Installation on Microsoft Windows: There are three ways to create binaries of this package for Microsoft Windows: 1) Native binaries, built using the mingw tool chain. 2) Native binaries, built using the MS Visual C/C++ tool chain. 3) Binaries for the Cygwin environment. =============================================================================== 1) Native binaries, built using the mingw tool chain. I recommend to use the Cygwin environment as the development environment and mingw only as the target (runtime, deployment) environment. For this, you need to install * Cygwin (from https://cygwin.com/), * some packages available from the Cygwin package installer: make * the mingw cross-compilation tools and runtime package, available from the Cygwin package installer (setup-x86_64.exe): - for creating 32-bit binaries: packages mingw64-i686-gcc-core, mingw64-i686-headers, mingw64-i686-runtime - for creating 64-bit binaries: packages mingw64-x86_64-gcc-core, mingw64-x86_64-headers, mingw64-x86_64-runtime Building 32-bit binaries for mingw is achieved through the following preparation, configure, and build commands: PATH=/usr/local/mingw32/bin:$PATH export PATH ./configure --host=i686-w64-mingw32 --prefix=/usr/local/mingw32 \ CC=i686-w64-mingw32-gcc \ CPPFLAGS="-I/usr/local/mingw32/include -Wall" \ LDFLAGS="-L/usr/local/mingw32/lib" make make check Building 64-bit binaries for mingw is achieved through the following preparation, configure, and build commands: PATH=/usr/local/mingw64/bin:$PATH export PATH ./configure --host=x86_64-w64-mingw32 --prefix=/usr/local/mingw64 \ CC=x86_64-w64-mingw32-gcc \ CPPFLAGS="-I/usr/local/mingw64/include -Wall" \ LDFLAGS="-L/usr/local/mingw64/lib" make make check Installation: make install =============================================================================== 2) Native binaries, built using the MS Visual C/C++ tool chain. Note that binaries created with MSVC have a distribution constraint: They depend on a closed-source library ('msvcr90.dll' for MSVC 9.0, 'vcruntime140.dll' for MSVC 14.0, and so on) which is not normally part of a Windows installation. You cannot distribute 'vcruntime*.dll' with the binaries - this would be a violation of the GPL and of the Microsoft EULA. You can distribute the binaries without including 'vcruntime*.dll'. Users who don't have this library on their system will require to pull some files (api-ms-win*.dll) through the Windows Update mechanism, see https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2999226 . This recipe requires MS Visual C/C++ 9.0 or newer. You don't need the Visual Studio IDE, just the C/C++ tool chain. As of 2016, you can install the MS Visual C/C++ 14.0 tool chain from http://landinghub.visualstudio.com/visual-cpp-build-tools (it's the file visualcppbuildtools_full.exe). This recipe requires also a Cygwin environment (with 'bash', the common POSIX commands, and 'make') as a build environment. Building with 'nmake' is not supported. For this, you need to install * Cygwin (from https://cygwin.com/), * some packages available from the Cygwin package installer: make You also need the scripts 'ar-lib' and 'compile' from https://git.savannah.gnu.org/gitweb/?p=automake.git;a=blob_plain;f=lib/ar-lib;hb=HEAD https://git.savannah.gnu.org/gitweb/?p=automake.git;a=blob_plain;f=lib/compile;hb=HEAD respectively. They may also be included in this package, in directory 'build-aux/'. Save them; the instructions below assume that you stored them in $HOME/msvc/. Make them executable: chmod a+x ar-lib compile Start a bash (from Cygwin). Make sure that the MSVC tools ("cl" etc.) are found in PATH and the environment variables INCLUDE and LIB are set appropriately. In a typical MSVC 9.0 installation, it can be achieved by running C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\Common7\Tools\vsvars32.bat In a typical MSVC 14.0 installation on Windows 10, it can be achieved - for creating 32-bit binaries: through the following bash commands: # Set environment variables for using MSVC 14, # for creating native 32-bit Windows executables. # Windows C library headers and libraries. WindowsCrtIncludeDir='C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10\Include\10.0.10240.0\ucrt' WindowsCrtLibDir='C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10\Lib\10.0.10240.0\ucrt\' INCLUDE="${WindowsCrtIncludeDir};$INCLUDE" LIB="${WindowsCrtLibDir}x86;$LIB" # Windows API headers and libraries. WindowsSdkIncludeDir='C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\8.1\Include\' WindowsSdkLibDir='C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\8.1\Lib\winv6.3\um\' INCLUDE="${WindowsSdkIncludeDir}um;${WindowsSdkIncludeDir}shared;$INCLUDE" LIB="${WindowsSdkLibDir}x86;$LIB" # Visual C++ tools, headers and