Difference between revisions of "Win32CompileMSYSNew"

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(Complete rework by Vince, replacing JB's original with his blessing - http://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=76483&p=255461#p255466)
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= Introduction =
+
{{Outdated}}
 +
= '''OUTDATED''' =
  
==About==
+
See [[Win32CompileMSYS]]
MSys is a helper environment for MinGW, the compiler chain for Windows based on GCC. It is the fastest way to build VLC natively on Windows.
 
  
VLC is a complex program with many dependencies, so minimal command-line experience is required (who would want to build VLC without having command-line experience ?). Also, don't be in a hurry (2 hours is a minimum for the whole process) and don't despair if it doesn't work first time.
+
= Introduction  =
 +
== About ==
  
This version is mainly an update by Vicne of the original howto by [[User:J-b|Jean-Baptiste Kempf]].
+
MSys is a helper environment for MinGW, the compiler chain for Windows based on GCC. It can build VLC natively on Windows.  Note that you should also [[Win32Compile|cross compile]] VLC from Linux, because it is faster, and feels easier.
  
==On the edge vs Conservative==
+
VLC is a complex program with many dependencies, so minimal command-line experience is required. Also, don't be in a hurry (4 hours is a minimum for the whole process) and don't despair if it doesn't work first time.
This update aims at building version 1.1.0rc (latest official build at time of writing) natively in the most straightforward way.
 
  
Of course, if you want to live on the edge, feel free to select more recent versions of the proposed tools, contribs or sources, but the build has only been thoroughly validated with the versions indicated in the main text flow.
+
== Acknowledgements ==
  
:''Such alternative ways are indented, italicized and marked "Note for the brave" :-). Your mileage may vary''
+
This howto was re-created by [[User:J-b|Jean-Baptiste Kempf]] and updated in June 2009, September 2009, December 2009 and March 2010.  
  
==Acknowledgements==
+
It was updated in June 2010 by Vicne with the help of J-b, gnosygnu and MichaelMc
Thanks go to J-b, gnosygnu and MichaelMc
 
  
= Windows tools needed =
+
It was updated in July 2012 by gnosygnu. Note that there are several new notes in [[Win32CompileMSYSTroubleShooting]]. These reflect problems that were encountered on gnosygnu's setup (Windows XP SP3). Refer to this [http://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=102843&sid=f58967215a83981dda030ff6efa3d493 forum thread] for more information.
== Text editor ==
 
  
To edit unix-style text documents you need a suitable editor.
+
= Windows tools needed  =
 +
== Text editor ==
  
For those wishing to have a Notepad look-and-feel I recommend [http://sourceforge.net/projects/notepad2/ notepad2], which may tempt you to ditch Notepad altogether.
+
To edit unix-style text documents you need a suitable editor.  
You can set File - Line endings - Default to "Unix (LF)", but it always saves opened files in the ending style they have.
 
  
== Unzip Utility ==
+
You can look at [http://sourceforge.net/projects/notepad2/ notepad2]. You can set File - Line endings - Default to "Unix (LF)", but it always saves opened files in the ending style they have.
Many files to downloaded will have to be uncompressed. As most of them use Linux-originated formats (.tar.gz, .tar.bz2, .tar.lzma), you will need a versatile unzipping utility. A recent version of [http://www.7-zip.org/ 7-zip] is therefore strongly advised.
 
  
Please note that most archives contain directory structures. Unless otherwise stated, you have to merge the contents with the existing dirs
+
Or you can look at [http://notepad-plus-plus.org/ notepad++].
  
== Browser ==  
+
== Unzip Utility (7-zip) ==
// TODO - is Firefox really needed ?
 
  
Please install [http://www.getfirefox.com Mozilla Firefox]
+
Many files to downloaded will have to be uncompressed. As most of them use Linux-originated formats (.tar.gz, .tar.bz2, .tar.lzma), you will need a versatile unzipping utility. A recent version of [http://www.7-zip.org/ 7-zip] is therefore strongly advised.
  
= GNU Windows Environment =
+
Please note that most archives contain directory structures. Unless otherwise stated, you have to merge the contents with the existing dirs
  
Before installing, ensure your Windows user name does not contain spaces (VLC will not build in a folder with spaces in it). If it does, please create another user on your system.
+
= GNU Windows Environment  =
 +
Before installing, ensure your Windows user name does not contain spaces (VLC will not build in a folder with spaces in it). If it does, please create another user on your system.  
  
