Using Mingw for Windows 10, and looking into solutions to add a file as a binary for linking.  I thought I would start simple by adding a text file, called text.txt that contains the message "Hello, world!" , to my program.  I'm using objcopy.exe to do this.

I've managed to create the binary of text.txt okay and using objdump -t text.o, it produces the following symbol table...

text.o:     file format elf32-i386

SYMBOL TABLE:
00000000 l    d  .data  00000000 .data
00000000 g       .data  00000000 _binary_text_txt_start
0000000c g       .data  00000000 _binary_text_txt_end
0000000c g       *ABS*  00000000 _binary_text_txt_size

...and the main source file contains the following...

#include <stdio.h>

extern char _binary_text_txt_start;
extern char _binary_text_txt_end;
extern char _binary_text_txt_size;

void main()
{
       printf( "\n\nFILE SIZE: %d\n\n", _binary_text_txt_size );
}

...but then compiling the project produces the following error...

 undefined reference to `_binary_text_txt_size'  collect2.exe: error: ld returned 1 exit status

...which has me confused as the symbol table clearly has _binary_text_txt_size defined.  Just wondered if anyone can shed light on what I am overlooking?

Cheers.

That was definitely part of the problem, Frob.  The other half was forgetting to include the text.o file when compiling.

Cheers matey!

Thanks for the additional suggestions. The text file was merely a test for other kinds of file and even custom ones.  Although I was using Windows 10, I needed a resource-like solution that would work for Linux as well.