VideoLAN Wiki - User contributions [en]

Win32Compile

2007-04-24T10:03:37Z

Puntloos: /* Configuring the build */

From http://developers.videolan.org/vlc/vlc/INSTALL.win32

$Id: INSTALL.win32 15707 2006-05-22 09:42:08Z xtophe $
INSTALL file for the Windows9x/Me/NT4/2k/XP version of the VLC media player

==Before you start==

One common desire that leads people to want to rebuild VLC is to "rebuild a debug version" or "add printf()s", but this is not strictly necessary, as VLC includes a debug logging feature by default. If you are using a binary release (or have already built VLC), just run <CODE>'vlc.exe'</CODE> and select "Messages..." from the "View" menu.

You can also run VLC from the Windows command-line interpreter, <CODE>cmd.exe</CODE> (a.k.a. "DOS window"), in which case you'll be able to use the command-line arguments. You can obtain a list of these command line arguments by typing <CODE>'vlc --help'</CODE> or <CODE>'vlc --help --advanced'</CODE>.

To store a debug log of the current VLC session, you can use <CODE>'vlc -vvv --extraintf=logger'</CODE>. You will end-up with a <CODE>vlc-log.txt</CODE> file in your current directory.

==Building VLC from source==

If you want to build VLC from source, you have several choices:

{| class="wikitable"
! Method
! Documentation
! Notes
|-
| Cross-compile with mingw32 on GNU/Linux
| None
| '''Preferred''' cross-compilation method
|-
| Native-compile with [http://www.cygwin.com Cygwin]
| [[Win32CompileCygwin]]
| '''Preferred''' native compilation method
|-
| Native-compile with [http://www.mingw.org MSYS+MINGW]
| [[Win32CompileMSYS]]
| MSYS is a minimal build environment to compile Unixish projects under Microsoft Windows. It provides all the commonly-required Unix tools (like sh, gmake, and so forth). Please note that the gettext utilities are not included in the default MSYS/MINGW packages so you won't be able to build VLC with i18n support.
|-
| Native-compile with Microsoft Visual C++
| None
|
'''Not advised.''' <P>
Even though VLC includes some MSVC project files, this method is advised only if you just want to experiment/play with some basic functionality in VLC. VLC depends on a lot of third-party libraries and building them in MSVC is inconvenient (and in some cases, impossible). <BR>
If you want to run VLC under the MSVC debugger, use <CODE>--fast-mutex --win9x-cv-method=1</CODE> because the debugger usually loses signals sent by PulseEvent().
|}

==Obtaining the build tools==

Each build method requires its own toolchain:

{| class="wikitable"
! Method
! Notes
|-
| Cross-compile with mingw32 on GNU/Linux
|
*Debian/Ubuntu users can <CODE>apt-get install mingw32 mingw32-binutils</CODE>
*Gentoo users can <CODE>emerge xmingw-gcc xmingw-binutils</CODE>
*Other systems may attempt http://www.mingw.org/mingwfaq.shtml#faq-cross
|-
| Native-compile with [http://www.cygwin.com Cygwin]
| Install Cygwin, adding the optional <CODE>gcc-g++</CODE>, <CODE>gcc-mingw</CODE>, <CODE>mingw-runtime</CODE> and <CODE>win32-api</CODE> packages from the <CODE>Devel</CODE> category.
|-
| Native-compile with [http://www.mingw.org MSYS+MINGW]
| Download and install the latest MSYS, MSYS-DTK, and MINGW from http://www.mingw.org/download.shtml. Begin with the MSYS auto-installer, then extract MINGW into <CODE>C:\MSYS\1.0\MINGW</CODE>. You also have to remember to remove the <CODE>make</CODE> utility included with MINGW as it conflicts with the one from MSYS (just rename or remove <CODE>C:\MSYS\1.0\MINGW\BIN\MAKE.EXE</CODE>).
|}

==Saving time by using pre-built libraries==

VLC requires other open source projects to provide some features (like AC3 audio decoding and MPEG-4 video decoding). A complete list of required libraries from these projects can be found at http://developers.videolan.org/vlc/. Depending on your needs, you must either build your own versions of these libraries or use VLC's convenient pre-built versions.