In the following text, we'll refer to this user name as "<username>". Replace it appropriately where needed of course.
+
In the following text, we'll refer to this user name as "&lt;username&gt;". Replace it appropriately where needed of course.  
  
== MinGW ==
+
== MinGW ==
 +
=== TDM/MinGW Setup  ===
  
:''Note for the brave : The steps advised below use a modified version of MinGW. Is you feel like staying with the vanilla MinGW intead, use the main installer 5.1.6 found at http://sourceforge.net/projects/mingw/files/Automated%20MinGW%20Installer/MinGW%205.1.6/MinGW-5.1.6.exe/download , then go through the wizard:
+
Use the installer found at http://sourceforge.net/projects/tdm-gcc/files/TDM-GCC%20Installer/tdm-gcc-4.7.1-2.exe/download
:''* select "Downloading and Install"''
 
:''* select candidate release''
 
:''* select g++ and MinGW Make (in addition to the base system)''
 
:''Then, update Mingw GCC to 4.4.0 by downloading http://sourceforge.net/projects/mingw/files/GCC%20Version%204/gcc-full-4.4.0-mingw32-bin-2.tar.lzma/download and extracting it to C:\Mingw (replacing files when asked). Finally, you'll gave to fix the file C:\MinGW\lib\gcc\mingw32\4.4.0\libstdc++.la by opening it and changing the line defining library_names so that it reads <code><nowiki>library_names=''</nowiki></code>
 
''
 
  
=== TDM/MinGW Setup ===
+
Go through the wizard:
 +
* Select "Create"
 +
* Select 32bits
 +
* Install to C:\MinGW  
 +
* Keep default settings
  
Use the installer found at
+
=== MinGW utils  ===
http://sourceforge.net/projects/tdm-gcc/files/TDM-MinGW%20Installer/1.908.0/tdm-mingw-1.908.0-4.4.1-2.exe/download
 
  
Go through the wizard:
+
Install mingw-utils, for unix2dos: http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/mingw/mingw-utils-0.3.tar.gz
* unckeck "Check for updated files..."
 
* Select "Create"
 
* install to C:\MinGW
 
* keep default settings (i.e. under the gcc node, "TDM Unstable: 4.4.1-tdm-2" should be selected)
 
  
=== MinGW utils ===
+
Extract contents to c:\MinGW
 
 
TODO - Is this step needed ?
 
  
Installing mingw-utils is recommended: http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/mingw/mingw-utils-0.3.tar.gz
+
== MSys  ==
 +
=== MSys Setup  ===
  
Extract contents to c:\MinGW
+
Use the installer found at http://sourceforge.net/project/downloading.php?group_id=2435&amp;filename=MSYS-1.0.11.exe
  
== MSys ==
+
Go through the wizard and install to to default C:\Msys\1.0
=== MSys Setup ===
 
  
Use the installer found at
+
In the command window that opens, answer questions as follows:  
http://sourceforge.net/project/downloading.php?group_id=2435&filename=MSYS-1.0.11.exe
 
  
Go through the wizard and install to to default C:\Msys\1.0
 
 
In the command window that opens, answer questions as follows:
 
 
  Accept Post Install: [y]
 
  Accept Post Install: [y]
  MinGW Installed? [y]
+
  MinGW Installed?     [y]
 
  path to MinGW:      [c:/MinGW]
 
  path to MinGW:      [c:/MinGW]
  
=== MSys Developer Toolkit ===
+
=== MSys Developer Toolkit ===
Use the installer found at
 
http://downloads.sourceforge.net/mingw/msysDTK-1.0.1.exe
 
  
Go through the wizard, keeping default values
+
Use the installer found at http://downloads.sourceforge.net/mingw/msysDTK-1.0.1.exe
  
=== AutoTools and libcrypt ===
+
Go through the wizard, keeping the default values.
  