libraries. VSINSTALLDIR='C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0' VCINSTALLDIR="${VSINSTALLDIR}"'\VC' PATH=`cygpath -u "${VCINSTALLDIR}"`/bin:"$PATH" INCLUDE="${VCINSTALLDIR}"'\include;'"${INCLUDE}" LIB="${VCINSTALLDIR}"'\lib;'"${LIB}" export INCLUDE LIB - for creating 64-bit binaries: through the following bash commands: # Set environment variables for using MSVC 14, # for creating native 64-bit Windows executables. # Windows C library headers and libraries. WindowsCrtIncludeDir='C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10\Include\10.0.10240.0\ucrt' WindowsCrtLibDir='C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10\Lib\10.0.10240.0\ucrt\' INCLUDE="${WindowsCrtIncludeDir};$INCLUDE" LIB="${WindowsCrtLibDir}x64;$LIB" # Windows API headers and libraries. WindowsSdkIncludeDir='C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\8.1\Include\' WindowsSdkLibDir='C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\8.1\Lib\winv6.3\um\' INCLUDE="${WindowsSdkIncludeDir}um;${WindowsSdkIncludeDir}shared;$INCLUDE" LIB="${WindowsSdkLibDir}x64;$LIB" # Visual C++ tools, headers and libraries. VSINSTALLDIR='C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0' VCINSTALLDIR="${VSINSTALLDIR}"'\VC' PATH=`cygpath -u "${VCINSTALLDIR}"`/bin/amd64:"$PATH" INCLUDE="${VCINSTALLDIR}"'\include;'"${INCLUDE}" LIB="${VCINSTALLDIR}"'\lib\amd64;'"${LIB}" export INCLUDE LIB Building 32-bit binaries with MSVC is achieved through the following preparation, configure, and build commands: PATH=/usr/local/msvc32/bin:$PATH export PATH win32_target=_WIN32_WINNT_WINXP # for MSVC 9.0 win32_target=_WIN32_WINNT_VISTA # possibly for MSVC >= 10.0 win32_target=_WIN32_WINNT_WIN7 # possibly for MSVC >= 10.0 win32_target=_WIN32_WINNT_WIN8 # possibly for MSVC >= 10.0 ./configure --host=i686-w64-mingw32 --prefix=/usr/local/msvc32 \ CC="$HOME/msvc/compile cl -nologo" \ CFLAGS="-MD" \ CXX="$HOME/msvc/compile cl -nologo" \ CXXFLAGS="-MD" \ CPPFLAGS="-D_WIN32_WINNT=$win32_target -I/usr/local/msvc32/include" \ LDFLAGS="-L/usr/local/msvc32/lib" \ LD="link" \ NM="dumpbin -symbols" \ STRIP=":" \ AR="$HOME/msvc/ar-lib lib" \ RANLIB=":" make make check Building 64-bit binaries with MSVC is achieved through the following preparation, configure, and build commands: PATH=/usr/local/msvc64/bin:$PATH export PATH win32_target=_WIN32_WINNT_WINXP # for MSVC 9.0 win32_target=_WIN32_WINNT_VISTA # possibly for MSVC >= 10.0 win32_target=_WIN32_WINNT_WIN7 # possibly for MSVC >= 10.0 win32_target=_WIN32_WINNT_WIN8 # possibly for MSVC >= 10.0 ./configure --host=x86_64-w64-mingw32 --prefix=/usr/local/msvc64 \ CC="$HOME/msvc/compile cl -nologo" \ CFLAGS="-MD" \ CXX="$HOME/msvc/compile cl -nologo" \ CXXFLAGS="-MD" \ CPPFLAGS="-D_WIN32_WINNT=$win32_target -I/usr/local/msvc64/include" \ LDFLAGS="-L/usr/local/msvc64/lib" \ LD="link" \ NM="dumpbin -symbols" \ STRIP=":" \ AR="$HOME/msvc/ar-lib lib" \ RANLIB=":" make make check Installation: make install =============================================================================== 3) Binaries for the Cygwin environment. The generic instructions in the INSTALL file apply. But here are more specific ones. You need to install * Cygwin (from https://cygwin.com/), * some packages available from the Cygwin package installer: make * the Cygwin [cross-]compilation tools package, available from the Cygwin package installer (setup-x86_64.exe): - for creating 32-bit binaries: packages cygwin32-gcc-core, cygwin32 - for creating 64-bit binaries: packages gcc-core Building 32-bit binaries for Cygwin must be done in a directory *outside* the Cygwin /home and /usr hierarchies. It is achieved through the following preparation, configure, and build commands: PATH=/usr/local/cygwin32/bin:/usr/i686-pc-cygwin/sys-root/usr/bin:$PATH export PATH ./configure --host=i686-pc-cygwin --prefix=/usr/local/cygwin32 \ CC=i686-pc-cygwin-gcc \ CPPFLAGS="-I/usr/local/cygwin32/include -Wall" \ LDFLAGS="-L/usr/local/cygwin32/lib" make make check Building 64-bit binaries for Cygwin is achieved through the following preparation, configure, and build commands: PATH=/usr/local/cygwin64/bin:$PATH export PATH ./configure --host=x86_64-pc-cygwin --prefix=/usr/local/cygwin64 \ CC=x86_64-pc-cygwin-gcc \ CPPFLAGS="-I/usr/local/cygwin64/include -Wall" \ LDFLAGS="-L/usr/local/cygwin64/lib" make make check Installation: make install =============================================================================== Dependencies: This package depends on GNU libiconv. (See the file DEPENDENCIES.) Before building this package, you need to build GNU libiconv, in the same development environment, with the same configure options, and install it ("make install"). ===============================================================================