AheadLibEx (Rust)

AheadLibEx (Rust) is a Windows DLL proxy generator. It reads a target DLL, parses its export table, and generates a proxy DLL project that forwards exports to the original DLL.

中文文档请见 README.zh-CN.md.

Outputs

• source: proxy sources only
• vs2022: Visual Studio 2022 solution and project
• vs2026: Visual Studio 2026 solution and project
• cmake: CMakeLists.txt for MSVC or MinGW-w64 builds

What Gets Generated

• Export forwarding code based on the input DLL’s export table (names, ordinals, and forwarders)
• Proxy sources
  • x86: C proxy source
  • x64: C proxy source + jump table (MASM for MSVC-like toolchains, GAS for GNU-like toolchains)
• A .def file for controlling exports when the build system uses it
• Optional project files (Visual Studio or CMake), depending on the selected output

Project Structure

• domain: DLL export parsing and core domain model
• application: generation orchestration and UI event logic
• infrastructure: templates and file generation
• presentation: GUI

Quick Start

GUI:

• Launch aheadlibex-rs.exe with no arguments, then select a DLL and output directory.

CLI:

aheadlibex-rs.exe <source|vs2022|vs2026|cmake> <dll_path> <output_dir> [--origin-mode <system|samedir|custom>] [--origin-name <name.dll>] [--origin-path <path>]

Examples (default system mode):

aheadlibex-rs.exe source "C:\path\to\foo.dll" "C:\path\to\out"
aheadlibex-rs.exe vs2022 "C:\path\to\foo.dll" "C:\path\to\out"
aheadlibex-rs.exe vs2026 "C:\path\to\foo.dll" "C:\path\to\out"
aheadlibex-rs.exe cmake  "C:\path\to\foo.dll" "C:\path\to\out"

Original DLL Loading

Generated proxy sources must load the original DLL. This project supports multiple load modes.

• system (default): load from %SystemRoot%\System32\<dll>
• samedir: load from the proxy DLL directory using a renamed filename (default name: <stem>_orig.dll)
• custom: load from a custom path (absolute, UNC, or relative to the proxy DLL directory)

Examples (custom load modes):

aheadlibex-rs.exe vs2022 "C:\path\to\foo.dll" "C:\path\to\out" --origin-mode samedir --origin-name "foo_orig.dll"
aheadlibex-rs.exe source "C:\path\to\foo.dll" "C:\path\to\out" --origin-mode custom --origin-path "\\server\share\foo.dll"

Option notes:

• --origin-name is used by --origin-mode samedir
• --origin-path is used by --origin-mode custom

Build Notes

• Visual Studio outputs: open the generated solution and build.
• CMake output: configure and build with your preferred generator. For example:

cmake -S . -B build
cmake --build build --config Release

Generated Files

The generated filenames are based on the input DLL stem (e.g. version.dll -> version).

source:

• x86: <stem>_x86.c, <stem>_x86_jump.asm, <stem>_x86_jump.S, <stem>.def
• x64: <stem>_x64.c, <stem>_x64_jump.asm, <stem>_x64_jump.S, <stem>.def

cmake:

• CMakeLists.txt
• Same files as source for the detected architecture.

vs2022:

• AheadlibEx_<stem>.sln
• <stem>.vcxproj, <stem>.vcxproj.filters, <stem>.vcxproj.user
• x86: <stem>_x86.c, <stem>_x86_jump.asm, <stem>.def
• x64: <stem>_x64.c, <stem>_x64_jump.asm, <stem>.def

vs2026:

• AheadlibEx_<stem>.slnx
• <stem>.vcxproj, <stem>.vcxproj.filters, <stem>.vcxproj.user
• x86: <stem>_x86.c, <stem>_x86_jump.asm, <stem>.def
• x64: <stem>_x64.c, <stem>_x64_jump.asm, <stem>.def

Notes:

• .asm is MASM (MSVC/clang-cl toolchains).
• .S is GAS (GNU-like toolchains). Visual Studio outputs only include .asm.

Notes

• Export list is generated from the input DLL’s export table.
• xmake project generation has been removed (as of 2026-02-03).

Author

• Author: i1tao
• Repository: https://github.com/i1tao/aheadlibex

Credits

• Original idea and C++ implementation: AheadLibEx
• Based on AheadLib-x86-x64 by strivexjun
• Thanks to JetBrains for providing free licenses such as RustRover for my open-source projects.

License

GPL-3.0-only. See LICENSE.