Output from "lib /list <import library>"

This article was previously published under Q119332

The documentation for the 32-bit LIB utility says that the /LIST option can be used to determine the contents on an existing library. The output for an object library is a list of the names of the object modules used to build the library. However, the output for an import library is the name of the module-definition (.DEF) file or the DLL, repeated for each imported symbol.

For example, run the following command to view the contents of the import library GDI32.LIB: The output is as follows:

LIB 1.0

LIB 2.5x

This is the format of an import library: all of its modules have the same name. Microsoft LINK relies on this information during linking.