msvc-macintosh-tools

This project contains tools for use with Microsoft Visual C++ Cross Development Edition for Macintosh.

PE2MacBinary

PE2MacBinary is a script for converting build outputs from Microsoft Visual C++ Cross Development Edition to MacBinary format.

Build Process

Compiling a program for the Macintosh with Visual C++ Cross Development Edition consists of the following stages:

1. Use mrc.exe (Macintosh Resource Compiler) to compile resources from MPW/Rez format to produce a resource fork
2. Use cl.exe to compile each C++ source file to object files containing M68k/PowerPC code
3. Use link.exe to produce a Portable Executable (PE) file. This PE is not the final program executable, and will not run on the Macintosh.
4. Use mfile.exe to transfer the program to the Macintosh configured for remote debugging. The code and data sections from the PE are merged into the resource fork produced by mrc to produce the final program executable on the Macintosh.

The problem with this process is that the final build output is always transferred to the Macintosh. I wanted to avoid having to run a Macintosh emulator just to build my program.

I reverse engineered mfile.exe and found the conversion from PEs to resource forks is performed by calling mrc.exe with some undocumented arguments. The command line used for this is: mrc.exe -q -e <path-to-PE-file> -o <path-to-resource-fork-file> -w <path-to-data-file> -x <path-to-attributes-file> . This produces the resource fork containing the program, an empty data fork, and an attributes file containing Finder info for the file (eg. type/creator/flags). The attributes file uses the same format used by Services for Macintosh in Windows NT to store file information. This is usually stored in an alternate data stream called AFP_FileInfo.

Using this script

This script requires mrc.exe from Visual C++ Cross Development Edition. If you have Visual C++ Cross Development Edition installed, the executable is located using the registry. Otherwise, you can copy mrc.exe from C:\MSDEV\mac\bin and place it on your path.

Run pe2macbinary.py <path-to-EXE> <output-file.bin> to convert the PE to a MacBinary file.

• Add --name to set the file name to use when the MacBinary file is unpacked
• Add --data to use another file as the data fork

Packaging Windows and Macintosh binaries into a single file

If you are building your application for Windows and Macintosh systems, you might want to package both versions together into a single file for easier distribution. One way to do this is using an ISO image. A hybrid ISO contains a standard ISO9660 filesystem and a Macintosh HFS filesystem. The mkisofs/genisoimage tools support generating a hybrid ISO from a directory of MacBinary files.

First, we need to generate a MacBinary file containing both versions of the program. Use pe2macbinary to convert the Macintosh executable as above but add the --data option to set the data fork to the Windows executable. Set the output filename to the executable name for Windows (ie. include the .EXE extension). The filename for the Macintosh can be set with the --name option.

Then, use genisoimage/mkisofs to generate the ISO. The important options are -hfs which creates a hybrid HFS/ISO9660 image and --macbin which indicates that the source files are in MacBinary format.

Here is an example script that uses nmake to build the Windows and Macintosh versions of a program and packages them as an ISO image:

@echo off

rmdir /s /q Release
rmdir /s /q MacRel

set OLDPATH=%PATH%
set OLDLIB=%LIB%
set OLDINCLUDE=%INCLUDE%

call c:\msdev\bin\VCVARS32.BAT x86
echo Building Windows Release
nmake /f MyProgram.mak CFG="MyProgram - Win32 Release"

set PATH=%OLDPATH%
set LIB=%OLDLIB%
set INCLUDE=%OLDINCLUDE%

call c:\msdev\bin\VCVARS32.BAT m68k
echo Building Macintosh Release
nmake /f MyProgram.mak CFG="MyProgram - Macintosh Release"

set PATH=%OLDPATH%
set LIB=%OLDLIB%
set INCLUDE=%OLDINCLUDE%

echo Building release ISO
rmdir /s /q Release\ISO
mkdir Release\ISO
py -3 pe2macbinary.py --name "MyProgram" --data Release\MyProgram.exe MacRel\MyProgram.exe Release\ISO\MyProgram.exe

mkisofs -o MyProgram.iso -hfs -J -V "MyProgram" --macbin Release\ISO

File2MacBinary

File2MacBinary creates a MacBinary file from a data and resource fork. Sample usage:

file2macbinary.py --data data-fork.bin --rsrc resource-fork.rsrc --creator CRTR --type TYPE --name "My File" output.bin