Setting up a Windows Build Environment

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Windows Build Status

• Current Known issues:
  • Socket code doesn't work so files can't be opened in a currently running copy of bluefish.

Setting up your Build Environment

The first step is of course to install and setup the MingW and MSYS environments. Start with the automated MinGW installer. During installation choose the g++ compiler too (do not choose MingW make). The preferred location is C:\MinGW, but it's not necessary to choose this path. In a second step install the MSYS base system. It will ask you for the location of the MingW environment. If you e.g. installed it to P:\Programs\MinGW, then type

p:/programs/mingw

when you are asked for the location (JFTR: this information will be put into /etc/fstab in the MSYS environment).

If you know what you are doing, you might alternatively download and unpack (unzip/untar/...) the packages manually.

Updating the Build Environment

In a second step all necessary software needs to be updated and/or installed. You can download and extract them manually. Extract them to the location, where MSYS has been installed. This place is usually C:\Programs\msys\1.0\ (or C:\MingGW\). Keep in mind, that this place is equal to the root directory / and to /usr/ (as both are the same) in MSYS. JFTR: Also /local and /usr/local are equal too.

MinGW Packages install into MingW root (C:\MinGW\)

w32api-3.13-mingw32-dev.tar.gz

mingw-utils-0.3.tar.gz

mingwrt-3.16-mingw32-dev.tar.gz

mingwrt-3.16-mingw32-dll.tar.gz

MSYS Packages install into MSYS root directory "/" (C:\Programs\msys\1.0\ or C:\MinGW\)

msysCORE-1.0.11-bin.tar.gz

autoconf-2.63-1-msys-1.0.11-bin.tar.lzma

automake-1.11-1-msys-1.0.11-bin.tar.lzma

bison-2.4.1-1-msys-1.0.11-bin.tar.lzma

bzip2-1.0.5-1-msys-1.0.11-bin.tar.gz

crypt-1.1_1-2-msys-1.0.11-bin.tar.lzma

findutils-4.4.2-1-msys-1.0.11-bin.tar.lzma

flex-2.5.35-1-msys-1.0.11-bin.tar.lzma

gawk-3.1.7-1-msys-1.0.11-bin.tar.lzma

gdbm-1.8.3-2-msys-1.0.11-bin.tar.lzma

gettext-0.17-1-msys-1.0.11-bin.tar.lzma

grep-2.5.4-1-msys-1.0.11-bin.tar.lzma

groff-1.20.1-1-msys-1.0.11-bin.tar.lzma

guile-1.8.7-1-msys-1.0.11-bin.tar.lzma

gzip-1.3.12-1-msys-1.0.11-bin.tar.lzma

libbz2-1.0.5-1-msys-1.0.11-dll-1.tar.gz

libcrypt-1.1_1-2-msys-1.0.11-dll-0.tar.lzma

libgdbm-1.8.3-2-msys-1.0.11-dll-3.tar.lzma

libguile-1.8.7-1-msys-1.0.11-dll-17.tar.lzma

libiconv-1.13.1-1-msys-1.0.11-bin.tar.lzma

libltdl-2.2.7a-1-msys-1.0.11-dll-7.tar.lzma

libminires-1.02_1-1-msys-1.0.11-dll.tar.lzma

libopenssl-0.9.8k-1-msys-1.0.11-dll-098.tar.lzma

libregex-1.20090805-1-msys-1.0.11-dll-1.tar.lzma

libtool-2.2.7a-1-msys-1.0.11-bin.tar.lzma

lndir-1.0.1-1-msys-1.0.11-bin.tar.gz

m4-1.4.13-1-msys-1.0.11-bin.tar.lzma

man-1.6f-1-msys-1.0.11-bin.tar.lzma

minires-1.02_1-1-msys-1.0.11-bin.tar.lzma

openssl-0.9.8k-1-msys-1.0.11-bin.tar.lzma

patch-2.5.9-1-msys-1.0.11-bin.tar.lzma

perl-5.6.1_2-1-msys-1.0.11-bin.tar.lzma

sed-4.2.1-1-msys-1.0.11-bin.tar.lzma

tar-1.22-1-msys-1.0.11-bin.tar.lzma

vim-7.2-1-msys-1.0.11-bin.tar.lzma

zlib-1.2.3-1-msys-1.0.11-dll.tar.gz

GNOME Packages install into MSYS local directory "/local" (C:\Programs\msys\1.0\local\ or C:\MinGW\local\)

