Difference between revisions of "Win32Compile"

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From http://developers.videolan.org/vlc/vlc/INSTALL.win32
+
<big>'''WARNING: This page is deprecated, for updated instructions please follow: https://code.videolan.org/videolan/vlc/-/blob/master/doc/BUILD-win32.md'''</big>
  
$Id: INSTALL.win32 15707 2006-05-22 09:42:08Z xtophe $
+
This page will help you to compile {{VLC}} for [[Windows]].
INSTALL file for the Windows9x/Me/NT4/2k/XP version of the VLC media player
 
  
==Running VLC with debug==
+
== Building Methods ==
  
If you have already built VLC (see below) or are using a binary release, just run 'vlc.exe'.
+
If you want to build VLC from source, you have several choices:
  
You can also run VLC from a dos command box, 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 'vlc --help' or 'vlc --help --advanced'.
+
{| class="wikitable"
 +
|-
 +
! Method
 +
! Documentation
 +
! Notes
 +
|-
 +
| '''MinGW on Linux'''
 +
| [[#Obtaining_the_toolchain|Obtaining the toolchain]]
 +
| '''Preferred''' method involving cross-compilation from Linux. On computers running Microsoft Windows, a virtual machine is necessary to run Linux.
 +
|-
 +
| '''[http://www.mingw.org MSYS+MinGW]''' on Windows
 +
| [[Win32CompileMSYS|Compile with MSys]]
 +
| '''Native''' compilation method. MSYS is a minimal build environment to compile Unix-style projects directly on Microsoft Windows. This is '''not officially supported''' by VideoLAN. Best of luck.
 +
|-
 +
| '''Cygwin''' on Windows
 +
| [[Win32CompileCygwinNew|Compile with Cygwin]]
 +
| Cygwin method. Cygwin emulates a POSIX environment to compile on Microsoft Windows. This is '''error'''-prone and '''slow''' and therefore not recommended.
 +
|}
  
To store a debug log of the current VLC session, you can use 'vlc -vv --extraintf=logger'. You will end-up with a vlc-log.txt file in your current directory.
+
== Obtaining the cross-compilation toolchain  ==
 +
All this howto is focused on  '''Debian/Ubuntu'''. For other distribution, please find the related package names, but they should be very similar.
  
==Building VLC from the source code==
+
'''Ubuntu 14.04''' is too old to compile VLC.
  
If you want to build VLC from sources, you can do it in several ways:
+
=== Host triplet ===
* on GNU/Linux, using the mingw32 cross-compiler. NOTE: This is the PREFERRED way of cross-compiling VLC.
+
A number of commands below include the toolchain identifier, called the ''host triplet''.
  
* natively on Windows, using cygwin (www.cygwin.com) with or without the POSIX emulation layer. This is the preferred way to compile vlc if you want to do it on Windows. NOTE: This is the PREFERRED way of building VLC natively (the others are not as much tested so expect more difficulties with them).  
+
This value is '''essential''': it instructs the build system to use the correct toolchain and compile the program for Windows.
Read [Win32CompileCygwin|How to build VLC with Cygwin] to have more information.
+
Without the value, the build system will perform a native compilation for Linux (or whatever your computer runs). With an incorrect value, the build will fail.
  
 +
The exact value depends on your installation of the toolchain.
  
* natively on Windows, using MSYS+MINGW (www.mingw.org) (MSYS is a minimal build environment to compile Unixish projects under windoze. It provides all the common Unix tools like sh, gmake...) 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.
+
Notably on Debian/Ubuntu, these values must be used:
Read [Win32CompileMSYS|How to build VLC with MSYS] to have more information.
+
* ''i686-w64-mingw32'' for Windows 32-bits, using the Mingw-w64 toolchain
 +
* ''x86_64-w64-mingw32'' for Windows 64-bits, using the Mingw-w64 toolchain
  
 +
Please make sure that you replace the keywords ''HOST-TRIPLET'' with either ''i686-w64-mingw32'' or ''x86_64-w64-mingw32'' adapted to your target Windows version (32-bit or 64-bit, respectively)
  
