Resource Compiler (resourcecompiler.exe)

This resource compiler is used to generate platform-independent string resource files for use by the unmanaged portion of the Shared Source CLI 2.0 (SSCLI) and supporting unmanaged tools. This tool is not intended for use with managed applications.

Resourcecompiler.exe is functionally similar to the Microsoft® Win32 SDK resource compiler, Rc.exe but is considerably simplified. Resourcecompiler.exe parses Win32-formatted *.rc files and creates UTF8-encoded text files with the .satellite extension rather than producing Win32 binary *.res files like rc.exe.

This tool only handles STRINGTABLE resources, not Win32 icons, bitmaps, dialog boxes, or other non-string Microsoft® Windows® resource formats.

Usage

resourcecompiler [options] inputfile

Argument	Description
inputfile	Name of file to be compiled to a .satellite resource

Options

Option	Description
/?	Displays a list of command-line options. When you use this tool on UNIX system-based platforms, /? might expand to a filename. Instead simply enter the command "resourcecompiler" with no options and the usage text will be sent to the console.
/d	Defines a symbol for the preprocessor that you can test with the ifdef directive
/fo	Renames the output file.
/h	Displays a list of command-line options.
/i	Searches the specified directory before searching the directories specified by the INCLUDE environment variable.
/c	Specifies the codepage to be used for resource compilation.
/n	Terminates all strings in the string table with nulls.
/r	Ignored. Provided for compatibility with existing makefiles.
/l	Ignored. Provided for compatibility with existing makefiles.
/z	Ignored. Provided for compatibility with existing makefiles.
/u	Undefines a symbol for the preprocessor.
/v	Displays messages that report on the progress of the compiler.
/w	Warns only if the codepage is invalid. The default is an error.
/x	Prevents the resource compiler from checking the INCLUDE environment variable when searching for header files or resource files.

Resource Compiler Input

Resource files used by resourcecompiler.exe can contain:

C/C++ style comments (both "/* ... */" and "//").
The predefined macro RC_INVOKED.
- Note that the C standard __DATE__, __TIME__, __FILE__, __STDC__, and __TIMESTAMP__ macros are not defined.
C/C++ style preprocessor directives - #if, #ifdef, #else, #define, #elif, #ifndef, #include, and #undef.
One pragma: "#pragma code_page( [DEFAULT|CodePageNum] )". Note that the number will likely be 1252.
STRINGTABLE resources of the format:
- STRINGTABLE [optional_statements] { stringID string ... } where optional_statements are zero or more of the following:
  - "CHARACTERISTICS dword" - will be ignored.
  - "LANGUAGE language,sublanguage" - specifies the language of subsequent text, upto the next LANGUAGE statement. Language and sublanguage are integers - see the Platform SDK header file winnls.h for the complete list.
  - "VERSION dword" - will be ignored.
  - "DISCARDABLE" - will be ignored.
- StringID is an unsigned 16-bit integer.
- String is one or more strings, enclosed in quotation marks. The string must be no longer than 4097 characters and must occupy a single line in the source file. Double quotes are used to embed a quote character in the string.

Other resources encountered within resource files should produce an error message.

Resource Compiler Output

The output of the resource compiler is not a Win32 .res file. Instead, it is a text file (ending with the .satellite extension) containing stringID/string pairs, with the following constraints:

The pairs must be sorted in ascending order by stringID value.
The stringID must be encoded in decimal format.
The string must be converted to UTF8 using the language/sublanguage information specified on the command-line, or in the LANGUAGE keyword, or using the system default.
There must be one space character between the stringID and string, the line must end with a carriage return/linefeed pair, and the file must end with an EOF character on a line by itself.
If the resource file contains no STRINGTABLE resources, the output file should be empty.

The satellite file is a UTF-8 encoded file containing a list of pairs of decimal numbers and quoted string pairs, with a space between. The maximum string length is 511 bytes, not including the required quotes.

For example, the following three entries are valid:

1 "This is a message"
2 "This is a message"
39 "This is
another message"

But the following entries are not valid:

A "This is a message"
1 2

Additional Information

On error (including exceptions from within the tool), the tool will exit with a nonzero exit code and delete the output file to ensure any partial output is not inadvertently left behind.

The *.satellite files can be read by calling APIs within the PALRT:

PAL_LoadSatelliteResourceW - opens a satellite file. Equivalent to LoadLibrary for conventional Win32 resources.
PAL_LoadSatelliteStringA/W - retrieves a string from the *.satellite file. Equivalent to LoadStringA/W for conventional Win32 resources.
PAL_FreeSatelliteResource - closes the satellite file.

For more details on these APIs, see sscli20/palrt/inc/rotor_palrt.h.