Msvcrtd.lib(exe_main.obj) : error LNK2019: unresolved external symbol _main referenced in function "int __cdecl invoke_main(void)"

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I've got a main program starting with:

int main(int argc, char**argv)
{
.....
}

It is compiled successfully, but when I built it, I got message as below. It means that my main program is an unresolved symbol to be referenced by exe_main() object. I got confused.

1>------ Rebuild All started: Project: dsim, Configuration: Debug Win32 ------
1>C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft.Cpp\v4.0\V140\Microsoft.CppBuild.targets(368,5): warning MSB8004: Output Directory does not end with a trailing slash.  This build instance will add the slash as it is required to allow proper evaluation of the Output Directory.
1>  dsim.cpp
1>MSVCRTD.lib(exe_main.obj) : error LNK2019: unresolved external symbol _main referenced in function "int __cdecl invoke_main(void)" (?invoke_main@@YAHXZ)
1>.\Debug\dsim.exe : fatal error LNK1120: 1 unresolved externals

What I have tried:

I googled it by "

LNK2019

" but all cases are different from mine.

Posted 2-May-17 22:53pm

Stan Huang

Updated 10-Jul-23 20:02pm

v2

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2 solutions

Solution 2

I recently encountered the same problem and i solved it by re-saving file in UTF-8 using notepad.

Posted 10-Jul-23 20:02pm

ISHANSH LAL

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Jochen Arndt · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-02T23:21:00

Solution 1

There may be many reasons probably buried somewhere in your project settings. But finding the wrong setting is a task that can be only done by you.

The simplest solution would be creating a new project choosing the appropriate application type (I guess it is a non Unicode console application) and using the created file templates which contain a main function. Then copy and paste the existing code into the created files and add other existing source and header files as necessary.

Posted 2-May-17 23:21pm

Jochen Arndt

Comments

Stan Huang 3-May-17 5:49am

Sorry, it is my mistake. There is a definition at the beginning of the file containing main(): #ifdef TARGET_SIMU. I forgot to add "#define TARGET_SIMU" before it so the whole file is virtually empty. That's the reason why the main() is seen as unresolved symbol.

Jochen Arndt 3-May-17 5:51am

Fine to see that the problem is solved and thank you for your feedback.