Microsoft KB Archive/198707

= SMS: Dependency Walker for Win32 (Depends.exe) =

Article ID: 198707

Article Last Modified on 6/14/2005

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft Systems Management Server 2003
 * Microsoft Systems Management Server 2.0 Standard Edition

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This article was previously published under Q198707



SUMMARY
This article describes the Depends.exe tool that is included with Microsoft Visual Studio 6.0 and Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 Resource Kit Supplement 3 and later. You can use this tool to assist in diagnosing problems with a particular .dll or .exe file.



MORE INFORMATION
Dependency Walker for Win32 (Depends.exe) is a diagnostic tool that that you can use to determine which 32-bit program files are required to run a particular program or load a particular dynamic-link library (DLL). The Depends.exe features include:
 * The minimum set of files required to run a particular program or load a particular DLL.
 * Why a certain module is being loaded with a particular program.
 * The complete path for all the modules being loaded for a particular program.
 * The base addresses of each module being loaded.
 * The version of the file and/or computer type that it was created for.

Dependency Walker recursively scans all dependent modules required by a particular program. During this scan it performs the following tasks:
 * Detects missing files. These are files that are required as a dependency to another module. A symptom of this problem is the "The dynamic link library Bar.dll could not be found in the specified path..." error message.
 * Detects invalid files. This includes files that are not Win32 compliant and files that are corrupted. A symptom of this problem is the "The program or DLL Bar.exe is not a valid Windows image" error message.
 * Detects import/export mismatches. The tool verifies that all functions imported to a module are actually exported from the dependent modules. All unresolved import functions are flagged with an error message. A symptom of this problem is the "The procedure entry point Name could not be located in the dynamic link library Bar.dll" error message.
 * Detects circular dependency errors. This is a very rare error, but it can occur with forwarded functions.
 * Detects mismatched computer module types. This occurs if a module built for one type of computer tries to load a module built for a different type of computer.

You can run this tool from a command prompt or from within Windows.

The syntax of the command is: depends.exe

Additional query words: prodsms smstools

Keywords: kbinfo KB198707

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