View source for Win32CompileCygwinNew

This is a new version of the Win32CompileCygwin written by [[User:J-b|Jean-Baptiste Kempf]]
'''This version ONLY works for 0.9.x and for 1.0.x.'''

'''WARNING''': building VLC on Cygwin has ever been a failure-prone task. It is also very slow. You should really consider cross-compiling from Linux (on a virtual machine, via dual-boot or from another computer). You were warned.

=Introduction=

This is a guide for Windows users with a step-by-step instruction to download, install, configure and build your VLC.

This guide uses [http://www.cygwin.com '''Cygwin'''] a Linux-like environment for Windows used for compilation of the VLC source code.

Start off by creating a VLC and a download folder on your hard drive where you can put all the installation files:

 C:\VLC\
 C:\VLC\Downloads

For further reference, the assumption is made that the local user will be 'Administrator'.

=Cygwin=

Download the latest [http://www.cygwin.com/cygwin/setup.exe Cygwin setup] and save it in your download location:

 C:\VLC\Downloads\

More info about Cygwin can be found at http://www.cygwin.com or http://sourceware.org/cygwin

==Selecting Cygwin packages to install==

Run the setup program with the following options:

Installation type : Install from Internet (default)

Root directory : C:\cygwin (default)

Local Package directory : C:\VLC\Downloads\cygwin (your download location)

Internet Connection : Direct Connection (preferred, if it fails try another)

Download Site : Choose a download site closest to you (FTP preferred)


At the "Select Packages" section of the installation process you can select packages by clicking the button with the rotating 2 arrows. (This is under the "New" section). It shows "Skip" next to the button if the package isn't selected yet.

Clicking the button a few times will rotate through the possible package versions including "Skip" (meaning do not install or remove if installed) and "Keep" (meaning keep using the current installed version). If a package was already installed it will also show the "Current" version just to the left of it.

Select the following packages (some others will automatically be selected as well):

 Archive
   unzip
   zip

 Devel
   autoconf
   automake
   binutils
   cvs
   gcc
   gcc-core
   gcc-g++
   gcc-mingw
   gcc-mingw-core
   gcc-mingw-g++
   gdb
   gettext
   gettext-devel
   git
   libiconv
   libgcrypt-devel
   libtool
   make
   mingw-runtime
   nasm
   patchutils
   pkg-config
   subversion

 Editor
   vim

 Libs
   expat
   libgcrypt

 Web
   curl (optional: for building extras/contrib)
   wget (optional: for building extras/contrib)

==Cygwin environment==

Start Cygwin from the icon on your desktop (With Windows Vista run it with admin rights, so right click and select "Run as administrator"). If it runs for the first time it will automatically create a home\"username" folder in the Cygwin environment; user being the currently logged on Windows user. Assuming this is the 'Administrator' user it will create the following folder:

 C:\cygwin\home\Administrator (example)

NOTE: On your desktop, you can rightclick the Cygwin icon and (in the Options field of the Cygwin Properties) set the Command history Buffer size to as large as possible: 999. This setting will make it possible to scroll back further in the Cygwin environment.

=VLC source code=

== Git ==
The very latest VLC source code can be obtained through a tool called Git. The Cygwin package we're about to install comes with an internal git component.

 cd /cygdrive/c/VLC/

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

If git fails for some reason, then please try to use git from basic Windows command prompt (Start -> Run -> cmd), not from Cygwin shell.

== Snapshots ==

You can do the same by using the snapshots in the [http://nightlies.videolan.org/ nightly builds] site.

=Bootstrap=
First move to vlc folder, if you aren't already there

 cd vlc

Open the '''configure.ac''' file, and modify the requirement for gettext 0.17 to 0.15 (so replace line '''AM_GNU_GETTEXT_VERSION(0.17)''' with line '''AM_GNU_GETTEXT_VERSION(0.15)''' or use sed command below)

 sed -i 's/AM_GNU_GETTEXT_VERSION(0.17)/AM_GNU_GETTEXT_VERSION(0.15)/g' configure.ac

and then run bootstrap.

