Forbid linking against a c++ method

Question

I try to forbid the use of a method, to have a compile error if some piece of code use it.

This is a proprietary legacy module, that I know that some methods are problematic. We have headers files, and dlls.

I can't figure out all the use of this method in the huge project I use (lot of defines, some implicit cast...)

Can the compiler stop (or just warn) if it detect the use of this method?

Answer 1

You can use __declspec(deprecated) in Visual C++ to generate warnings for use of a specific function. You can use #pragma deprecated to deprecate the usage of any symbol (including macros).

See more information on MSDN. This can generate warnings or errors (depending on computer flags) but you can supress them where needed with additional #pragmas

Answer 2

Well, not sure if it works or not (so please correct me), but you might want to play with making libs out of your DLLs

something along the line, from VS command prompt:

dumpbin /exports yourdll.dll

you'll get export symbols output and copy it into .def file

edit .def file to remove unwanted symbols

make lib and link it to your app

lib /def:C:\mydef.def /OUT:C:\mylib.lib