Latest revision as of 20:23, 15 February 2019

Introduction

MSys2 is a helper environment for MinGW, the compiler chain for Windows based on GCC.

It can build VLC natively on Microsoft Windows. However, VideoLAN developers strongly recommend cross-compiling VLC from Linux, which is faster and easier. If you decide to stick to the MSYS method, you are on your own. Should you encounter any problem and ask for help, expect to be told to cross-compile.

Either way, VLC is a complex program with many dependencies, most of which are obtained/built through the command line interface. Therefore, experience with the POSIX command line (i.e. the Unix shell) is required. Time, patience and persistence are indispensable. The entire process outlined below should take at the very least 4 hours. Experience show that mistakes are common, especially with beginners, so you might need to make multiple attempts.

Install Windows tools

Text editor

To edit unix-style text documents you need a suitable editor: Notepad is not enough.

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

Or use notepad++.

Unzip Utility (7-zip)

Files to downloaded will have to be uncompressed. Some of them use Unix originated formats (.tar.gz, .tar.bz2, .tar.lzma), you will then need a versatile unzipping utility.

A recent version of 7-zip is therefore strongly advised.

Install MSys2 and GCC

Install MSys2 from http://msys2.github.io/

We recommend to use the 32bits version.

Let the default, and run the command line.

Tools

Install the autotools suite:

 pacman -S git subversion cvs automake autoconf libtool m4 make gettext pkg-config mingw-w64-i686-lua findutils  mingw-w64-i686-headers yasm patch

gcc

Download gcc from: mingw-w64.

Unzip it to C:\MSys2\

Restart

Exit MSys2, run autorebase.bat and re-run MSys2 from mingw32_shell.bat

Check GCC

Run

gcc -v

And check that it says

Thread model: win32
gcc version 4.9.2 (i686-win32-sjlj-rev0, Built by MinGW-W64 project)

Get VLC sources

Git

YOU MUST keep the native line-endings of the repo.

git config core.autocrlf=false

Clone the git repo

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

Nota Bene: ensure your Windows user name does not contain spaces so that the cloning folder of VLC will not not have spaces in it.

Get precompiled 3rd party libraries

cd vlc/contrib
mkdir win32 && cd win32
../bootstrap --build=i686-w64-mingw32
make prebuilt

Note: check that all is well with moc -v

Build VLC

Bootstrap

In VLC root folder, do:

./bootstrap

Configure

mkdir win32
cd win32
sh ../extras/package/win32/configure.sh --host=i686-w64-mingw32 --disable-nls

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

Make (compile)

make -j4

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.

Create packages

Run VLC

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

make package-win-common

This will create a subdirectory named vlc-x.x.x with all the binaries with debugging symbols. You can run ./vlc.exe from there.

Create proper packages

make package-win32-zip

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

make package-win32-exe

(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

See Win32CompileMSYSTroubleShooting.

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.

This howto was re-re-created by Jean-Baptiste Kempf in September 2012 and updated until 2015, with MSys2