 ./bootstrap

It might fail with some '''unable to remap error <some_dll_file_name>'''. It seems you need to rebase all Cygwin DLLs: close all your cygwin applications and launch 'ash' from basic windows command prompt (Start -> Run -> cmd), from there run rebaseall.

 /bin/rebaseall -v

= External libraries to the source code=

VLC depends on other libraries (code) to provide some features like AC3 audio or MPEG-4 video encoding/decoding etc.

Depending on your needs you will have to install and compile some or all of these external libraries. 

== Get the Win32 "contrib" package ==

A package with most of these libraries already compiled so it's actually really easy to compile a full-featured version of vlc can be found here:

http://download.videolan.org/pub/testing/win32/

Download the latest version of a "contrib" package for win32:

 contrib-20060730-win32-bin-gcc-3.4.5-only.tar.bz2 (this is an '''example''')

These days, you should use
 http://people.videolan.org/~jb/Contribs/contrib-20080811-win32-bin-gcc-4.2.1-sjlj-runtime-3.13-only.tar.bz2


It's a good idea to check the INSTALL.Win32 file in the VLC source directory for the appropriate contrib download file.

Save it into your download location:

 C:\VLC\Downloads\

==Installing the Win32 "contrib" package in Cygwin==

Start Cygwin and enter the following command in your shell:

 cd /cygdrive/c/VLC/Downloads
 tar xf contrib-20080702-win32-bin-gcc-4.2.1-sjlj-runtime-3.13-only.tar.bz2 -C /

Replace with your version of the "contrib" file and DON'T FORGET THE / (slash)
at the end.

This will extract the contents of the file into usr/win32 folder within your Cygwin environment.

NOTE: Make sure to DELETE your old version (/usr/win32 folder) instead of extracting a new version on top of it.

==Keeping the Win32 "contrib" package up-to-date==

For maintenance purposes periodically check:

http://download.videolan.org/pub/testing/win32/

==QT4 issues==
There are some QT4 and winapi issues (like '''InterlockedCompareExchange''' error) which you can work out with information from http://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=50360&p=164758&hilit=win32api#p164219 that thread. If you don't plan to compile QT4 or skins2 interface, you can skip this.

=Configure=

In order to make our lives just a bit easier the following section describes what commandline options should be used for compiling and those commands will then be put into a "script" that can be executed (rather than having to copy and paste all the time).

==Configure script for compiling VLC==

Create a new text document with the following lines:

  PATH=/usr/win32/bin:$PATH \
  PKG_CONFIG_LIBDIR=/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 \
      --host=i686-pc-mingw32 \
      --disable-gtk \
      --enable-nls --enable-sdl --with-sdl-config-path=/usr/win32/bin \
      --enable-avcodec --enable-avformat --enable-swscale \
      --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  --enable-dca \
      --disable-mkv --disable-taglib

NOTE: The following options are added for debug purposes and makes the final package a bit larger but the advantage is it's easier to debug in case of crash reports:

 --disable-optimizations
 --enable-debug

If you want to report a crash bug to the VLC team, it is necessary that you provide a stack backtrace. Unfortunately, Windows automatic crash reporter cannot generate such a backtrace as debug symbols used by GCC compiler aren't understood by Windows, therefore we suggest that you install Dr. MinGW (http://jrfonseca.dyndns.org/projects/gnu-win32/software/drmingw/) which will extend Windows Just-In-Time Debugger and provide the necessary debug information.

NOTE: The following options is needed for Qt4 support:

 --enable-qt4

As of version 0.9.0 VLC will include the Qt interface. More information can be found about QT here: http://www.trolltech.com

The "Win32 contrib package" at present includes the linux and Windows equivalents of uic, moc and roc executables which are required for building this interface.