atk_1.26.0-1_win32.zip

atk-dev_1.26.0-1_win32.zip

cairo_1.8.8-1_win32.zip

cairo-dev_1.8.8-1_win32.zip

expat_2.0.1-1_win32.zip

expat-dev_2.0.1-1_win32.zip

GConf_2.22.0-2_win32.zip

GConf-dev_2.22.0-2_win32.zip

gettext-runtime-0.17.zip

gettext-runtime-dev-0.17.zip

gettext-tools-0.17.zip

glib_2.20.4-1_win32.zip

glib-dev_2.20.4-1_win32.zip

gnome-common-2.11.0.zip

gtk+_2.16.5-1_win32.zip

gtk+-dev_2.16.5-1_win32.zip

intltool_0.40.4-1_win32.zip

intltool-dev_0.40.4-1_win32.zip

libgnurx-2.5.zip

libgnurx-dev-2.5.zip

libiconv-1.9.1.bin.woe32.zip

libpng_1.2.38-1_win32.zip

libpng-dev_1.2.38-1_win32.zip

libxml2_2.7.3-1_win32.zip

libxml2-dev_2.7.3-1_win32.zip

ORBit2-dev_2.14.16-1_win32.zip

ORBit2_2.14.16-1_win32.zip

pango_1.24.5-1_win32.zip

pango-dev_1.24.5-1_win32.zip

pkg-config-0.23-2.zip

zlib-1.2.3.zip

zlib-dev-1.2.3.zip

External Packages install into MSYS local directory "/local" (C:\Programs\msys\1.0\local\ or C:\MinGW\local\)

svn-win32-1.6.5.zip

The Perl issue

The last thing you need is Perl. The MSYS version is 5.6.1 which is not new enough to pass the configure script for a lot of programs including Bluefish. I use the MSYS 5.6.1 version for autoconf/automake/autogen.sh and an external version such as ActiveState's for anything that needs a newer version. Install the ActivePerl Perl version. Then edit /etc/fstab in your MSYS enviroment (usually ) and add the following line:

c:/programs/perl /opt/perl

so Perl is mounted to the MSYS environment.

Configuring your Build Environment

You might set a few environment variables as follows.

PATH="/bin:/local/bin:/opt/perl/bin"
C_INCLUDE_PATH="/include:/local/include"
LIBRARY_PATH="/lib:/local/lib"

Alternatively pass our config.site script for MSYS to configure to adjust PATH/CFLAGS/LDFLAGS easily.

Further we need to adjust the macro search path for aclocal:

echo /local/share/aclocal > /share/aclocal/dirlist

Because of a linker bug in the gconftool-2 binary, add this symbolic link:

ln -s /local/bin/libxml2-2.dll /local/bin/libxml2.dll

To strip the prefixes from the Makefiles before you build Bluefish you can download or create this simple script I made, strip_prefix.sh. Place it in /usr/local/bin or somewhere in the path.

strip_prefix.sh (This script might become obsolete soon!):

#!/bin/sh

for i in $(find ./ -name Makefile | grep -v plugin); do
    echo Checking: $i
    cat $i | sed s/'${prefix}\/'// | sed s/'${exec_prefix}\/'// > ${i}.tst
    rm $i
    mv ${i}.tst $i
done

Building External Packages

To build bluefish we need some libraries not available from the MinGW/MSYS project.

Installing Pre-Compiled Packages

Shawn Novak provides pre-compiled tarballs, which you just need to extract to /local:

Custom Packages install into MSYS local directory "/local" (C:\Programs\msys\1.0\local\ or C:\MinGW\local\)

pcre-7.9-bin-MinGW-20090902.tbz2

aspell-0.60.6-bin-MinGW-20090901.tbz2

enchant-1.5.0-bin-MinGW-20090901.tbz2

A full set of dictionaries for Aspell 0.60.6 can be found here: ftp://kernel86.muleslow.net/mingw/aspell/lang/

Building And Installing From The Source

If you wish to build your own version of these custom packages, these are the configure parameters used for the ones provided.

Aspell 0.60.6

./configure --prefix=/local --disable-rpath --enable-win32-relocatable

Enchant 1.5.0

./configure --prefix=/local --enable-aspell --disable-ispell --disable-myspell

PCRE 7.9 (UTF-8 support is a must)

./configure --prefix=/local --enable-utf8 --enable-unicode-properties

gucharmap 2.26

Unfortunately gucharmap does not build out-of-the-box. The following instructions were taken from the mailing list. First apply the following patch by Daniel Leidert gucharmap26.diff and then configure with the following commands.

patch -p0 <gucharmap26.diff
intltoolize -f
libtoolize -f
aclocal -I m4/ --force
autoheader -f
automake -f
autoconf -f
./configure --disable-gconf --disable-schemas-install --disable-scrollkeeper

Building Bluefish

Check out the latest windows branch:

svn checkout https://bluefish.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/bluefish/trunk/bluefish

Run autogen.sh (uses perl 5.6.1). Then run configure (make sure, Perl from /opt/perl/bin is used; e.g. adjust PATH) and make:

./autogen.sh
./configure CONFIG_SITE=config.site/config.msys
./strip_prefix.sh
make

Debugging Bluefish

For console debugging output, configure bluefish by passing '--enable-debugging-output' to ./configure. Further CFLAGS should contain '-g' (default, also explicitely set by config.msys).

For debugging crashes install the GNU Debugger (GDB).