Update autoconf, automake, libtool as well as libcrypt by downloading the following files and extracting them to C:\Msys\1.0:
+
This will install old versions of autotools, perl, ssh, ftp and sftp.
* http://sourceforge.net/projects/mingw/files/MSYS%20autoconf/autoconf-2.63-1/autoconf-2.63-1-msys-1.0.11-bin.tar.lzma/download
 
* http://sourceforge.net/projects/mingw/files/MSYS%20automake/automake-1.11-1/automake-1.11-1-msys-1.0.11-bin.tar.lzma/download
 
* http://sourceforge.net/projects/mingw/files/MSYS%20libtool/libtool-2.2.7a-1/libtool-2.2.7a-1-msys-1.0.11-bin.tar.lzma/download
 
* http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/mingw/libcrypt-1.1_1-2-msys-1.0.11-dll-0.tar.lzma
 
  
=== Glib and PKG-CONFIG ===
+
=== Git ===
 +
Install Git from http://code.google.com/p/msysgit/downloads/list?can=3
  
Similarly, download the following files and extract them to C:\MSys\1.0:
+
Go through the wizard, keeping the default value, except the one speaking of line endings.
  
* http://ftp.gnome.org/pub/GNOME/binaries/win32/glib/2.18/glib_2.18.2-1_win32.zip
+
=== Wget ===
* ftp://ftp.gnome.org/pub/gnome/binaries/win32/dependencies/pkg-config_0.23-3_win32.zip
+
You will need Wget:
* ftp://ftp.gnome.org/pub/gnome/binaries/win32/dependencies/pkg-config-dev_0.23-3_win32.zip
+
http://sourceforge.net/projects/gnuwin32/files/wget/1.11.4-1/wget-1.11.4-1-setup.exe/download
  
=== Add pkg config path variable ===
+
Extract it to c:\MinGW
  
Add the following line to the top of C:\MSys\msys.bat:
+
=== AutoTools and libcrypt  ===
  
set PKG_CONFIG_PATH=/win32/lib/pkgconfig
+
Update autoconf, automake, libtool as well as libcrypt by downloading the following files and extracting them to C:\Msys\1.0:
  
=== Fix libtool search dirs ===
+
*http://sourceforge.net/projects/mingw/files/MSYS/msysdev/autoconf/autoconf-2.68-1/autoconf-2.68-1-msys-1.0.17-bin.tar.lzma/download
 +
*http://sourceforge.net/projects/mingw/files/MSYS/msysdev/automake/automake-1.11.1-1/automake-1.11.1-1-msys-1.0.13-bin.tar.lzma/download
 +
*http://sourceforge.net/projects/mingw/files/MSYS/msysdev/libtool/libtool-2.4-1/libtool-2.4-1-msys-1.0.15-bin.tar.lzma/download
 +
*http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/mingw/libcrypt-1.1_1-2-msys-1.0.11-dll-0.tar.lzma
 +
*http://sourceforge.net/projects/mingw/files/MSYS/Extension/perl/perl-5.8.8-1/perl-5.8.8-1-msys-1.0.17-bin.tar.lzma/download
 +
*http://sourceforge.net/projects/mingw/files/MSYS/Extension/m4/m4-1.4.14-1/m4-1.4.14-1-msys-1.0.13-bin.tar.lzma/download
  
Open C:\MSys\1.0\bin\libtool and change line 9926 by appending ' /mingw/lib' to the end of 'compiler_lib_search_dirs'. The line should then read :
+
=== Glib and PKG-CONFIG  ===
  
compiler_lib_search_dirs="/usr/lib /usr/lib /bin/../lib/gcc-lib/i686-pc-msys/2.95.3-1 /bin/../lib/gcc-lib /usr/lib/gcc-lib/i686-pc-msys/2.95.3-1 /bin/../lib/gcc-lib/i686-pc-msys/2.95.3-1/../../../../i686-pc-msys/lib /usr/lib/gcc-lib/i686-pc-msys/2.95.3-1/../../../../i686-pc-msys/lib /mingw/lib"
+
Similarly, download the following files and extract them to C:\MSys\1.0:
  
== LUA tools ==
+
Note* Download the latest version inside this folders (Last tested to be OK is glib 2.28, non-dev version)):
  
VLC uses the LUA scripting language (See [http://www.lua.org lua.org]).
+
*http://ftp.gnome.org/pub/GNOME/binaries/win32/glib
Unfortunately, no binaries are provided so you need to compile them.
+
*ftp://ftp.gnome.org/pub/gnome/binaries/win32/dependencies/pkg-config_0.23-3_win32.zip
 +
*ftp://ftp.gnome.org/pub/gnome/binaries/win32/dependencies/pkg-config-dev_0.23-3_win32.zip
 +
*http://ftp.gnome.org/pub/gnome/binaries/win32/dependencies/gettext-runtime_0.18.1.1-2_win32.zip
  
