Intermediate Manifest

[Groundsel]

I am still not sure what these intermediate manifest files do.   I do know that some of our programs failed when I turned it off in compilation.  So, of course, I restored it.

Today when I was compiling a program, I noticed (or properly paid attention to) a message to the effect that it was "embedded"/  Whatever it does, could it be that I don't need it as a companion file alongside the executable?  I have, up to now, been including the intermediate manifest file in the same folder as the executable in the belief that it is needed there.  I am wondering now if the embedding means that it  becomes part of the executable.

[Steven_L_Intel1]

By default, the linker embeds the manifest into the EXE, so you don't need it separately. You do need it if you link to the DLL libraries (specifically the MSVC DLLs).

[Groundsel]

Thanks, Steve, I made a copy of our suite of analysis programs with all the intermediate manifest files removed from the copy folder. I then ran a substantial benchmark through the suite of programs with and without the manifest files and compared outputs. They were all identical - which, I suppose, is what you would expect. So I shall be removing them in future. My earlier tests featured switching off their creation altogether so that there was no opportunity for the linker to "embed" them. The upshot is that I expect to be removing them from our production folder. I shall give them a little more time to show up unforeseen issues in the copy - but don't anticipate any. One reason it took me so long to clue in - apart from not knowing what these intermediate.manifest files do - was that they are automatically shot into the same folder as the executable. (My instructions to the linker include an alternate folder.) Anyway, all seems well now.

[Steven_L_Intel1]

I see I wasn't clear - you never need those intermediate manifest files, especially when the linker embeds them. It is very unusual to need separate manifest files.