── 1045
    │   ├── license.rtf
    │   └── thm.wxl
    ├── 1046
    │   ├── license.rtf
    │   └── thm.wxl
    ├── 1049
    │   ├── license.rtf
    │   └── thm.wxl
    ├── 1055
    │   ├── license.rtf
    │   └── thm.wxl
    ├── 2052
    │   ├── license.rtf
    │   └── thm.wxl
    ├── 3082
    │   ├── license.rtf
    │   └── thm.wxl
    ├── BootstrapperApplicationData.xml
    ├── license.rtf
    ├── logo.png
    ├── manifest.xml
    ├── thm.wxl
    ├── thm.xml
    └── wixstdba.dll

23 directories, 106 files
liudonghua@desktop-ldh:/mnt/d/tmp/vcredist_x64-2015$

The main files in 2015 are the following.

│           │   ├── concrt140.dll
│           │   ├── msvcp140.dll
│           │   ├── ucrtbase.dll
│           │   ├── vcamp140.dll
│           │   ├── vccorlib140.dll
│           │   ├── vcomp140.dll
│           │   └── vcruntime140.dll

Ambary answered 14/10, 2020 at 1:52 Comment(0)

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