ObjFW on Windows
================
This file contains instructions on how to get a working build environment to
compile and use ObjFW on Windows.
Getting MSYS2
-------------
The first thing to install is [MSYS2](https://msys2.github.io) to provide a
basic UNIX-like environment for Windows. Unfortunately, the binaries are not
signed and there is no way to verify their integrity, so only download this
from a trusted connection. Everything else you will download using MSYS2
later will be cryptographically signed.
Updating MSYS2
--------------
The first thing to do is updating MSYS2. It is important to update things in
a certain order, as `pacman` (the package manager MSYS2 uses, which comes
from ArchLinux) does not know about a few things that are special on Windows.
First, update the mirror list:
$ pacman -Sy pacman-mirrors
Then proceed to update the `msys2-runtime` itself, `bash` and `pacman`:
$ pacman -S msys2-runtime bash pacman
Now close the current window and restart MSYS2, as the current window is now
defunct. In a new MSYS2 window, update the rest of MSYS2:
$ pacman -Su
Now you have a fully updated MSYS2. Whenever you want to update MSYS2,
proceed in this order. Notice that the first `pacman` invocation includes
`-y` to actually fetch a new list of packages.
Installing MinGW-w64 using MSYS2
--------------------------------
Now it's time to install MinGW-w64. If you want to build 32 bit binaries:
$ pacman -S mingw-w64-i686-clang mingw-w64-i686-gcc-objc
For 64 bit binaries:
$ pacman -S mingw-w64-x86_64-gcc-objc
There is nothing wrong with installing them both, as MSYS2 has created two
entries in your start menu: MinGW-w64 Win32 Shell and MinGW-w64 Win64 Shell.
So if you want to build for 32 or 64 bit, you just start the correct shell.
Notice, though, that Clang is only installed for 32 bit binaries, as its SEH
support is not sufficient for ObjFW yet. Therefore, if you follow these
instructions, by default, 32 bit binaries will be built with Clang and 64 bit
binaries with GCC.
Finally, install a few more things needed to build ObjFW:
$ pacman -S autoconf automake git make
Getting, building and installing ObjFW
--------------------------------------
Start the MinGW-w64 Win32 or Win64 Shell (depening on what version you want
to build - do *not* use the MSYS2 Shell shortcut, but use the MinGW-w64 Win32
or Win64 Shell shortcut instead!) and check out ObjFW:
$ git clone https://heap.zone/git/objfw.git
You can also download a release tarball if you want. Now go to the newly
checked out repository and build and install it:
$ autoreconf && ./configure && make -j16 install
If everything was successfully, you can now build projects using ObjFW for
Windows using the normal `objfw-compile` and friends.