* or natively on Windows, using Microsoft Visual C++. This is not adviced AT ALL. Even though we provide some msvc project files with vlc, this method is advised only if you just want to experiment/play with some basic functionality in vlc. The reason for this is that vlc depends on a lot of 3rd party libraries and building them in MSVC is not convenient and sometimes even impossible. ( NOTE: if you want to run vlc under the msvc debugger, you need to run it with the --fast-mutex --win9x-cv-method=1 options because the debugger usually loses signals sent by PulseEvent() )
+
=== Compiler and binary toolchain ===
  
==Getting the right compiler tools==
+
==== Mingw-w64 ====
 +
To compile VLC for Windows (32-bits or 64-bits), the Mingw-w64 toolchain is required:
  
; cross-compiling with mingw32
+
For the 32-bit version, run this:
: You first need to download a GNU/Linux cross-compiler version of mingw32.
+
{{prompt|root}} apt-get install gcc-mingw-w64-i686 g++-mingw-w64-i686 mingw-w64-tools
: For Debian GNU/Linux users, you can use the mingw32, mingw32-binutils and mingw32-runtime packages.
 
  
; compiling natively on Windows with cygwin
+
For the 64-bit version, this becomes:
:You will need to download and run the setup.exe app from cygwin's web site (www.cygwin.com). You will also need to make sure you install at least the gcc-g++, gcc-mingw, mingw-runtime and win32-api packages.
+
{{prompt|root}} apt-get install gcc-mingw-w64-x86-64 g++-mingw-w64-x86-64 mingw-w64-tools
  
; compiling natively on Windows with MSYS+MINGW:
+
'''NB:''' you need mingw-w64 version 5.0.1 to compile it.
: You will need to download and install the latest MSYS, MSYS-DTK and MINGW. The installation is really easy. Begin with the MSYS auto-installer and once this is done, extract MINGW into c:\msys\1.0\mingw. You also have to remember to remove the make utility included with MINGW as it conflicts with the one from MSYS (just rename or remove c:\msys\1.0\mingw\bin\make.exe).
 
:* http://www.mingw.org/download.shtml
 
:* http://prdownloads.sf.net/mingw/MSYS-1.0.9.exe
 
:* http://prdownloads.sf.net/mingw/MinGW-3.1.0-1.exe
 
:* http://prdownloads.sf.net/mingw/msysDTK-1.0.1.exe
 
  
==Getting the additional libraries==
+
=== Development tools ===
 +
You will also need:
 +
* lua (5.2)
 +
* all autotools: libtool, automake, autoconf, autopoint, make, gettext, pkg-config
 +
* qt4-dev-tools, qt5-default (or qt4-default if qt plugin build fails)
 +
* git, subversion cmake, cvs if you want to rebuild contribs
 +
* wine-dev for creating Win32 packages
 +
* zip [for creating .zip package], p7zip [for .7z package], nsis [for .exe auto-installer], bzip2 [for 'make prebuild]
  
VLC depends on other libraries to provide some features like ac3 audio decoding or mpeg4 video decoding, etc...
+
'''Run:'''
 +
{{prompt|root}} apt-get install lua5.2 libtool automake autoconf autopoint make gettext pkg-config
 +
{{prompt|root}} apt-get install qt4-dev-tools qt5-default git subversion cmake cvs
 +
{{prompt|root}} apt-get install wine64-development-tools libwine-dev zip p7zip nsis bzip2
 +
{{prompt|root}} apt-get install yasm ragel ant default-jdk protobuf-compiler dos2unix
  
Depending on your needs you will have to compile/install some or all of these
+
== Get the source code ==
external libraries.
+
{{$}} git clone https://code.videolan.org/videolan/vlc.git vlc
  
They can be found here (source code):
+
See [[Git]] for more information.
: http://download.videolan.org/pub/testing/contrib/
 
  
We also provide a package with all the libraries already compiled so it is actually really easy to compile a full-featured version of vlc (these compiled libraries will only work with mingw or cygwin):
+
== Go into the VLC directory ==
:http://download.videolan.org/pub/testing/win32/contrib-20061122-win32-bin-gcc-3.4.5-only.tar.bz2 (Check out for more recent versions at the same location). The gcc version mentioned (3.4.5 in this case) is that of i586-mingw32msvc-gcc, which you can verify by typing i586-mingw32msvc-gcc --ver.
+
  {{$}} cd vlc
  
All you need to do is extract it in your root directory (the include files and libraries will be put in /usr/win32). You can do this with the following command:
+
== Prepare [[Contrib Status|3rd party libraries]] ==
  tar xjvf contrib-20061122-win32-bin-gcc-3.4.5-only.tar.bz2 -C /
 
Please note the "-C /".
 
