Bind

Bind is a command-line tool that you can use to compute addresses of exported DLL functions.

The linker stores addresses of exported DLL functions in a table that is separate from the table that contains the names of the exported DLL functions. Calls to exported DLL functions are made using an indirect jump through the table that contains the addresses. You can minimize load time by using Bind to bypass this lookup. Bind your executable with all of your DLLs, plus the system DLLs, by running Bind once you have installed the application on the computer where you will be running it or by using the functions described in PE Image Helper (ImageHlp).

The syntax for Bind is as follows:

bind [options] image-names

Bind has the following command-line options:

-o

Disable new import descriptors.

-p

DLL search path.

-s symbol_dir

Update associated .DBG files. If the symbol_dir directory is specified, Bind searches for the .DBG files in the directories SYMBOL_DIR\EXE and SYMBOL_DIR\DLL.

-u

Update the image.

-v

Verbose output.

-y

Allow binding on images located above 2 GB in memory.

-?

Display command-line syntax.