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LINK : fatal error LNK1158: cannot run 'rc.exe'

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jonathan.underwood

16 Jan, 2021 09:29 PM

I am trying to use AppVeyor to build and publish 32 bit and 64 bit Python wheels for Windows. This was working well until recently when I decided to add building of Python 3.9 wheels. Because Python 3.9 is only available in the "Visual Studio 2019" image, I have specified that image in my appveyor.yaml.

Switching to this image is now resulting in my builds failing with LINK : fatal error LNK1158: cannot run 'rc.exe' - see here for an example failed build. The corresponding appveyor.yaml file is available here.

Does anyone have any pointers to how I can fix this? I rarely have to use Windows, so my knowledge is limited on that platform.

1. Support Staff 1 Posted by Feodor Fitsner on 16 Jan, 2021 11:08 PM

   

   Quick googling suggests copying rc.exe and rcdll.dll to VC directory:
   https://www.tutorialexample.com/fix-python-pip-install-link-fatal-e...
   https://stackoverflow.com/questions/14372706/visual-studio-cant-bui...

   Can you try that?

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2. 2 Posted by jonathan.underw... on 16 Jan, 2021 11:34 PM

   

   Well - those files don't exist at the same path as mentioned in that solution, and other ones like it. I could go hunting for those files in the image i suppose, but I wonder why they're not already on the PATH.

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3. 3 Posted by jonathan.underw... on 17 Jan, 2021 12:06 AM

   

   So, based on one of the suggestions in the stackoverflow, I added this:

     # Set up the build/compiler/linker environment
     - cmd: call "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\Community\VC\Auxiliary\Build\vcvarsall.bat" x64 8.1
   

   which seems to fix the problem and ensures the linker is found. However, I should probably be using some environment variable rather than hardcoding the "x64". But, some progress.

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