* Download the lua tools package from http://www.lua.org/ftp/lua-5.1.4.tar.gz
+
'''Note''': I found that compiling 2.1.0 requires xgettext, msgmerge, msgfmt and so on. These in turn require libiconv. I'm not sure if that suffices as at this point I gave up.
* Uncompress it in your home folder (C:\MSys\1.0\home\<username>)
 
* run C:\MSys\1.0\msys.bat
 
* type the following commands:
 
  
  cd ~/lua-5.1.4
+
=== Add pkg config path variable ===
make mingw
 
  
This should produce lua.exe, luac.exe and lua51.dll in the src directory. Put these in your /bin with the commands:
+
Add the following line to the *top* of C:\MSys\1.0\msys.bat:  
  
  cd src
+
  set PKG_CONFIG_PATH=/win32/lib/pkgconfig
cp *.exe /bin
 
cp *.dll /bin
 
cd ..
 
  
= Precompiled contribs =
+
== Compile LUA tools  ==
  
:''Note for the brave : Alternatively, you can get the latest contrib from :http://people.videolan.org/~jb/Contribs/''
+
VLC uses the LUA scripting language (See [http://www.lua.org lua.org]). Unfortunately, no binaries are provided so you need to compile them.
  
* download the file http://people.videolan.org/~jb/Contribs/contrib-20100608-win32-bin-gcc-4.4.4-runtime-3.17-only.tar.bz2
+
*Download the lua tools package from http://www.lua.org/ftp/lua-5.1.4.tar.gz
* extract it to C:\MSys\1.0 '''but without the /usr path'''. For example, one of the resulting files should be:
+
*Uncompress it in your home folder (C:\MSys\1.0\home\&lt;username&gt;)
 +
*run MSys
 +
*type the following commands:
  
  C:\MSys\1.0\win32\lib\libdvdnav.a
+
  cd /home/<username>/lua-5.1.4
 +
make mingw
 +
make install
  
= VLC sources =
+
= VLC sources =
 +
== Git ==
 +
Clone the git repo
 +
git clone git://git.videolan.org/vlc.git
  
:''Note for the brave : This section lists the steps for VLC version 1.1.0rc. Alternatively, you can get the latest sources from the development tree using GIT. It's not as difficult as it looks and will avoid the need for multiple manipulations described here. If you want chose that route, please follow instructions on the [[Git_Windows]] page then skip to next section.''
+
= Get Precompiled contribs  =
 +
cd vlc/contrib
 +
mkdir win32 && cd win32
 +
../bootstrap --build=i586-mingw32msvc
 +
make prebuilt
  
== Base: VLC version 1.1.0rc ==
+
'''Note''': it will say tar complains, just ignore them and watch tar die.
 +
I had to manually execute the rest of the prebuilt target, which consists of
  
* download the file http://download.videolan.org/pub/videolan/testing/vlc-1.1.0-rc/vlc-1.1.0-rc.tar.bz2
+
mv i586-mingw32msvc ..
* extract it to C:\MSys\1.0\home\<username>
+
cd ../i586-mingw32msvc
* rename the vlc-1.1.0rc dir to vlc
+
change_prefix.sh
  
== add missing configure-msys ==
+
I also found that change_prefix.sh, which rewrites .pc files to deal with their chosen location, used the -i option which is not supported by MSYS-shipped sed. I rewrote the sed script to write changes $file.new then mv $file.new $file.
* Download http://git.videolan.org/?p=vlc.git;a=blob_plain;f=extras/package/win32/configure-msys.sh;hb=HEAD
 
* Save it (not using proposed name) as C:\MSys\1.0\home\<username>\vlc\extras\package\win32\configure-msys.sh
 
  
== add missing configure-common ==
+
= Last change&nbsp;: whoami and hostname  =
* Download http://git.videolan.org/?p=vlc.git;a=blob_plain;f=extras/package/win32/configure-common.sh;hb=HEAD
 
* Save it (not using proposed name) as C:\MSys\1.0\home\<username>\vlc\extras\package\win32\configure-common.sh
 