The linuxs executables have to be '''deleted''' from the contrib folder:

 C:\cygwin\usr\win32\bin\moc (example)
 C:\cygwin\usr\win32\bin\rcc (example)
 C:\cygwin\usr\win32\bin\uic (example)

Save as filename in your "scripts" folder at your download/install location:

 configure-vlc.sh

NOTE: Save using "All files" and not "Text files" otherwise Windows might append the extension .txt

Copy the file into your home directory:
 
 C:\cygwin\home\Administrator

Start Cygwin and enter the following command in your shell: 

 dos2unix configure-vlc.sh

After your configure-vlc.sh is completed, copy it to your vlc directory and run it:

 ./configure-vlc.sh

If it complains about permissions, use chmod and try again:

 chmod 777 configure-vlc.sh

NOTE. (If you plan to use JVLC) To make vlc-control.dll accessible by Java on ''Windows'' configure-vlc.sh should be modified to include "-Wl,--add-stdcal-alias". Example:

 ...
 CC="gcc -mno-cygwin -Wl,--add-stdcall-alias" CXX="g++ -mno-cygwin -Wl,--add-stdcall-alias" \
 ./configure \
 ...

===Mozilla plugin===

If you want to build Mozilla plugin, add this to your configure-vlc.sh

 --enable-mozilla --with-mozilla-sdk-path=/usr/win32/gecko-sdk

If configure-vlc.sh goes correctly, you should see '''plugins/bindings : activex mozilla'''

===POSIX emulation layer===

VLC can be built with or without the so called POSIX emulation layer. Without is the default and is usually better (and with hasn't been tested for quite some time). If you do want to use the emulation layer, then just leave out the line with the following options:

 CC="gcc -mno-cygwin" CXX="g++ -mno-cygwin"

=Compiling source code=

It's time to start Cygwin again...

==Compiling VLC==

Enter the following commands in your Cygwin shell:

 cd vlc

Build it! (remember to run configure-vlc.sh before first build)

 make

Cross your fingers and wait... because it might take few hours before compilation is done.
If you have multicore CPU or multi CPU box, you can use -j2 switch (or maybe -j3 or -j4 etc.) to speed up make process

 make -j2

==Creating self contained packages==

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" 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).


* If you have permissions problems running vlc.exe after packaging, rename or delete vlc.exe.manifest

=Advanced usage=


==Updating Cygwin package versions==

If you need to update or install additional packages you can just run the Cygwin setup.exe from your download location:

 C:\Downloads\cygwin\setup.exe          (example)


==GDB (Gnu Debugger)==

This section requires that you installed the gdb (Gnu Debugger) in Cygwin.

This is a typical example of creating a crashlog:

 cd vlc-trunk

 gdb --args vlc.exe --fast-mutex --reset-config --reset-plugins-cache

NOTE: vlc-0.9.0 uses libtool for building sources, if you want to debug from the source tree, you should type the following command instead:

 libtool --mode=execute gdb --args vlc --reset-config --reset-plugins-cache

In the debugger mode run the program and make sure you reset the preferences!

 (gdb) run 

NOTE: the (gdb) is just a prompt which means you are in the debugger mode, please note that ''--fast-mutex'' option is no longer supported in vlc-0.9.0

It will now take a lot longer than usual for VLC to start :)

Now operate VLC as you would normally do. As soon as a crash issue occurs
you'll notice a line like this:

 Program received signal SIGSEGV, Segmentation fault.
 0x0041394c in playlist_ItemGetById (p_playlist=0x19ec4f8, i_id=29)
     at src/playlist/item-ext.c:459
 ---Type <return> to continue, or q <return> to quit---
 459             i = i_bottom + ( i_top - i_bottom ) / 2;

Now you can do a "backtrace" by using the bt command:

 (gdb) bt

And output similar to this will be created:

