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-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.
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.