  
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.
+
VLC depends on a sizable number of third party libraries. Before compiling VLC, you need to obtain compiled versions of those. There are two ways to achieve that:
 +
* The ''prebuilt'' approach is much faster and easier, but only works with a narrow set of VLC versions.
 +
* The ''manual build'' approach takes a lot of time and disk space, and somewhat error-prone.
  
A complete list of the libraries on which we depend can be found here:
+
Please note that the prebuilt library versions are intended for the latest current ''stable release'' of VLC. It is not compatible with old VLC versions, nor with newer or future versions.
: http://developers.videolan.org/vlc/
 
  
==Configuring the build==
+
At the time of writing (late 2016), the prebuilt libraries work with VLC 2.2.x '''only'''. To compile the VLC 3.0.x development branch, '''DO NOT USE''' the prebuilt libraries.
  
Once you've got all the files you need in place, you need to configure the build with the `./configure' script.
+
=== Prebuilt (fast) ===
 +
  {{$}} mkdir -p contrib/win32
 +
  {{$}} cd contrib/win32
 +
  {{$}} ../bootstrap --host=HOST-TRIPLET
 +
  {{$}} make prebuilt
  
I'll assume that you are using the pre-compiled 3rd party libraries I'm providing and that they are in /usr/win32.
+
=== Manually built (slow) ===
 +
Or, if you want to compile the contribs yourself and are feeling adventurous and have lots of time to burn:
 +
  {{prompt|root}} apt-get install subversion yasm cvs cmake ragel autopoint
  
If you are cross-compiling from Debian, you can use something along those lines:
+
  {{$}} mkdir -p contrib/win32
 +
  {{$}} cd contrib/win32
 +
  {{$}} ../bootstrap --host=HOST-TRIPLET
 +
  {{$}} make fetch
 +
  {{$}} make
  
  ./bootstrap && \
+
=== Linux 64-bit ===
  PKG_CONFIG_LIBDIR=/usr/win32/lib/pkgconfig \
 
  CPPFLAGS="-I/usr/win32/include -I/usr/win32/include/ebml" \
 
  LDFLAGS=-L/usr/win32/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=/usr/win32/bin \
 
      --enable-[[ffmpeg]] --with-ffmpeg-mp3lame --with-ffmpeg-[[faac]] \
 
      --with-ffmpeg-[[zlib]] --enable-[[faad]] --enable-[[flac]] --enable-[[theora]] \
 
      --with-[[wx]]-config-path=/usr/win32/bin \
 
      --with-[[freetype]]-config-path=/usr/win32/bin \
 
      --with-[[fribidi]]-config-path=/usr/win32/bin \
 
      --enable-[[live555]] --with-live555-tree=/usr/win32/live.com \
 
      --enable-[[caca]] --with-caca-config-path=/usr/win32/bin \
 
      --with-[[xml2]]-config-path=/usr/win32/bin \
 
      --with-[[dvdnav]]-config-path=/usr/win32/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 about a year or so. So to build without the emulation layer, use something like this:
+
If you are on Linux '''64-bit''', you '''SHOULD''' remove some files, or install the lib32 packages (ia32-libs, multilibs, etc...)
  
   ./bootstrap && \
+
   {{$}} rm -f ../i686-w64-mingw32/bin/moc ../i686-w64-mingw32/bin/uic ../i686-w64-mingw32/bin/rcc
  PKG_CONFIG_PATH=/usr/win32/lib/pkgconfig \
 