 #0  0x0041394c in playlist_ItemGetById (p_playlist=0x19ec4f8, i_id=29) 
     at src/playlist/item-ext.c:459
 #1  0x0b26bbf7 in wxvlc::Playlist::CountItems (this=0x1822e288, root=
       {m_pItem = 0x29fef8}) at playlist.cpp:695
 #2  0x0b26bc83 in wxvlc::Playlist::CountItems (this=0x1822e288, root=
       {m_pItem = 0x29e8b0}) at playlist.cpp:689
 #3  0x0b26bc83 in wxvlc::Playlist::CountItems (this=0x1822e288, root=
       {m_pItem = 0x29a818}) at playlist.cpp:689
 #4  0x0b26bc83 in wxvlc::Playlist::CountItems (this=0x1822e288, root=
       {m_pItem = 0x299718}) at playlist.cpp:689
 #5  0x0b26bc83 in wxvlc::Playlist::CountItems (this=0x1822e288, root=
       {m_pItem = 0xffff0000}) at playlist.cpp:689
 #6  0x0b26bf49 in wxvlc::Playlist::AppendItem (this=0x1822e288,
     event=@0x1827afd0) at playlist.cpp:564
 #7  0x0b2757fc in wxvlc::Playlist::OnPlaylistEvent (this=0x1822e288,
     event=@0x1827afd0) at playlist.cpp:1438
 #8  0x0b3771b8 in wxEvtHandler::ProcessEventIfMatches ()
     at /usr/win32/include/wx-2.6/wx/event.h:2183
 #9  0x0b376a1c in wxEventHashTable::HandleEvent ()
     at /usr/win32/include/wx-2.6/wx/event.h:2183
 #10 0x0b37730d in wxEvtHandler::ProcessEvent ()
     at /usr/win32/include/wx-2.6/wx/event.h:2183
 #11 0x0b37711b in wxEvtHandler::ProcessPendingEvents ()
     at /usr/win32/include/wx-2.6/wx/event.h:2183
 ---Type <return> to continue, or q <return> to quit---
 #12 0x0b376017 in wxAppConsole::ProcessPendingEvents ()
     at /usr/win32/include/wx-2.6/wx/event.h:2183
 #13 0x0b3ec75a in wxIdleWakeUpModule::MsgHookProc ()
     at /usr/win32/include/wx-2.6/wx/bmpbuttn.h:81
 #14 0x773aca2d in USER32!GetScrollRange ()
    from /cygdrive/c/WINDOWS/system32/user32.dll
 #15 0x00000000 in ?? () from
 (gdb)


To backtrace all the running threads use:

 (gdb) thread apply all bt

These are the log outputs that are more usefull to developers than just mentioning "it crashes"!

NOTE: In GDB mode there are sometimes situations where GDB initially "crashes" on certain network activity (opening network shares, network traffic) which in normal operation does not occur. Just select c for continue until "normal" operation continues.

== Common errors ==
===vlc.exe: Permission denied===

A make finished successfully and produced vlc.exe, but running the executable returns the following:

 bash: ./vlc.exe: Permission denied

The permissions on both vlc.exe & vlc.exe.manifest must be set to executable. 

FIX: Type the following:
 
 chmod 755 vlc.exe vlc.exe.manifest

===error: parse error before '(' token===

A make (compile) of FFmpeg results in the following error:

 /usr/include/sys/unistd.h:203: error: parse error before '(' token
 make[1]: *** [ffm.o] Error 1

It's very likely you are usix the POSIX emulater which you shouldn't...

