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Understanding the WDK Directory Structure

Started by thiruvasagamani, May 08, 2009, 01:10 PM

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thiruvasagamani

Understanding the WDK Directory Structure

The Microsoft Windows Driver Kit (WDK) contains several individual components. If you understand the structure of the WDK, you will understand where to look for various support files and information.

By default, the WDK components are installed on your computer hard disk drive in the WDKInstallationPath\BuildNumber\ folder, where WDKInstallationPath is the location on your computer's root directory where the WDK is installed (for example, C:\WinDDK) and BuildNumber is the build number of the WDK that you installed (for example, 5600).

The components that are copied to your computer during WDK installation depend on the options that you select in the WDK installation wizard. The most common WDK components are installed in the following subdirectories under the main WDK installation folder (for example, C:\WinDDK\5600):

\ (the WDK root directory)
    The WDK root directory (for example, C:\WinDDK\5600\) contains the WDK release notes (Relnotes.htm). The release notes contain late-breaking information about the WDK and often include helpful information about changes to header files and the build environment. Although you might consider ignoring release notes, we strongly recommend that you read the WDK release notes—it is typically well worth your time.
\bin\
    The \bin directory contains executable images and command procedures that support the WDK build environments. Files in this directory include the compiler, linker, and other support files. You will not typically need to directly access or modify the files in this directory.
\debug\
    The \debug directory contains the checked versions of the operating system image and hardware abstraction layer (HAL) and their associated symbol files. These files might help you when you are debugging a driver.

    For more information about what the checked versions and symbol files are and how you can use them, see Checked Build of Windows.
\help\
    The \help directory contains the WDK documentation files, in Microsoft HTML Help 2.0 format. You can view the help files by clicking the Start button, pointing to All Programs, pointing to Windows Driver Kits, pointing to WDK BuildNumber, pointing to Help, and then clicking WDK Documentation.
\inc\
    The \inc directory contains the header and include files that you can use to build drivers (and certain small applications) by using the WDK build environments.
\lib\
    The \lib directory contains the library files that you can use to build drivers (and certain small applications) by using the WDK build environment.
\redist\
    The \redist directory contains redistributable components that support driver installation. These components include the Kernel-Mode Driver Framework (KMDF) co-installer and redistributable components of Driver Install Frameworks (DIFx).
\src\
    The \src directory contains the source code for numerous sample Windows drivers and driver-related utilities. Some of the driver source files in the \src directory were developed as samples, and other source files are the actual sources for currently shipping Windows components. For more information about the driver samples in the WDK, see Using the WDK Samples.
\tools\
    The \tools directory contains executable images for driver test and verification tools and utilities for driver developers. For more information about many of the applications in the \tools directory, see Tools for INF Files, Tools for Testing Drivers, Tools for Verifying Drivers, and Tools for Software Tracing.

For most driver developers, the \src and \tools directories are the most helpful. If you are new to writing Windows drivers, it is typically helpful to look through the WDK directories and become familiar with their contents.

Source : MSDN
Thiruvasakamani Karnan


Ominto

Thank you for your posts! Very interesting!