  CPPFLAGS="-I/usr/win32/include -I/usr/win32/include/ebml" \
 
  LDFLAGS=-L/usr/win32/lib \
 
  CC="gcc -mno-cygwin" CXX="g++ -mno-cygwin" \
 
  ./configure \
 
      --disable-gtk \
 
      --enable-nls --enable-sdl --with-sdl-config-path=/usr/win32/bin \
 
      --enable-ffmpeg --with-ffmpeg-mp3lame --with-ffmpeg-faac \
 
      --with-ffmpeg-zlib --enable-faad --enable-flac --enable-theora \
 
      --with-wx-config-path=/usr/win32/bin \
 
      --with-freetype-config-path=/usr/win32/bin \
 
      --with-fribidi-config-path=/usr/win32/bin \
 
      --enable-live555 --with-live555-tree=/usr/win32/live.com \
 
      --enable-caca --with-caca-config-path=/usr/win32/bin \
 
      --with-xml2-config-path=/usr/win32/bin \
 
      --with-dvdnav-config-path=/usr/win32/bin \
 
      --disable-cddax --disable-vcdx --enable-goom \
 
      --enable-twolame --enable-dvdread \
 
      --enable-debug
 
  
If you want to use the emulation layer, then just omit the CC="gcc -mno-cygwin" CXX="g++ -mno-cygwin" line. You're on your own though.
+
=== Fix your contrib path ===
  
If you are compiling with MSYS/MINGW, then you can use something along those lines:
+
If your host triplet is not '''i686-w64-mingw32''' (you are ''not'' compiling for Debian or Ubuntu), create a symlink to contribs:
  ./bootstrap && \
+
{{$}} ln -sf ''''HOST-TRIPLET'''' ../i686-w64-mingw32
  PKG_CONFIG_PATH=/usr/win32/lib/pkgconfig \
+
Notice that there is no <code>../</code> before the host triplet. This is intentional, and if done properly, you should see a functioning symbolic link created in the parent directory (try <code>ls -l ..</code> and you should see <code>i686-w64-mingw32 -> x86_64-w64-mingw32/</code>).
  CPPFLAGS="-I/usr/win32/include -I/usr/win32/include/ebml" \
 
  LDFLAGS=-L/usr/win32/lib \
 
  ./configure \
 
      --disable-gtk \
 
      --enable-nls --enable-sdl --with-sdl-config-path=/usr/win32/bin \
 
      --enable-ffmpeg --with-ffmpeg-mp3lame --with-ffmpeg-faac \
 
      --with-ffmpeg-zlib --enable-faad --enable-flac --enable-theora \
 
      --with-wx-config-path=/usr/win32/bin \
 
      --with-freetype-config-path=/usr/win32/bin \
 
      --with-fribidi-config-path=/usr/win32/bin \
 
      --enable-caca --with-caca-config-path=/usr/win32/bin \
 
      --with-xml2-config-path=/usr/win32/bin \
 
      --with-dvdnav-config-path=/usr/win32/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 precise the CFLAGS, LDFLAGS and --with-foo-config-path=.
+
=== Go Back ===
  ./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
 
  
 +
Go back to the VLC source directory:
  
See `./configure --help' for more information.
+
  {{$}} cd -
  
==Actually Compiling the VLC source==
+
== Configuring the build  ==
  
Once configured, to build VLC, just run `make'.
+
=== Bootstrap ===
 +
First, prepare the tree:
 +
  {{$}} ./bootstrap
  
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 'make' rules:
+
=== Configure ===
 +
Then you can to configure the build with the <code>./configure</code> script.
  
make package-win32-base
+
Create a subfolder:
will create a subdirectory named vlc-x.x.x with all the binaries 'stripped' (ie. without any debugging symbols).
+
  {{$}} mkdir win32 && cd win32
  
make package-win32-zip
+
Set your PKG_CONFIG_LIBDIR (Adapt the path to reflect your local setup)
Same as above but will package the directory in a zip file.
+
  {{$}} export PKG_CONFIG_LIBDIR=$HOME/vlc/contrib/HOST-TRIPLET/lib/pkgconfig
 +
  {{$}} export PKG_CONFIG_PATH_CUSTOM=$PKG_CONFIG_LIBDIR (for Archlinux only)
  
  make package-win32
+
Execute the build configuration script:
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.
+
  {{$}} ../extras/package/win32/configure.sh --host=HOST-TRIPLET --build=x86_64-pc-linux-gnu
  
'''''Well done, now you're ready to use VLC!'''''
+
'''N.B.''':
 +
Use the host and build tuples respectively corresponding to '''your''' cross-compilation toolchain and build system respectively. The example above assumes you are compiling for ''Windows'' OS and ''Intel 686'' architecture, and the build system is ''GNU/Linux'' OS and ''x86 64-bits'' architecture. See [[#Host_triplet|above]] for list of common values.
 +
 