If you feel you must build these libraries from source, the blessed source code may be found at http://download.videolan.org/pub/testing/contrib/. An automated way of building the contrib libraries is provided in extra/contrib. It will download, configure, and build the libraries. See the extras/contrib/README for more info.

If you want to save yourself time and energy by using the pre-built versions of these libraries, you may download them from http://download.videolan.org/pub/testing/win32/ . The pre-built versions will ''only work with MINGW or Cygwin''. Note that the version you download must match that of the MINGW compiler, <CODE>i586-mingw32msvc-gcc</CODE>, which you can verify by typing <CODE>'i586-mingw32msvc-gcc --ver'</CODE>.

There are two installation strategies:

{| class="wikitable"
! Location
! Command
! Advantages
! Disadvantages
|-
| Install the pre-built libraries into the Cygwin standard directories (/usr/win32/*)
| <CODE>tar jxf contrib-20061122-win32-bin-gcc-3.4.5-only.tar.bz2 -C /</CODE> (Note the <CODE>"-C /"</CODE>!)
|
*Shorter initial setup time
|
*May conflict with other headers/libraries in the standard directories
*Difficult to get rid of if you want to free up space or to upgrade to the next version of the pre-built libraries (Installing over the top of older versions is highly discouraged!)
|-
| Install the pre-built libraries into a project-specific directory (e.g., <CODE>D:\VLC</CODE>)
| <CODE>tar jxf contrib-20061122-win32-bin-gcc-3.4.5-only.tar.bz2 -C /cygdrive/d/VLC</CODE>
|
*No conflicts with other projects built under Cygwin
*Easy to get rid of if you want to free up space or to upgrade to the next version of the pre-built libraries
*For multi-person projects, easy to put under revision control to ensure all project members are using the correct pre-built versions
|
*Requires that you set <CODE>CPPFLAGS</CODE>, <CODE>LDFLAGS</CODE> appropriately when building
*Requires that you modify hard-coded paths in the pre-built libraries (see below)
|}

If installing into a project-specific directory, you must modify some hard-coded paths in the pre-build libraries as follows:
<PRE>
CONTRIBS=/cygdrive/d/VLC
for file in $CONTRIBS/bin/*-config $CONTRIBS/lib/*.la ; do
perl -i.bak -p -e 's|/usr/win32|$ENV{"CONTRIBS"}|g' $file
done
</PRE>

==Configuring the build==

Once you've got all the files you need in place, you need to configure the build with the <CODE>configure</CODE> script. In the following examples, assume that the third-party libraries are installed in <CODE>$CONTRIBS</CODE>. If installed in the Cygwin standard directories, use <CODE>export CONTRIBS=/usr/win32</CODE>. Otherwise use <CODE>export CONTRIBS=/cygdrive/d/VLC</CODE>.

If you are cross-compiling under GNU/Linux, you can use something along these lines:

./bootstrap && \
export PKG_CONFIG_PATH=$CONTRIBS/lib/pkgconfig \
CPPFLAGS="-I$CONTRIBS/include -I$CONTRIBS/include/ebml" CXXCPP=$CPPFLAGS \
LDFLAGS=-L$CONTRIBS/lib \
CC=i586-mingw32msvc-gcc CXX=i586-mingw32msvc-g++
./configure --host=i586-mingw32msvc --build=i386-linux \
--disable-[[gtk]] \
--enable-[[nls]] --enable-[[sdl]] --with-sdl-config-path=$CONTRIBS/bin \
--enable-[[ffmpeg]] --with-ffmpeg-mp3lame --with-ffmpeg-[[faac]] \
--with-ffmpeg-[[zlib]] --enable-[[faad]] --enable-[[flac]] --enable-[[theora]] \
--with-[[wx]]-config-path=$CONTRIBS/bin \
--with-[[freetype]]-config-path=$CONTRIBS/bin \
--with-[[fribidi]]-config-path=$CONTRIBS/bin \
--enable-[[live555]] --with-live555-tree=$CONTRIBS/live.com \
--enable-[[caca]] --with-caca-config-path=$CONTRIBS/bin \
--with-[[xml2]]-config-path=$CONTRIBS/bin \
--with-[[dvdnav]]-config-path=$CONTRIBS/bin \
--disable-[[cddax]] --disable-[[vcdx]] --enable-[[goom]] \
--enable-[[twolame]] --enable-[[dvdread]] \
--enable-[[debug]]

