Skip to content

Windows build fails with cmake 4.x: /MANIFEST:EMBED breaks vs_link_exe mt.exe step #3835

Description

@gauthig

Report preparation

  • I used the AI-assisted bug report tool (Help → Support → File an Issue)
  • I have attached a support bundle or log file

What happened?

Building AetherSDR on Windows with cmake 4.x (tested on 4.3.2) fails at
the final link step for AetherSDR.exe with:
MT: command "...mt.exe /nologo /out:CMakeFiles\AetherSDR.dir/embed.manifest
/notify_update" failed (exit code 0x1f)

mt.exe : command line error c10100a7: No manifest inputs were specified /
generated that are needed by the options specified on the command line.

This only affects Windows (the if(MSVC) block in CMakeLists.txt is a
no-op on Linux and macOS).

What did you expect?

AetherSDR.exe links cleanly with the application manifest embedded, as it
did prior to commit 14b45a0 which added /MANIFEST:EMBED.

Also build process for windows 11 in README.md

Steps to reproduce

Prerequisites

  • Windows 11, cmake 4.3.2, MSVC 14.44.35207 (VS 2022 BuildTools), Qt 6.8.3 msvc2022_64
  • Run scripts/setup/setup-fftw.ps1 first (generates fftw3f.lib for NR4/libspecbleach)

1. Activate the MSVC environment

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2022\BuildTools\VC\Auxiliary\Build\vcvars64.bat"
** Visual Studio 2022 Developer Command Prompt v17.0
** Copyright (c) 2025 Microsoft Corporation
[vcvarsall.bat] Environment initialized for: 'x64'
2. Configure
cmake -B build -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=RelWithDebInfo
-- NR4 (libspecbleach) enabled — building with clang-cl
-- GPU spectrum rendering enabled (QRhi, Qt 6.8.3)
-- Configuring done (3.5s)
-- Generating done (2.5s)
-- Build files have been written to: C:/Users/.../AetherSDR/build
3. Build — failure
cmake --build build --target AetherSDR
All 439 source files compile successfully. The build fails only at the
final link/manifest step:

439/439] Linking CXX executable AetherSDR.exe
FAILED: AetherSDR.exe
...cmake.exe -E vs_link_exe --msvc-ver=1944 --intdir=CMakeFiles\AetherSDR.dir
  --rc=...rc.exe --mt=...mt.exe --manifests  -- link.exe /nologo @CMakeFiles\AetherSDR.rsp
  /out:AetherSDR.exe ... /MANIFEST:EMBED
  /MANIFESTINPUT:C:/.../packaging/windows/AetherSDR.exe.manifest
MT: command "...mt.exe /nologo
    /out:CMakeFiles\AetherSDR.dir/embed.manifest /notify_update"
    failed (exit code 0x1f) with the following output:
mt.exe : command line error c10100a7: No manifest inputs were specified /
generated that are needed by the options specified on the command line.
Use the /? option for help on usage and samples.
ninja: build stopped: subcommand failed.

### AetherSDR version

26.6.4

### Radio model & firmware

N/A

### Operating system

Linux

### OS version and hardware

WIndows 11

Metadata

Metadata

Assignees

Labels

WindowsWindows-specific issuebugSomething isn't workingmaintainer-reviewRequires maintainer review before any action is takenpriority: mediumMedium priority

Type

No type

Fields

No fields configured for issues without a type.

Projects

No projects

Milestone

No milestone

Relationships

None yet

Development

No branches or pull requests

Issue actions