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 = Introduction  =
-== About ==
+[http://sourceforge.net/projects/msys2/ MSys2] is a helper environment for MinGW, the compiler chain for Windows based on GCC.
-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 probably [[Win32Compile|cross compile]] VLC from Linux, because it is faster, and feels easier.
+It can build VLC natively on Microsoft Windows. However, VideoLAN developers '''strongly recommend''' [[Win32Compile|cross-compiling VLC from Linux]], which is faster and easier. If you decide to stick to the MSYS method, you are on your own. Should you encounter any problem and ask for help, expect to be told to cross-compile.
-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.
+Either way, VLC is a complex program with many dependencies, most of which are obtained/built through the command line interface. Therefore, experience with the POSIX command line (i.e. the ''Unix shell'') is '''required'''.
+Time, patience and persistence are indispensable. The entire process outlined below should take at the very least 4 hours. Experience show that mistakes are common, especially with beginners, so you might need to make multiple attempts.
-= Windows tools needed  =
+= Install Windows tools =
 == Text editor  ==
+To edit unix-style text documents you need a suitable editor: Notepad is not enough.
-To edit unix-style text documents you need a suitable editor.
+* Use [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.
-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.
+* Or use [http://notepad-plus-plus.org/ notepad++].
-Or you can look at [http://notepad-plus-plus.org/ notepad++].
+== Unzip Utility (7-zip) ==
+Files to downloaded will have to be uncompressed. Some of them use Unix originated formats (.tar.gz, .tar.bz2, .tar.lzma), you will then need a versatile unzipping utility.
-== Unzip Utility (7-zip) ==
+A recent version of [http://www.7-zip.org/ 7-zip] is therefore strongly advised.
+= Install MSys2 and GCC =
+Install MSys2 from http://msys2.github.io/
-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.
+We recommend to use the 32bits version.
-Please note that most archives contain directory structures. Unless otherwise stated, you have to merge the contents with the existing dirs
+Let the default, and run the command line.
-= GNU Windows Environment  =
+== Tools ==
-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.
+Install the autotools suite:
+  pacman -S git subversion cvs automake autoconf libtool m4 make gettext pkg-config mingw-w64-i686-lua findutils  mingw-w64-i686-headers yasm patch
-In the following text, we'll refer to this user name as "&lt;username&gt;". Replace it appropriately where needed of course.
+=== gcc ===
+Download gcc from:
+[http://sourceforge.net/projects/mingw-w64/files/Toolchains%20targetting%20Win32/Personal%20Builds/mingw-builds/4.9.2/threads-win32/sjlj/i686-4.9.2-release-win32-sjlj-rt_v3-rev0.7z/download mingw-w64].
-== MinGW  ==
+Unzip it to C:\MSys2\
-=== 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
+=== Restart ===
+'''Exit MSys2, run ''autorebase.bat'' and re-run MSys2 from ''mingw32_shell.bat'''''
-Go through the wizard:
+== Check GCC ==
-* Select "Create"
+Run
-* Select 32bits
+ gcc -v
-* Install to C:\MinGW
-* Keep default settings
-== MSys  ==
+And check that it says
-Use the MSys package found at
+  Thread model: win32
+ gcc version 4.9.2 (i686-win32-sjlj-rev0, Built by MinGW-W64 project)
-Unzip it to C:\MinGW
+= Get VLC sources  =
-= VLC sources  =
 == Git ==
+<big>'''YOU MUST''' keep the native line-endings of the repo.</big>
+ git config core.autocrlf=false
 Clone the git repo
   git clone git://git.videolan.org/vlc.git
-= Get Precompiled contribs  =
+'''Nota Bene:''' ensure your Windows user name does not contain spaces so that the cloning folder of VLC will not not have spaces in it.
+= Get precompiled 3rd party libraries =
   cd vlc/contrib
   mkdir win32 && cd win32
-  ../bootstrap --build=i586-mingw32msvc
+  ../bootstrap --build=i686-w64-mingw32
   make prebuilt
-'''Note''': it will say tar complains, just ignore them and watch tar die.
+'''Note:''' check that all is well with moc -v
-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 $file.
-= Last change&nbsp;: whoami and hostname  =
-== Hostname  ==
-Modify configure.ac so that it doesn't call 'hostname -f' as follows:
-*open C:\MSys\1.0\home\&lt;username&gt;\vlc\configure.ac
-*goto search button:
-*change it as follows:
- old: AC_DEFINE_UNQUOTED(VLC_COMPILE_HOST, "`hostname -f 2&gt; /dev/null || hostname`", [host which ran configure])
- new: AC_DEFINE_UNQUOTED(VLC_COMPILE_HOST, "`hostname`", [host which ran configure])
 = Build VLC  =
-The build is made exclusively from the command line, so if you closed the prompt at the LUA step, re-execute C:\MSys\1.0\msys.bat, then type the commands as mentioned
 == Bootstrap  ==
+In VLC root folder, do:
+ ./bootstrap
- cd vlc
- cp -v /usr/share/aclocal/* m4/
- bootstrap
 == Configure  ==
+ mkdir win32
+ cd win32
+ sh ../extras/package/win32/configure.sh --host=i686-w64-mingw32 --disable-nls
- sh extras/package/win32/configure.sh --host=i586-pc-mingw32msvc --disable-nls
+'''Note:''' If you want any custom options, like "--disable-lua" or anything of that nature, you can append them.
-If you want any custom options, like "--disable-lua" or anything of that nature, you can append them.
 == Make (compile) ==
+ make -j4
-Note&nbsp;: If your &lt;username&gt; starts with the "u" or "x" character, change C:\MSys\1.0\home\&lt;username&gt;\config.h and double all backslashes in VLC_COMPILED_BY constant.
+'''Note:''' If your &lt;username&gt; starts with the "u" or "x" character, change C:\MSys\1.0\home\&lt;username&gt;\config.h and double all backslashes in VLC_COMPILED_BY constant.
-Type the following command&nbsp;:
- PATH=/usr/win32/bin:$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  ==
+= Create packages  =
+== Run VLC ==
 Once the compilation is done, build self-contained VLC packages with one of the following "make" commands:
-  make package-win32-base
+  make package-win-common
-(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 with debugging symbols. You can run ./vlc.exe from there.
+== Create proper packages ==
   make package-win32-zip
 (Same as above but will package the directory in a zip file).
-  make package-win32
+  make package-win32-exe
 (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 =
@@ Line 138: / Line 113: @@
 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.
+This howto was re-re-created by [[User:J-b|Jean-Baptiste Kempf]] in September 2012 and updated until 2015, with MSys2
 = See also =
 *[[Win32CompileMSYSOld]] - deprecated documentation
+[[Category:Building]]
+[[Category:Windows]]

Difference between revisions of "Win32CompileMSYS"

Latest revision as of 20:23, 15 February 2019

Contents

Introduction

Install Windows tools

Text editor

Unzip Utility (7-zip)

Install MSys2 and GCC

Tools

gcc

Restart

Check GCC

Get VLC sources

Git

Get precompiled 3rd party libraries

Build VLC

Bootstrap

Configure

Make (compile)

Create packages

Run VLC

Create proper packages

Troubleshooting

Acknowledgements

See also

Navigation menu

Personal tools

Namespaces

Variants

Views

More

Search

Help / Documentation

Development

VideoLAN wiki

Tools