If you are using cygwin, you can build VLC with or without the POSIX emulation layer. Without is usually better and with POSIX emulation hasn't been tested in over a year. So to build without the emulation layer, use something like this:

./bootstrap && \
export PKG_CONFIG_PATH=$CONTRIBS/lib/pkgconfig \
CPPFLAGS="-I$CONTRIBS/include -I$CONTRIBS/include/ebml" CXXCPP=$CPPFLAGS \
LDFLAGS=-L$CONTRIBS/lib \
CC='gcc -mno-cygwin' CXX='g++ -mno-cygwin' \
./configure \
--disable-gtk \
--enable-nls --enable-sdl --with-sdl-config-path=$CONTRIBS/bin \
--enable-ffmpeg --with-ffmpeg-mp3lame --with-ffmpeg-faac \
--with-ffmpeg-zlib --enable-faad --enable-flac --enable-theora \
--with-wx-config-path=$CONTRIBS/bin \
--with-freetype-config-path=$CONTRIBS/bin \
--with-fribidi-config-path=$CONTRIBS/bin \
--enable-live555 --with-live555-tree=$CONTRIBS/live.com \
--enable-caca --with-caca-config-path=$CONTRIBS/bin \
--with-xml2-config-path=$CONTRIBS/bin \
--with-dvdnav-config-path=$CONTRIBS/bin \
--disable-cddax --disable-vcdx --enable-goom \
--enable-twolame --enable-dvdread \
--enable-debug

If you want to use the emulation layer, then just omit <CODE>CFLAGS</CODE> and <CODE>CXXFLAGS</CODE>. You're on your own, though.

If you are compiling with MSYS/MINGW, then you can use something along those lines:
./bootstrap && \
export PKG_CONFIG_PATH=$CONTRIBS/lib/pkgconfig \
CPPFLAGS="-I$CONTRIBS/include -I$CONTRIBS/include/ebml" CXXCPP=$CPPFLAGS \
LDFLAGS=-L$CONTRIBS/lib \
./configure \
--disable-gtk \
--enable-nls --enable-sdl --with-sdl-config-path=$CONTRIBS/bin \
--enable-ffmpeg --with-ffmpeg-mp3lame --with-ffmpeg-faac \
--with-ffmpeg-zlib --enable-faad --enable-flac --enable-theora \
--with-wx-config-path=$CONTRIBS/bin \
--with-freetype-config-path=$CONTRIBS/bin \
--with-fribidi-config-path=$CONTRIBS/bin \
--enable-caca --with-caca-config-path=$CONTRIBS/bin \
--with-xml2-config-path=$CONTRIBS/bin \
--with-dvdnav-config-path=$CONTRIBS/bin \
--disable-cddax --disable-vcdx --enable-goom \
--enable-twolame --enable-dvdread \
--disable-[[mkv]] \
--enable-debug

If you have used the "extras/contrib" way, you don't need to specify <CODE>CFLAGS</CODE>, <CODE>LDFLAGS</CODE> and <CODE>--with-foo-config-path=</CODE>.
./bootstrap && \
./configure \
--disable-gtk \
--enable-nls --enable-sdl \
--enable-ffmpeg --enable-faad --enable-flac --enable-theora \
--disable-cddax --disable-vcdx --enable-goom \
--enable-twolame --enable-dvdread \
--enable-mkv --enable-caca --enable-live555\
--enable-debug

See <CODE>'./configure --help'</CODE> for more information.

==Building VLC==

Once configured, to build VLC, just run <CODE>'make'</CODE>.

