C - properly importing stdcall functions from unmanaged DLL - c

Question

I am trying to import a function from an unmanaged DLL into a C project by creating a .def file specifying the function I need to use. I am practicing on the WinAPI function MessageBoxA from user32.dll. It is an stdcall function, like the other WinAPI functions.
Here's how I create my .def file:
LIBRARY user32.dll
EXPORTS
_MessageBoxA#16
Then I create a .lib from it like this: lib /def:"C:\Path\to\def\user32.def" /
out:"C:\path\to\project\user32-mb.lib" which successfully creates user32-mb.lib and user32-mb.exp. Then, in my C project, I do the following:
#pragma comment(lib, "user32-mb.lib")
#ifdef __cplusplus
#define EXTERNC extern "C"
#else
#define EXTERNC
#endif
EXTERNC __declspec(dllexport) int __stdcall MessageBoxA(void *hWnd, char *lpText, char *lpCaption, int uType);
void main(){
MessageBoxA(0, "MessageBox test", "MessageBox test", 0x00000030L);
}
However, upon linking, it gives the following error:
error LNK2019: unresolved external symbol _MessageBoxA#16 referenced in function _main
However, when I change the declaration in the .def to this:
LIBRARY user32.dll
EXPORTS
MessageBoxA
And change the function prototype in my C code to cdecl instead of stdcall:
EXTERNC __declspec(dllexport) int __cdecl MessageBoxA(void *hWnd, char *lpText, char *lpCaption, int uType);
The message box actually appears, but right on closing, it throws an error:
Run-Time Check Failure #0 - The value of ESP was not properly saved across a function call. This is usually a result of calling a function declared with one calling convention with a function pointer declared with a different calling convention.
Which indicates that calling it with cdecl is also a bad idea since it requires stdcall after all.
The question is, what should I change in the .def file or in my project to avoid both errors and to import and call an stdcall function properly?

Answer 1

You need to change __declspec(dllexport) to __declspec(dllimport), as you are importing functions from a DLL, not exporting them:
EXTERNC __declspec(dllimport) int __stdcall MessageBoxA(void *hWnd, char *lpText, char *lpCaption, int uType);
^^

Answer 2

You need to use dllimport rather than dllexport, but in this case you should remove the __declspec(...) altogether.
And you need to specify the correct name for the function which is MessageBoxA.
LIBRARY USER32.dll
EXPORTS
MessageBoxA
Also it would be remiss of me not to point out that the correct main declaration is
int main(void)

Answer 3

I am still not entirely sure why, but removing the _ adding the ordinal to the function name my .def file fixed everything. My solution is:
LIBRARY USER32.dll
EXPORTS
MessageBoxA#16 #2093
Function definition:
#ifdef __cplusplus
#define EXTERNC extern "C"
#else
#define EXTERNC
#endif
typedef void *PVOID;
typedef PVOID HANDLE;
typedef HANDLE HWND;
typedef const char *LPCSTR;
typedef unsigned int UINT;
EXTERNC __declspec(dllimport)
int
__stdcall
MessageBoxA(
HWND hWnd,
LPCSTR lpText,
LPCSTR lpCaption,
UINT uType);

Answer 4

This page indicates that winuser.h is the header. From there, you can see some macros are used, including WINUSERAPI and WINAPI. WINUSERAPI is conditionally #define-d at the beginning of that header. WINAPI can be found in the winbase.h header, where it can be seen to be tied to a calling convention, depending on the platform.
But a better question is: Why are you using dllexport and not dllimport?