  
== add missing vlc_windows_interfaces.h ==
+
Whoami is not available on Windows, and hostname doesn't support the -f option used by the build process. These utilities are used to show the name and computer of the person who compiled VLC in the 'About' box.  
* Download http://git.videolan.org/?p=vlc/vlc-1.1.git;a=blob_plain;f=include/vlc_windows_interfaces.h;h=36bfd4a64b1ec9b9b5da0e21de6d93f53f2eefc3;hb=3a4b30fcf1fbb9ef7a9c85a102183f8a3451622a
 
* Save it (not using proposed name) as C:\MSys\1.0\home\<username>\vlc\include\vlc_windows_interfaces.h
 
  
== duplicate missing position.h ==
+
:''Note for the brave&nbsp;: the steps below are file changes so that compile works, but an alternative is to download and install GNU whoami and hostname functionality. This can be achieved by doing the following steps:
 +
# ''download coreutils from http://sourceforge.net/projects/mingw/files/MSYS/BaseSystem/coreutils, selecting any version (latter is normally better) then the file named like coreutils-5.97-2-msys-1.0.11-ext.tar.lzma (note '-ext' in file name) and extracting who.exe, whoami.exe, hostname.exe to C:/MSys/1.0/bin''
 +
# ''download libintl dll from http://sourceforge.net/projects/mingw/files/MSYS/BaseSystem/libiconv, selecting any version (latter is normally better) then the file named like libiconv-1.13.1-2-msys-1.0.13-dll-2.tar.lzma (note '-dll' in file name) and extracting dll in C:/MSys/1.0/bin''
 +
# ''download libiconv dll from http://sourceforge.net/projects/mingw/files/MSYS/BaseSystem/gettext, selecting any version (latter is normally better) then the file named like libintl-0.17-2-msys-dll-8.tar.lzma (note '-dll' in file name) and extracting dll in C:/MSys/1.0/bin''
  
Duplicate the file as follows:
+
== Whoami ==
  source: C:\MSys\1.0\home\<username>\vlc\projects\mozilla\control\position.h
 
target: C:\MSys\1.0\home\<username>\vlc\projects\activex\position.h
 
  
== add dummy lua extension ==
+
Create a new file containing the single line:  
* create the directory C:\msys\1.0\home\<username>\vlc\share\lua\extensions
 
* create an empty file and save it as C:\MSys\1.0\home\<username>\vlc\share\lua\extensions\readme.txt
 
  
 +
echo '&lt;username&gt;'
  
= Last changes : whoami and hostname =
+
and save it as C:\MSys\1.0\bin\whoami (without any extension)
  
Whoami is not available on Windows, and hostname doesn't support the -f option used by the build process. These utilities are used to show the name and computer of the person who compiled VLC in the 'About' box.
+
== Hostname  ==
  
:''Note for the brave : the steps below are file changes so that compile works, but an alternative is to download and install GNU whoami and hostname functionality. This can be achieved by extracting who.exe, whoami.exe and hostname.exe from http://sourceforge.net/projects/mingw/files/MSYS/coreutils/coreutils-5.97-2/coreutils-5.97-2-msys-1.0.11-ext.tar.lzma/download and saving them to C:/MSys/1.0/bin''
+
Modify configure.ac so that it doesn't call 'hostname -f' as follows:  
  
== Whoami ==
+
*open C:\MSys\1.0\home\&lt;username&gt;\vlc\configure.ac
Create a new file containing the single line:
+
*goto search button:
 +
*change it as follows:
  
echo '<username>'
+
  old: AC_DEFINE_UNQUOTED(VLC_COMPILE_HOST, "`hostname -f 2&gt; /dev/null || hostname`", [host which ran configure])
 
 
and save it as C:\MSys\1.0\bin\whoami (without any extension)
 
 
 
== Hostname ==
 
 
 
Modify configure.ac so that it doesn't call 'hostname -f' as follows:
 
* open C:\MSys\1.0\home\<username>\vlc\configure.ac
 
* goto line 4728
 
* change it as follows:
 