 +
Also, if you have a problem here (such as an error about Library dvdread), see the [[{{TALKPAGENAME}}|Talk]] page.
 +
 
 +
Alternatively, you can run configure manually:
 +
{{$}} ../configure --host=HOST-TRIPLET --build=x86_64-pc-linux-gnu
 +
See <code>'../configure --help'</code> for more information.
 +
 
 +
== Building VLC  ==
 +
 
 +
Once configured, to build VLC, just run:
 +
  {{$}} make
 +
 
 +
== Packaging VLC ==
 +
Once the compilation is done, you can build self-contained VLC packages with the following <code>make</code> rules:
 +
 
 +
{| class="wikitable"
 +
|-
 +
! Command
 +
! Description
 +
|-
 +
| <code>make package-win-common</code>
 +
| Creates a subdirectory named <code>vlc-x.x.x</code> with all the binaries. You can run VLC directly from this directory.
 +
|-
 +
| <code>make package-win-strip</code>
 +
| Same as above but will create 'stripped' binaries (that is, smallest size, unusable with a debugger).
 +
|-
 +
| <code>make package-win32-7zip</code>
 +
| Same as above but will package the directory in a 7z file.
 +
|-
 +
| <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!'''''  
 +
 
 +
== Extra information ==
 +
 
 +
=== Static compilation of plugins ===
 +
You might want to use the following script to enforce static compilation.
 +
Run as root, and use at your own risk.
 +
<syntaxhighlight lang="bash">
 +
#!/bin/sh
 +
 +
# This script enforces statically linking of libgcc, libstdc++-6, and libpthread,
 +
# without needing to rebuild gcc and mingw-w64 from scratch.
 +
# -static-libgcc -static-libstdc++ flags can not be used in a libtool build system,
 +
# as libtool removes flags that it doesn't understand.
 +
 +
move() {
 +
    [ -f $1 ] || return 1
 +
    mkdir -p old/
 +
    mv -v $* old/
 +
    return 0
 +
}
 +
 +
for x in i686 x86_64
 +
do
 +
    library_path_list=`$x-w64-mingw32-gcc -v /dev/null 2>&1 | grep ^LIBRARY_PATH|cut -d= -f2|sort|uniq`
 +
    IFS=':'
 +
    for i in $library_path_list
 +
    do
 +
        cd $i
 +
        move libstdc++-6.dll libstdc++.dll.a libgcc_s.a libgcc_s_sjlj-1.dll && ln -s libgcc_eh.a libgcc_s.a
 +
        move libpthread.dll.a libwinpthread.dll.a
 +
        move libwinpthread-1.dll
 +
        [ -d ../bin ] && cd ../bin && move libwinpthread-1.dll
 +
    done
 +
done
 +
 +
exit 0
 +
</syntaxhighlight>
 +
 
 +
=== Mingw32 ===
 +
Up to versions 2.0.x, VLC was compiled with the older mingw32 toolchain, which only supports 32-bits Windows. If you have problems with mingw-w64, you can try mingw32 instead:
 +
 
 +
* '''Debian/Ubuntu''': run <code>apt-get install gcc-mingw32 mingw32-binutils</code>. Note that at least version 3.17 of Mingw32 is required, which Debian does not provide. You may obtain mingw32-runtime-3.17 [http://people.videolan.org/~jb/debian/mingw32-runtime_3.17.0-0videolan_all.deb here].
 +
* '''Gentoo''' users can <code>emerge crossdev &amp;&amp; crossdev mingw32</code>
 +
* '''ArchLinux''' users can <code>pacman -S mingw32-gcc</code>
 +
* '''Fedora''' users should read [[Win32Compile Under Fedora]]
 +
* Other '''Linux''' systems may attempt http://www.mingw.org/wiki/LinuxCrossMinGW
  
 
[[Category:Building]]
 
[[Category:Building]]
 +
[[Category:Windows]]

Latest revision as of 16:18, 13 December 2022

WARNING: This page is deprecated, for updated instructions please follow: https://code.videolan.org/videolan/vlc/-/blob/master/doc/BUILD-win32.md

This page will help you to compile VLC media player for Windows.

