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How to compile VLC for Windows

== 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 "Tools" 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 Linux 
| None: read this page 
| '''Preferred''' method (uses cross compilation)
|-
| Native-compile with [http://www.mingw.org MSYS+MINGW] 
| [[Win32CompileMSYSNew]] 
| '''Preferred''' native compilation method. 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).
|-
| Native-compile with [http://www.cygwin.com Cygwin] 
| [[Win32CompileCygwinNew]] 
| '''OUTDATED''' native compilation method
|-
| Native-compile with Microsoft Visual C++ 
| None 
| '''Not advised.''' 
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>, however building FFmpeg now requires mingw32-runtime &gt;= 3.15 and w32api &gt;= 3.13 so these will have to be updated manually. 
*Gentoo users can <code>emerge crossdev &amp;&amp; crossdev mingw32</code> 
*Other systems may attempt http://www.mingw.org/wiki/LinuxCrossMinGW

|-
| Native-compile with [http://www.mingw.org MSYS+MINGW] 
| Read the [[Win32CompileMSYSNew|documentation]]
|-
| Native-compile with [http://www.cygwin.com Cygwin] 
| Read the [[Win32CompileCygwinNew|documentation]]
|}

== 3rd party libraries.<br>  ==

VLC modules requires numerous open source projects to work (like AC3 audio decoding or MPEG-4 video decoding). 

If you feel you must build these libraries from source, go to extras/contrib and read the README.<br> 

If you want to save yourself a lot of time and energy, use the pre-built versions of these libraries. You may download them from http://people.videolan.org/~jb/Contribs/, named in fashion of contrib-'''yyyymmdd'''-win32-'''version'''-bin-gcc-'''gccversion'''-only.tar.bz2.<br> 

Install the pre-built libraries into the standard directories (/usr/win32/*) by using <br> 
<pre>tar jxf contrib-20061122-win32-bin-gcc-3.4.5-only.tar.bz2 -C /
</pre> 
(Note the <code>"-C /"</code>!) 

== 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. 

Good examples can be found in some files:<br> 
<pre>extras/package/win32/configure-mingw.sh

extras/package/win32/configure-msys.sh

extras/package/win32/configure-common.sh</pre> 
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]]