File README-WINDOWS.md artifact d219066df7 part of check-in 737a82e1a4
ObjFW on Windows
This file contains instructions on how to get a working build environment to compile and use ObjFW on Windows.
Prerequisites
The first thing you need to install is MinGW. If you already have MinGW installed, please remove it! ObjFW needs a GCC that emits DWARF-2 exception handling code. SjLj is not supported, and this is what most MinGW builds use.
Installation
TDM-GCC
Instead of using the official MinGW builds, we're going to use the TDM-GCC builds, as these contain a version emitting DWARF-2 exception handling code. Even when using TDM-GCC, most builds will output SjLj exceptions. This is why we are going to use this installer.
After downloading and starting the installer, we choose to create a new
installation. In the next step, the installer asks whether we want a
MinGW/TDM
installation or a MinGW-w64/TDM64 Experimental
installation. It
is very important to choose the MinGW/TDM
installation, as MinGW-w64/TDM64
does not include GCC versions that output DWARF-2 exceptions! When asked for
an installation path, it is recommended to keep the default of C:\MinGW32
;
the selected mirror does not really matter. After that, the components to be
installed have to be selected. Select TDM-GCC Recommended, C/C++
as
installation type, then expand Components
→ gcc
→ Version
and select the
TDM-GCC version ending in -dw2 and enable the objc
checkbox. In the next step
the installer will start downloading and installing the selected components.
MSys
Next, we're going to install MSys. To do so, we're going to use the official
MinGW installer, but we are not going to install MinGW with it, so follow
these steps carefully. First, go to the SourceForge download page for the
MinGW installer
and select the latest version. Get the .exe file there. When you launch it,
select the same installation path you selected for TDM-GCC before. After
selecting the installation directory, deselect all compilers and select
only MSYS Basic System
and MinGW Developer ToolKit
. Make sure MinGW
Compiler Suite
is white and not grey! The installation progress bar will be
completely filled after a short while and it will appear to hang - this is
not the case. When it reaches that step, it starts downloading the required
files and installs them. Just give it some time.
Building ObjFW
Building ObjFW for Windows works pretty much the same way it works on any other
operating system. The only thing you need to pay attention to is that the
TDM-GCC binary is called gcc-dw2. So all you need to do is export OBJC=gcc-dw2
before executing the usual ./autogen.sh && ./configure && make install
.
Troubleshooting
If you are getting errors about no threads being available when typing make
,
you've hit a bug present in some versions of Git for Windows. If you delete
your checkout and get a
tarball, it
should work.