Building Methods

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

Method Documentation Notes
MinGW on Linux Obtaining the toolchain Preferred method involving cross-compilation from Linux. On computers running Microsoft Windows, a virtual machine is necessary to run Linux.
MSYS+MinGW on Windows Compile with MSys Native compilation method. MSYS is a minimal build environment to compile Unix-style projects directly on Microsoft Windows. This is not officially supported by VideoLAN. Best of luck.
Cygwin on Windows Compile with Cygwin Cygwin method. Cygwin emulates a POSIX environment to compile on Microsoft Windows. This is error-prone and slow and therefore not recommended.

Obtaining the cross-compilation toolchain

All this howto is focused on Debian/Ubuntu. For other distribution, please find the related package names, but they should be very similar.

Ubuntu 14.04 is too old to compile VLC.

Host triplet

A number of commands below include the toolchain identifier, called the host triplet.

This value is essential: it instructs the build system to use the correct toolchain and compile the program for Windows. Without the value, the build system will perform a native compilation for Linux (or whatever your computer runs). With an incorrect value, the build will fail.

The exact value depends on your installation of the toolchain.

Notably on Debian/Ubuntu, these values must be used:

  • i686-w64-mingw32 for Windows 32-bits, using the Mingw-w64 toolchain
  • x86_64-w64-mingw32 for Windows 64-bits, using the Mingw-w64 toolchain

Please make sure that you replace the keywords HOST-TRIPLET with either i686-w64-mingw32 or x86_64-w64-mingw32 adapted to your target Windows version (32-bit or 64-bit, respectively)

Compiler and binary toolchain

Mingw-w64

To compile VLC for Windows (32-bits or 64-bits), the Mingw-w64 toolchain is required:

For the 32-bit version, run this:

# apt-get install gcc-mingw-w64-i686 g++-mingw-w64-i686 mingw-w64-tools

For the 64-bit version, this becomes:

# apt-get install gcc-mingw-w64-x86-64 g++-mingw-w64-x86-64 mingw-w64-tools

NB: you need mingw-w64 version 5.0.1 to compile it.

Development tools

You will also need:

  • lua (5.2)
  • all autotools: libtool, automake, autoconf, autopoint, make, gettext, pkg-config
  • qt4-dev-tools, qt5-default (or qt4-default if qt plugin build fails)
  • git, subversion cmake, cvs if you want to rebuild contribs
  • wine-dev for creating Win32 packages
  • zip [for creating .zip package], p7zip [for .7z package], nsis [for .exe auto-installer], bzip2 [for 'make prebuild]

Run:

# apt-get install lua5.2 libtool automake autoconf autopoint make gettext pkg-config
# apt-get install qt4-dev-tools qt5-default git subversion cmake cvs 
# apt-get install wine64-development-tools libwine-dev zip p7zip nsis bzip2
# apt-get install yasm ragel ant default-jdk protobuf-compiler dos2unix

Get the source code

$ git clone https://code.videolan.org/videolan/vlc.git vlc

See Git for more information.

Go into the VLC directory

$ cd vlc

Prepare 3rd party libraries

VLC depends on a sizable number of third party libraries. Before compiling VLC, you need to obtain compiled versions of those. There are two ways to achieve that:

  • The prebuilt approach is much faster and easier, but only works with a narrow set of VLC versions.
  • The manual build approach takes a lot of time and disk space, and somewhat error-prone.

Please note that the prebuilt library versions are intended for the latest current stable release of VLC. It is not compatible with old VLC versions, nor with newer or future versions.

At the time of writing (late 2016), the prebuilt libraries work with VLC 2.2.x only. To compile the VLC 3.0.x development branch, DO NOT USE the prebuilt libraries.

Prebuilt (fast)

 $ mkdir -p contrib/win32
 $ cd contrib/win32
 $ ../bootstrap --host=HOST-TRIPLET
 $ make prebuilt

Manually built (slow)

Or, if you want to compile the contribs yourself and are feeling adventurous and have lots of time to burn:

 # apt-get install subversion yasm cvs cmake ragel autopoint
 $ mkdir -p contrib/win32
 $ cd contrib/win32
 $ ../bootstrap --host=HOST-TRIPLET
 $ make fetch
 $ make

Linux 64-bit

If you are on Linux 64-bit, you SHOULD remove some files, or install the lib32 packages (ia32-libs, multilibs, etc...)