FIX: compile with the option 

 -mno-cygwin



===error: expected primary-expression before '<<' token===

 In file included from /usr/lib/gcc/i686-pc-mingw32/3.4.4/../../../../include/w32
 api/windows.h:52,
                  from ../../../include/vlc_common.h:459,
                  from ../../../include/vlc/vlc.h:153,
                  from dshow.cpp:31:
 /usr/lib/gcc/i686-pc-mingw32/3.4.4/../../../../include/w32api/wingdi.h:3:1: warn
 ing: this is the location of the previous definition
 In file included from /usr/win32/include/dshow.h:35,
                  from common.h:45,
                  from dshow.cpp:35:
 /usr/win32/include/ddraw.h:14: warning: ignoring #pragma warning
 In file included from /usr/win32/include/dshow.h:35,
                  from common.h:45,
                  from dshow.cpp:35:
 /usr/win32/include/ddraw.h:5552: warning: ignoring #pragma warning
 In file included from /usr/win32/include/dshow.h:45,
                  from common.h:45,
                  from dshow.cpp:35:
 /usr/win32/include/strmif.h:2: warning: ignoring #pragma warning
 In file included from /usr/win32/include/dsound.h:13,
                  from /usr/win32/include/amaudio.h:18,
                  from /usr/win32/include/dshow.h:47,
                  from common.h:45,
                  from dshow.cpp:35:
 /usr/win32/include/d3dtypes.h:22: warning: ignoring #pragma warning
 /usr/win32/include/d3dtypes.h:1813: warning: ignoring #pragma warning
 In file included from /usr/win32/include/dshow.h:48,
                  from common.h:45,
                  from dshow.cpp:35:
 /usr/win32/include/control.h:2: warning: ignoring #pragma warning
 dshow.cpp: In function `int CommonOpen(vlc_object_t*, access_sys_t*, vlc_bool_t)
 ':
 dshow.cpp:456: error: expected primary-expression before '<<' token
 dshow.cpp:456: error: expected primary-expression before '<<' token
 dshow.cpp:456: error: expected primary-expression before '<<' token
 dshow.cpp:456: error: expected primary-expression before '<' token
 dshow.cpp:456: error: expected primary-expression before '.' token
 dshow.cpp:470: error: expected primary-expression before '==' token
 dshow.cpp:470: error: expected primary-expression before '==' token
 dshow.cpp:470: error: expected primary-expression before '==' token
 dshow.cpp:470: error: expected primary-expression before '=' token
 dshow.cpp:484: error: expected primary-expression before '>>' token
 dshow.cpp:484: error: expected primary-expression before '>>' token
 dshow.cpp:484: error: expected primary-expression before '>>' token
 dshow.cpp:484: error: expected primary-expression before '>' token
 dshow.cpp:484: error: expected primary-expression before '.' token
 dshow.cpp:485: error: expected `;' before "IAMCrossbar"
 dshow.cpp:491: error: `pXbar' undeclared (first use this function)
 dshow.cpp:491: error: (Each undeclared identifier is reported only once for each
 function it appears in.)
 make[6]: *** [libdshow_plugin_a-dshow.o] Error 1
 make[6]: Leaving directory `/home/Administrator/vlc-trunk/modules/access/dshow'
 make[5]: *** [all-modules] Error 1
 make[5]: Leaving directory `/home/Administrator/vlc-trunk/modules/access/dshow'
 make[4]: *** [all-recursive] Error 1
 make[4]: Leaving directory `/home/Administrator/vlc-trunk/modules/access'
 make[3]: *** [all] Error 2

Basically in case of conflict svn adds "<<< mine" and "=======" and ">>>> r1242" which makes gcc complain.

FIX: revert the offending file


===Objective C source seen but `OBJC' is undefined===

The configure process stops halfway.

 + aclocal-1.9 -I m4
 + autoconf
 + autoheader
 + automake-1.9 --add-missing --copy -Wall
 configure.ac: installing `autotools/install-sh'
 configure.ac: installing `autotools/missing'
 activex/Makefile.am:143: shell $(VLC_CONFIG: non-POSIX variable name
 activex/Makefile.am:143: (probably a GNU make extension)
 activex/Makefile.am: installing `autotools/compile'
 activex/Makefile.am: installing `autotools/depcomp'
 modules/gui/macosx/Makefile.am: Objective C source seen but `OBJC' is undefined
 modules/misc/testsuite/Makefile.am: Objective C source seen but `OBJC' is undefi
 ned
 src/Makefile.am: Objective C source seen but `OBJC' is undefined
 Makefile.am:282: user target `vlc$(EXEEXT)' defined here...
 /usr/share/automake-1.9/am/program.am: ... overrides Automake target `vlc$(EXEEX
 T)' defined here
 Makefile.am:230:   while processing program `vlc'
 make: *** No targets specified and no makefile found.  Stop.
 