 
 
  old: AC_DEFINE_UNQUOTED(VLC_COMPILE_HOST, "`hostname -f 2> /dev/null || hostname`", [host which ran configure])
 
 
  new: AC_DEFINE_UNQUOTED(VLC_COMPILE_HOST, "`hostname`", [host which ran configure])
 
  new: AC_DEFINE_UNQUOTED(VLC_COMPILE_HOST, "`hostname`", [host which ran configure])
  
= Build VLC =
+
= Build VLC =
  
The build is made exclusively from the command line, so if you closed the prompt at the LUA step, re-execute C:\MSys\1.0\msys.bat, then type the commands as mentioned
+
The build is made exclusively from the command line, so if you closed the prompt at the LUA step, re-execute C:\MSys\1.0\msys.bat, then type the commands as mentioned  
  
== Bootstrap ==
+
== Bootstrap ==
  
 
  cd vlc
 
  cd vlc
cp -v /usr/win32/share/aclocal/* m4/
 
 
  cp -v /usr/share/aclocal/* m4/
 
  cp -v /usr/share/aclocal/* m4/
  PATH=/usr/win32/bin:$PATH ./bootstrap
+
  bootstrap
 +
== Configure  ==
 +
 
 +
sh extras/package/win32/configure.sh --host=i586-pc-mingw32msvc --disable-nls
 +
 
 +
If you want any custom options, like "--disable-lua" or anything of that nature, you can append them.
  
== Configure ==
+
== Make (compile) ==
  
sh extras/package/win32/configure-msys.sh
+
Note&nbsp;: If your &lt;username&gt; starts with the "u" or "x" character, change C:\MSys\1.0\home\&lt;username&gt;\config.h and double all backslashes in VLC_COMPILED_BY constant.  
  
== Compile ==
+
Type the following command&nbsp;:
  
Note : If Your <username> starts with the "u" or "x" character, change C:\MSys\1.0\home\<username>\config.h and double all backslashes in COMPILED_BY constant
+
PATH=/usr/win32/bin:$PATH make
  
./compile
+
If this step fails, try the following
 +
* Go back to "Precompiled contribs" section, and obtain the latest compiled contrib (under "Note for the brave")
 +
* In the configure script section (configure-msys.sh), open that file and add --disable-upnp
  
== Create self-contained packages ==
+
== Create self-contained packages ==
  
Once the compilation is done, build self-contained VLC packages with one of the following "make" commands:
+
Once the compilation is done, build self-contained VLC packages with one of the following "make" commands:  
  
 
  make package-win32-base
 
  make package-win32-base
  
(This will create a subdirectory named vlc-x.x.x with all the binaries "stripped" without any debugging symbols).
+
(This will create a subdirectory named vlc-x.x.x with all the binaries "stripped" without any debugging symbols).  
  
 
  make package-win32-zip
 
  make package-win32-zip
  
(Same as above but will package the directory in a zip file).
+
(Same as above but will package the directory in a zip file).  
  
 
  make package-win32
 
  make package-win32
Line 239: Line 222:
 
(Same as above but will also create an auto-installer package. You will need to have NSIS installed in its default location for this to work).
 
(Same as above but will also create an auto-installer package. You will need to have NSIS installed in its default location for this to work).
  
=Troubleshooting=
+
make package-win32-base-debug
 +
 
 +
(This will create a subdirectory named vlc-x.x.x with all the binaries containing debug info usable by gdb).
 +
 
 +
Note that with the 1.2 branch these names have changed slightly.  Run '
 +
grep ':' Makefile | grep package-win32
 +
to see what they are now.
 +
 
 +
= Troubleshooting =
 +
 
 +
See [[Win32CompileMSYSTroubleShooting]].
 +
 
 +
= See also =
 +
*[[Win32CompileMSYSOld]] - deprecated documentation
  
* It doesn't link, and complains about missing gcc symbols: You missed this line in the instructions:
+
[[Category:Building]]
Use text editor to change MinGW\lib\gcc\mingw32\4.4.0\libstdc++.la file (line should be library_names='') due to bug in latest MinGW.
+
[[Category:Windows]]
* Compilation stops early, after configure was complaining about mismatched quotes:
 
Check the VLC_COMPILE_HOST variable in your config.h - if it's ''Option f is not valid'' then ''hostname -f'' fails (on Windows, there is no such option as -f). In configure.ac change
 
<pre>AC_DEFINE_UNQUOTED(VLC_COMPILE_HOST, "`hostname -f 2> /dev/null || hostname`", [host which ran configure])</pre>
 
to
 
<pre>AC_DEFINE_UNQUOTED(VLC_COMPILE_HOST, "`hostname`", [host which ran configure])</pre>
 
* If compile complains about a config.h and pthread.h not found problem, just delete config.h
 

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OUTDATED

See Win32CompileMSYS

Introduction

About

MSys is a helper environment for MinGW, the compiler chain for Windows based on GCC. It can build VLC natively on Windows. Note that you should also cross compile VLC from Linux, because it is faster, and feels easier.

