windres may be used to manipulate Windows resources.
Warning:windres is not always built as part of the binary
utilities, since it is only useful for Windows targets.
windres [options] [input-file] [output-file]
windres reads resources from an input file and copies them into
an output file. Either file may be in one of three formats:
rc
A text format read by the Resource Compiler.
res
A binary format generated by the Resource Compiler.
coff
A COFF object or executable.
The exact description of these different formats is available in
documentation from Microsoft.
When windres converts from the rc format to the res
format, it is acting like the Windows Resource Compiler. When
windres converts from the res format to the coff
format, it is acting like the Windows CVTRES program.
When windres generates an rc file, the output is similar
but not identical to the format expected for the input. When an input
rc file refers to an external filename, an output rc file
will instead include the file contents.
If the input or output format is not specified, windres will
guess based on the file name, or, for the input file, the file contents.
A file with an extension of `.rc' will be treated as an rc
file, a file with an extension of `.res' will be treated as a
res file, and a file with an extension of `.o' or
`.exe' will be treated as a coff file.
If no output file is specified, windres will print the resources
in rc format to standard output.
The normal use is for you to write an rc file, use windres
to convert it to a COFF object file, and then link the COFF file into
your application. This will make the resources described in the
rc file available to Windows.
-i filename
--input filename
The name of the input file. If this option is not used, then
windres will use the first non-option argument as the input file
name. If there are no non-option arguments, then windres will
read from standard input. windres can not read a COFF file from
standard input.
-o filename
--output filename
The name of the output file. If this option is not used, then
windres will use the first non-option argument, after any used
for the input file name, as the output file name. If there is no
non-option argument, then windres will write to standard output.
windres can not write a COFF file to standard output.
-I format
--input-format format
The input format to read. format may be `res', `rc', or
`coff'. If no input format is specified, windres will
guess, as described above.
-O format
--output-format format
The output format to generate. format may be `res',
`rc', or `coff'. If no output format is specified,
windres will guess, as described above.
-F target
--target target
Specify the BFD format to use for a COFF file as input or output. This
is a BFD target name; you can use the --help option to see a list
of supported targets. Normally windres will use the default
format, which is the first one listed by the --help option.
13.1 Target Selection.
--preprocessor program
When windres reads an rc file, it runs it through the C
preprocessor first. This option may be used to specify the preprocessor
to use, including any leading arguments. The default preprocessor
argument is gcc -E -xc-header -DRC_INVOKED.
--include-dir directory
Specify an include directory to use when reading an rc file.
windres will pass this to the preprocessor as an -I
option. windres will also search this directory when looking for
files named in the rc file.
--define sym[=val]
Specify a -D option to pass to the preprocessor when reading an
rc file.
--language val
Specify the default language to use when reading an rc file.
val should be a hexadecimal language code. The low eight bits are
the language, and the high eight bits are the sublanguage.
--help
Prints a usage summary.
--version
Prints the version number for windres.
--yydebug
If windres is compiled with YYDEBUG defined as 1,
this will turn on parser debugging.