Once the compilation is done, you can either run VLC directly from the source tree or you can build self-contained VLC packages with the following <CODE>make</CODE> rules:

{| class="wikitable"
! Command
! Description
|-
| <CODE>make package-win32-base</CODE>
| Creates a subdirectory named <CODE>vlc-x.x.x</CODE> with all the binaries 'stripped' (that is, smallest size, unusable with a debugger)
|-
| <CODE>make package-win32-zip</CODE>
| Same as above but will package the directory in a zip file.
|-
| <CODE>make package-win32</CODE>
| Same as above but will also create an auto-installer package. You must have NSIS installed in its default location for this to work.
|}

'''''Well done—you're ready to use VLC!'''''

[[Category:Building]]

Talk:Win32CompileCygwinOld

2007-04-24T09:17:38Z

Puntloos:

('''Aaron''')
There appears to be a good chance that if you follow these instructions you will not be able to easily run your compiled program. The easy fix is to delete (or rename) vlc.exe.manifest and then you should be able to run your compiled code.

Any chance we can get this added to the instructions?

I'm noticing some spelling errors and other minor issues. Lateron is two words for example. What does it take to be able to make minor modifications to these pages? [[User:Daniel.Cardenas|Daniel.Cardenas]] 21:18, 22 April 2007 (CEST)
It was protected at some point when we migrate the page but it no longer need it. so i unprotected it. --[[User:Xtophe|Xtophe]] 15:56, 23 April 2007 (CEST)

=General:
- I would suggest a sample dir structure:

~/vlc
~/vlc/downloads
~/vlc/scripts
~/vlc/SVN
~/vlc/SVN/x264-trunk
~/vlc/SVN/vlc-trunk
~/vlc/SVN/ffmpeg-trunk

reason: '~' always exists, even in the broken-nest installs. No need to start talking about c:\downloads and c:\cygwin\adminstrator\home\whatever. One work dir: ~/vlc

= I would suggest making this document more intuitive by putting the reccomended build way in one page, and putting all 'optional' things in a side document (for example the way to download a nightly as alternative to download from SVN)

= Add 'scripts' to the path variable, perhaps in a script.

= Running through the document step by step my comments:

= Its called pkg-config not pkgconfig

= Reorder: I would first describe the reccommended option to download latest (SVN) then below that, add some OPTIONAL: paragraphs. Now its the 'optional' way fisrt.

= The SVN section suggests to make a 'scripts' directory and then copy the created scripts to the 'root' directory. I would suggest adding a 'cd /home/admin/vlc/SVN' command to the scripts instead.

= While it lists 'gcc-3.4.5' as the right version, this one isn't available. Additionally, the prebuilt contrib-20060730-win32-bin-gcc-3.4.5-only.tar.bz2 (example) should also work with 3.4.4 so maybe this should be renamed.

= Contrib downloads to some directory fine, but later on it says 'copy to /home/administrator.. why not directly cd to ~/vlc/downloads and untar from there

= Suggested addition to AMR directory unpacking:
- This results in dirs like: 'C:\cygwin\home\Administrator\ffmpeg-trunk\libavcodec\amr' that just contain files, no subdirs.'

= Reasons should be added for enabling QT. (extra work eek).. so mention the reason. (better interface?)

= The 'Configure script for compiling VLC' itself is mentioned too early. I think that you should FIRST mention the optional configuring of ffmpeg/x264 and when those are done (and compiled!) then start to talk about main vlc. Chronology!

= ffmpeg (trunk svn): --enable-mingw32 doesnt work anymore - remove
= ffmpeg (trunk svn): --enable-faac doesnt work. --enable-libfaac works
= ffmpeg (trunk svn): --enable-mp3lame doesnt work. --enable-libmp3lame works
= ffmpeg (trunk svn): --enable-amr_nb --enable-amr_wb doesnt work. --enable-amr-nb --enable-amr-wb works BUT
- amr installation in ffmpeg works differently now. Check: http://www.penguin.cz/~utx/amr
-> download http://ftp.penguin.cz/pub/users/utx/amr/amrnb-6.1.0.2.tar.bz2 - ./configure;make;make install
-> download http://ftp.penguin.cz/pub/users/utx/amr/amrwb-6.0.0.1.tar.bz2 - ./configure;make;make install

= I would suggest the extra --enable-xvid too

Talk:Win32CompileCygwinOld

2007-04-23T14:40:37Z

Puntloos: /* Edits disabled? */

('''Aaron''')
There appears to be a good chance that if you follow these instructions you will not be able to easily run your compiled program. The easy fix is to delete (or rename) vlc.exe.manifest and then you should be able to run your compiled code.