VLC is a complex program with many dependencies, so minimal command-line experience is required. Also, don't be in a hurry (4 hours is a minimum for the whole process) and don't despair if it doesn't work first time.

Acknowledgements

This howto was re-created by Jean-Baptiste Kempf and updated in June 2009, September 2009, December 2009 and March 2010.

It was updated in June 2010 by Vicne with the help of J-b, gnosygnu and MichaelMc

It was updated in July 2012 by gnosygnu. Note that there are several new notes in Win32CompileMSYSTroubleShooting. These reflect problems that were encountered on gnosygnu's setup (Windows XP SP3). Refer to this forum thread for more information.

Windows tools needed

Text editor

To edit unix-style text documents you need a suitable editor.

You can look at notepad2. You can set File - Line endings - Default to "Unix (LF)", but it always saves opened files in the ending style they have.

Or you can look at notepad++.

Unzip Utility (7-zip)

Many files to downloaded will have to be uncompressed. As most of them use Linux-originated formats (.tar.gz, .tar.bz2, .tar.lzma), you will need a versatile unzipping utility. A recent version of 7-zip is therefore strongly advised.

Please note that most archives contain directory structures. Unless otherwise stated, you have to merge the contents with the existing dirs

GNU Windows Environment

Before installing, ensure your Windows user name does not contain spaces (VLC will not build in a folder with spaces in it). If it does, please create another user on your system.

In the following text, we'll refer to this user name as "<username>". Replace it appropriately where needed of course.

MinGW

TDM/MinGW Setup

Use the installer found at http://sourceforge.net/projects/tdm-gcc/files/TDM-GCC%20Installer/tdm-gcc-4.7.1-2.exe/download

Go through the wizard:

  • Select "Create"
  • Select 32bits
  • Install to C:\MinGW
  • Keep default settings

MinGW utils

Install mingw-utils, for unix2dos: http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/mingw/mingw-utils-0.3.tar.gz

Extract contents to c:\MinGW

MSys

MSys Setup

Use the installer found at http://sourceforge.net/project/downloading.php?group_id=2435&filename=MSYS-1.0.11.exe

Go through the wizard and install to to default C:\Msys\1.0

In the command window that opens, answer questions as follows:

Accept Post Install: [y]
MinGW Installed?     [y]
path to MinGW:       [c:/MinGW]

MSys Developer Toolkit

Use the installer found at http://downloads.sourceforge.net/mingw/msysDTK-1.0.1.exe

Go through the wizard, keeping the default values.

This will install old versions of autotools, perl, ssh, ftp and sftp.

Git

Install Git from http://code.google.com/p/msysgit/downloads/list?can=3

Go through the wizard, keeping the default value, except the one speaking of line endings.

Wget

You will need Wget: http://sourceforge.net/projects/gnuwin32/files/wget/1.11.4-1/wget-1.11.4-1-setup.exe/download

Extract it to c:\MinGW

AutoTools and libcrypt

Update autoconf, automake, libtool as well as libcrypt by downloading the following files and extracting them to C:\Msys\1.0:

Glib and PKG-CONFIG

Similarly, download the following files and extract them to C:\MSys\1.0:

Note* Download the latest version inside this folders (Last tested to be OK is glib 2.28, non-dev version)):

Note: I found that compiling 2.1.0 requires xgettext, msgmerge, msgfmt and so on. These in turn require libiconv. I'm not sure if that suffices as at this point I gave up.