 $ rm -f ../i686-w64-mingw32/bin/moc ../i686-w64-mingw32/bin/uic ../i686-w64-mingw32/bin/rcc

Fix your contrib path

If your host triplet is not i686-w64-mingw32 (you are not compiling for Debian or Ubuntu), create a symlink to contribs:

$ ln -sf 'HOST-TRIPLET' ../i686-w64-mingw32

Notice that there is no ../ before the host triplet. This is intentional, and if done properly, you should see a functioning symbolic link created in the parent directory (try ls -l .. and you should see i686-w64-mingw32 -> x86_64-w64-mingw32/).

Go Back

Go back to the VLC source directory:

 $ cd -

Configuring the build

Bootstrap

First, prepare the tree:

 $ ./bootstrap

Configure

Then you can to configure the build with the ./configure script.

Create a subfolder:

 $ mkdir win32 && cd win32

Set your PKG_CONFIG_LIBDIR (Adapt the path to reflect your local setup)

 $ export PKG_CONFIG_LIBDIR=$HOME/vlc/contrib/HOST-TRIPLET/lib/pkgconfig
 $ export PKG_CONFIG_PATH_CUSTOM=$PKG_CONFIG_LIBDIR (for Archlinux only)

Execute the build configuration script:

$ ../extras/package/win32/configure.sh --host=HOST-TRIPLET --build=x86_64-pc-linux-gnu

N.B.: Use the host and build tuples respectively corresponding to your cross-compilation toolchain and build system respectively. The example above assumes you are compiling for Windows OS and Intel 686 architecture, and the build system is GNU/Linux OS and x86 64-bits architecture. See above for list of common values.

Also, if you have a problem here (such as an error about Library dvdread), see the Talk page.

Alternatively, you can run configure manually:

$ ../configure --host=HOST-TRIPLET --build=x86_64-pc-linux-gnu

See '../configure --help' for more information.

Building VLC

Once configured, to build VLC, just run:

 $ make

Packaging VLC

Once the compilation is done, you can build self-contained VLC packages with the following make rules:

Command Description
make package-win-common Creates a subdirectory named vlc-x.x.x with all the binaries. You can run VLC directly from this directory.
make package-win-strip Same as above but will create 'stripped' binaries (that is, smallest size, unusable with a debugger).
make package-win32-7zip Same as above but will package the directory in a 7z file.
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 must have NSIS installed in its default location for this to work.

Well done—you're ready to use VLC!

Extra information

Static compilation of plugins

You might want to use the following script to enforce static compilation. Run as root, and use at your own risk.

 #!/bin/sh
 
 # This script enforces statically linking of libgcc, libstdc++-6, and libpthread,
 # without needing to rebuild gcc and mingw-w64 from scratch.
 # -static-libgcc -static-libstdc++ flags can not be used in a libtool build system,
 # as libtool removes flags that it doesn't understand.
 
 move() {
     [ -f $1 ] || return 1
     mkdir -p old/
     mv -v $* old/
     return 0
 }
 
 for x in i686 x86_64
 do
     library_path_list=`$x-w64-mingw32-gcc -v /dev/null 2>&1 | grep ^LIBRARY_PATH|cut -d= -f2|sort|uniq`
     IFS=':'
     for i in $library_path_list
     do
         cd $i
         move libstdc++-6.dll libstdc++.dll.a libgcc_s.a libgcc_s_sjlj-1.dll && ln -s libgcc_eh.a libgcc_s.a
         move libpthread.dll.a libwinpthread.dll.a
         move libwinpthread-1.dll
         [ -d ../bin ] && cd ../bin && move libwinpthread-1.dll
     done
 done
 
 exit 0

Mingw32

Up to versions 2.0.x, VLC was compiled with the older mingw32 toolchain, which only supports 32-bits Windows. If you have problems with mingw-w64, you can try mingw32 instead:

  • Debian/Ubuntu: run apt-get install gcc-mingw32 mingw32-binutils. Note that at least version 3.17 of Mingw32 is required, which Debian does not provide. You may obtain mingw32-runtime-3.17 here.
  • Gentoo users can emerge crossdev && crossdev mingw32
  • ArchLinux users can pacman -S mingw32-gcc
  • Fedora users should read Win32Compile Under Fedora
  • Other Linux systems may attempt http://www.mingw.org/wiki/LinuxCrossMinGW