Any chance we can get this added to the instructions?

I'm noticing some spelling errors and other minor issues. Lateron is two words for example. What does it take to be able to make minor modifications to these pages? [[User:Daniel.Cardenas|Daniel.Cardenas]] 21:18, 22 April 2007 (CEST)
It was protected at some point when we migrate the page but it no longer need it. so i unprotected it. --[[User:Xtophe|Xtophe]] 15:56, 23 April 2007 (CEST)

=General:
- I would suggest a sample dir structure:

~/vlc
~/vlc/downloads
~/vlc/scripts
~/vlc/SVN
~/vlc/SVN/x264-trunk
~/vlc/SVN/vlc-trunk
~/vlc/SVN/ffmpeg-trunk

reason: '~' always exists, even in the broken-nest installs. No need to start talking about c:\downloads and c:\cygwin\adminstrator\home\whatever. One work dir: ~/vlc

= I would suggest making this document more intuitive by putting the reccomended build way in one page, and putting all 'optional' things in a side document (for example the way to download a nightly as alternative to download from SVN)

= Running through the document step by step my comments:

= Its called pkg-config not pkgconfig

= Reorder: I would first describe the reccommended option to download latest (SVN) then below that, add some OPTIONAL: paragraphs. Now its the 'optional' way fisrt.

= The SVN section suggests to make a 'scripts' directory and then copy the created scripts to the 'root' directory. I would suggest adding a 'cd /home/admin/vlc/SVN' command to the scripts instead.

= While it lists 'gcc-3.4.5' as the right version, this one isn't available. Additionally, the prebuilt contrib-20060730-win32-bin-gcc-3.4.5-only.tar.bz2 (example) should also work with 3.4.4 so maybe this should be renamed.

= Contrib downloads to some directory fine, but later on it says 'copy to /home/administrator.. why not directly cd to ~/vlc/downloads and untar from there

= Suggested addition to AMR directory unpacking:
- This results in dirs like: 'C:\cygwin\home\Administrator\ffmpeg-trunk\libavcodec\amr' that just contain files, no subdirs.'

= Reasons should be added for enabling QT. (extra work eek).. so mention the reason. (better interface?)

= The 'Configure script for compiling VLC' is mentioned too early. I think that you should FIRST mention the configuring of ffmpeg/x264 and when those are done (and compiled!) then start to talk about main vlc. Chronology!

Talk:Win32CompileCygwinOld

2007-04-23T14:40:07Z

Puntloos:

('''Aaron''')
There appears to be a good chance that if you follow these instructions you will not be able to easily run your compiled program. The easy fix is to delete (or rename) vlc.exe.manifest and then you should be able to run your compiled code.

Any chance we can get this added to the instructions?

==Edits disabled?==
I'm noticing some spelling errors and other minor issues. Lateron is two words for example. What does it take to be able to make minor modifications to these pages? [[User:Daniel.Cardenas|Daniel.Cardenas]] 21:18, 22 April 2007 (CEST)
It was protected at some point when we migrate the page but it no longer need it. so i unprotected it. --[[User:Xtophe|Xtophe]] 15:56, 23 April 2007 (CEST)

=General:
- I would suggest a sample dir structure:

~/vlc
~/vlc/downloads
~/vlc/scripts
~/vlc/SVN
~/vlc/SVN/x264-trunk
~/vlc/SVN/vlc-trunk
~/vlc/SVN/ffmpeg-trunk

reason: '~' always exists, even in the broken-nest installs. No need to start talking about c:\downloads and c:\cygwin\adminstrator\home\whatever. One work dir: ~/vlc

= I would suggest making this document more intuitive by putting the reccomended build way in one page, and putting all 'optional' things in a side document (for example the way to download a nightly as alternative to download from SVN)

= Running through the document step by step my comments:

= Its called pkg-config not pkgconfig

= Reorder: I would first describe the reccommended option to download latest (SVN) then below that, add some OPTIONAL: paragraphs. Now its the 'optional' way fisrt.