Add pkg config path variable

Add the following line to the *top* of C:\MSys\1.0\msys.bat:

set PKG_CONFIG_PATH=/win32/lib/pkgconfig

Compile LUA tools

VLC uses the LUA scripting language (See lua.org). Unfortunately, no binaries are provided so you need to compile them.

cd /home/<username>/lua-5.1.4 
make mingw
make install

VLC sources

Git

Clone the git repo

git clone git://git.videolan.org/vlc.git

Get Precompiled contribs

cd vlc/contrib
mkdir win32 && cd win32
../bootstrap --build=i586-mingw32msvc
make prebuilt

Note: it will say tar complains, just ignore them and watch tar die. I had to manually execute the rest of the prebuilt target, which consists of

mv i586-mingw32msvc ..
cd ../i586-mingw32msvc
change_prefix.sh

I also found that change_prefix.sh, which rewrites .pc files to deal with their chosen location, used the -i option which is not supported by MSYS-shipped sed. I rewrote the sed script to write changes $file.new then mv $file.new $file.

Last change : whoami and hostname

Whoami is not available on Windows, and hostname doesn't support the -f option used by the build process. These utilities are used to show the name and computer of the person who compiled VLC in the 'About' box.

Note for the brave : the steps below are file changes so that compile works, but an alternative is to download and install GNU whoami and hostname functionality. This can be achieved by doing the following steps:
  1. download coreutils from http://sourceforge.net/projects/mingw/files/MSYS/BaseSystem/coreutils, selecting any version (latter is normally better) then the file named like coreutils-5.97-2-msys-1.0.11-ext.tar.lzma (note '-ext' in file name) and extracting who.exe, whoami.exe, hostname.exe to C:/MSys/1.0/bin
  2. download libintl dll from http://sourceforge.net/projects/mingw/files/MSYS/BaseSystem/libiconv, selecting any version (latter is normally better) then the file named like libiconv-1.13.1-2-msys-1.0.13-dll-2.tar.lzma (note '-dll' in file name) and extracting dll in C:/MSys/1.0/bin
  3. download libiconv dll from http://sourceforge.net/projects/mingw/files/MSYS/BaseSystem/gettext, selecting any version (latter is normally better) then the file named like libintl-0.17-2-msys-dll-8.tar.lzma (note '-dll' in file name) and extracting dll in C:/MSys/1.0/bin

Whoami

Create a new file containing the single line:

echo '<username>'

and save it as C:\MSys\1.0\bin\whoami (without any extension)

Hostname

Modify configure.ac so that it doesn't call 'hostname -f' as follows:

  • open C:\MSys\1.0\home\<username>\vlc\configure.ac
  • goto search button:
  • change it as follows:
old: AC_DEFINE_UNQUOTED(VLC_COMPILE_HOST, "`hostname -f 2> /dev/null || hostname`", [host which ran configure])
new: AC_DEFINE_UNQUOTED(VLC_COMPILE_HOST, "`hostname`", [host which ran configure])

Build VLC

The build is made exclusively from the command line, so if you closed the prompt at the LUA step, re-execute C:\MSys\1.0\msys.bat, then type the commands as mentioned

Bootstrap

cd vlc
cp -v /usr/share/aclocal/* m4/
bootstrap 

Configure

sh extras/package/win32/configure.sh --host=i586-pc-mingw32msvc --disable-nls

If you want any custom options, like "--disable-lua" or anything of that nature, you can append them.

Make (compile)

Note : If your <username> starts with the "u" or "x" character, change C:\MSys\1.0\home\<username>\config.h and double all backslashes in VLC_COMPILED_BY constant.

Type the following command :

PATH=/usr/win32/bin:$PATH make

If this step fails, try the following

  • Go back to "Precompiled contribs" section, and obtain the latest compiled contrib (under "Note for the brave")
  • In the configure script section (configure-msys.sh), open that file and add --disable-upnp

Create self-contained packages

Once the compilation is done, build self-contained VLC packages with one of the following "make" commands:

make package-win32-base

(This will create a subdirectory named vlc-x.x.x with all the binaries "stripped" without any debugging symbols).

make package-win32-zip

(Same as above but will package the directory in a zip file).

make package-win32

(Same as above but will also create an auto-installer package. You will need to have NSIS installed in its default location for this to work).

make package-win32-base-debug

(This will create a subdirectory named vlc-x.x.x with all the binaries containing debug info usable by gdb).

Note that with the 1.2 branch these names have changed slightly. Run '

grep ':' Makefile | grep package-win32

to see what they are now.

Troubleshooting

See Win32CompileMSYSTroubleShooting.

See also