This problem is related to a warning earlier on and only occured in a few revisions where a built-in workaround wasn't working properly:

 + echo 'Enabling provisional autoconf 2.59 work-around. Update autoconf ASAP.'
 Enabling provisional autoconf 2.59 work-around. Update autoconf ASAP.

FIX: update autoconf to 2.60 or newer. If Cygwin doesn't provide this version yet then build it yourself from extras/contrib.

Enter the following commands in your Cygwin shell:

 cd vlc-trunk/extras/contrib

 ./bootstrap

 cd src

 make .autoconf

There should now be compiled autoconf version (probably 2.60 or newer) in extras/contrib that the bootstrap process will use.

Now start the whole "Compile VLC" process from the start again.

===Error: cannot create temporary file for diversion: Permission denied===

If the above error appears, it might mean you don't have the TMPDIR defined in cygwin. You will need to define it and have its value point to your temporary directory. You can use '''export TMPDIR="/cygdrive/c/temp"''' or any directory for it (/cygdrive/c/temp is same as C:\temp). If this doesn't help, make sure you run cygwin with admin rights (With Windows Vista, right click cygwin shortcut and select "Run as administrator"). Avira AntiVir might also cause issues to m4, so disabling it while ./bootstrap might help.

==Compiling faster==
Building VLC on Cygwin is really slow, but you can spend less time recompiling by using [http://ccache.samba.org/ ccache]. This software saves  the files compiled with their compilation command, and output them if they were not changed and if the compilation command is the same as last build. It is really useful for frequent make clean && make. To use it, change the CC line in your configure script to:

  CC="ccache gcc -mno-cygwin" CXX="ccache g++ -mno-cygwin" \

The first build after reconfiguring will be as slow as ever, but the following builds will be faster.

=Version=

20050627 Initial version

20050628 Updated some more exceptions

20050628 Some info added about FFmpeg compiling with AMR

20050629 Finalized FFmpeg compiling

20050630 Cross-compiling

20050724 Some extra compile explanations

20050726 Removed cross-compiling (was for linux -> win32) Patching source code with .diff files

20050823 Added zlib error

20050923 --enable-sdl --with-sdl-config-path=/usr/win32/bin added to configure. Added debug section

20051102 Changed FFmpeg lib names

20051128 Detailed Cygwin upgrade/downgrade for gcc 3.3. Renamed some update scripts. Added FFmpeg CVS update. --disable-gnomevfs added to configure (only used on linux)

20060121 PKG_CONFIG_PATH=/usr/win32/lib/pkgconfig added to configure

20060128 Added curl and libtool to Cygwin for those that want to be able to build extras/contrib themselves

20060217 Added make install-libs install-headers to FFmpeg compile

20060222 Remark about missing "gettext" libs for Cygwin during install

20060225 ./bootstrap: you need libtool

20060618 Updated GCC to 3.4 version and added FFmpeg SVN and DTS support

20060805 Added note about using older binutils and gdb for Cygwin!

20060915 Added note about updating autoconf from extras/contrib for an OBJC problem during configure

20061108 Added note this document is no longer usable since Cygwin has been unusable probably related to some bash/dos2unix change

20070612 Added note about --enable-dca

20080228 New version by [[User:J-b|jb]]

20080307 Added --host=i686-pc-mingw32 option to the configure script

20080311 Simplification

20080323 Added some tips for Vista 

20081001 git should now work from Cygwin again

20081010 expat has moved to under Libs

20081020 QT4 problems part added and new contrib suggestion

20081110 Mozilla plugin addition

20090104 sed command for gettext version change

[[Category:Building]]
[[Category:Coding]]