= The SVN section suggests to make a 'scripts' directory and then copy the created scripts to the 'root' directory. I would suggest adding a 'cd /home/admin/vlc/SVN' command to the scripts instead.

= While it lists 'gcc-3.4.5' as the right version, this one isn't available. Additionally, the prebuilt contrib-20060730-win32-bin-gcc-3.4.5-only.tar.bz2 (example) should also work with 3.4.4 so maybe this should be renamed.

= Contrib downloads to some directory fine, but later on it says 'copy to /home/administrator.. why not directly cd to ~/vlc/downloads and untar from there

= Suggested addition to AMR directory unpacking:
- This results in dirs like: 'C:\cygwin\home\Administrator\ffmpeg-trunk\libavcodec\amr' that just contain files, no subdirs.'

= Reasons should be added for enabling QT. (extra work eek).. so mention the reason. (better interface?)

= The 'Configure script for compiling VLC' is mentioned too early. I think that you should FIRST mention the configuring of ffmpeg/x264 and when those are done (and compiled!) then start to talk about main vlc. Chronology!

Talk:Win32CompileCygwinOld

2007-04-23T14:39:35Z

Puntloos: Lots of stuff

('''Aaron''')
There appears to be a good chance that if you follow these instructions you will not be able to easily run your compiled program. The easy fix is to delete (or rename) vlc.exe.manifest and then you should be able to run your compiled code.

Any chance we can get this added to the instructions?

==Edits disabled?==
I'm noticing some spelling errors and other minor issues. Lateron is two words for example. What does it take to be able to make minor modifications to these pages? [[User:Daniel.Cardenas|Daniel.Cardenas]] 21:18, 22 April 2007 (CEST)
It was protected at some point when we migrate the page but it no longer need it. so i unprotected it. --[[User:Xtophe|Xtophe]] 15:56, 23 April 2007 (CEST)

==Edits disabled?==
I'm noticing some spelling errors and other minor issues. Lateron is two words for example. What does it take to be able to make minor modifications to these pages? [[User:Daniel.Cardenas|Daniel.Cardenas]] 21:18, 22 April 2007 (CEST)

=General:
- I would suggest a sample dir structure:

~/vlc
~/vlc/downloads
~/vlc/scripts
~/vlc/SVN
~/vlc/SVN/x264-trunk
~/vlc/SVN/vlc-trunk
~/vlc/SVN/ffmpeg-trunk

reason: '~' always exists, even in the broken-nest installs. No need to start talking about c:\downloads and c:\cygwin\adminstrator\home\whatever. One work dir: ~/vlc

= I would suggest making this document more intuitive by putting the reccomended build way in one page, and putting all 'optional' things in a side document (for example the way to download a nightly as alternative to download from SVN)

= Running through the document step by step my comments:

= Its called pkg-config not pkgconfig

= Reorder: I would first describe the reccommended option to download latest (SVN) then below that, add some OPTIONAL: paragraphs. Now its the 'optional' way fisrt.

= The SVN section suggests to make a 'scripts' directory and then copy the created scripts to the 'root' directory. I would suggest adding a 'cd /home/admin/vlc/SVN' command to the scripts instead.

= While it lists 'gcc-3.4.5' as the right version, this one isn't available. Additionally, the prebuilt contrib-20060730-win32-bin-gcc-3.4.5-only.tar.bz2 (example) should also work with 3.4.4 so maybe this should be renamed.

= Contrib downloads to some directory fine, but later on it says 'copy to /home/administrator.. why not directly cd to ~/vlc/downloads and untar from there

= Suggested addition to AMR directory unpacking:
- This results in dirs like: 'C:\cygwin\home\Administrator\ffmpeg-trunk\libavcodec\amr' that just contain files, no subdirs.'

= Reasons should be added for enabling QT. (extra work eek).. so mention the reason. (better interface?)

= The 'Configure script for compiling VLC' is mentioned too early. I think that you should FIRST mention the configuring of ffmpeg/x264 and when those are done (and compiled!) then start to talk about main vlc. Chronology!