HowTo compile on Win32 with MinGW

2008-02-20T06:44:28Z

87.97.80.135: /* Compiling the libraries */

<center>'''English''' | [[HowTo compile on Win32-de|German]] | [[HowTo compile on Win32-fr|French]]</center>

This wiki page only covers the latest [[aMule_CVS|CVS]] version of [[aMule]], not releases in the 1.x.x or 2.x.x branches.

''For those of you that don't want to compile [[aMule]] from source, there is also the option of the [[Win32_binary|aMule Windows Installer]].''

== Requirements for compiling [[aMule]] ==

You will need the following packages:

*[http://www.microsoft.com/windows Windows] port of [http://gcc.gnu.org GNU C compiler], [http://www.mingw.org MinGW] -> [http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/mingw/MinGW-5.1.3.exe?download Download (5.1.3)]
*Minimal [http://www.gnu.org GNU] shell for [http://www.microsoft.com/windows Windows], [http://www.mingw.org/msys.shtml MSys] -> [http://prdownloads.sf.net/mingw/MSYS-1.0.10.exe?download Download (1.0.10)]
*Developer toolkit for [http://www.mingw.org/msys.shtml MSys] (for [http://www.gnu.org/software/cvs CVS] & co) -> [http://prdownloads.sf.net/mingw/msysDTK-1.0.1.exe?download Download (1.0.1)]
*[http://www.gnu.org/software/libiconv LibIConv] (required by [http://www.gnu.org/software/gettext gettext]) -> [http://prdownloads.sf.net/mingw/libiconv-1.8.0-2003.02.01-1.exe?download Download (1.8)]
*[http://www.gnu.org/software/gettext GetText] (for [http://www.gnu.org/software/gettext po files], [http://www.gnu.org/software/automake/automake.html autogen.sh], etc) -> [http://prdownloads.sf.net/mingw/gettext-0.11.5-2003.02.01-1.exe?download Download (0.11.5)]
*[http://www.zlib.org zlib] compression library -> [http://www.zlib.net/zlib-1.2.3.tar.gz Download (1.2.3)]
*[http://www.microsoft.com/windows Windows] port of [[wxWidgets]] library (knows as [[wxWidgets|wxMSW]]) -> [http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/wxwindows/wxMSW-2.6.1.zip Download (2.6.1)]
* [http://www.cryptopp.com/ Crypto++] library -> [http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/cryptopp/cryptopp552.zip Download(5.5.2)]
*[[aMule]]'s latest release sources or [[aMule CVS]] -> [http://www.hirnriss.net/?area=cvs Download aMule]
* ActivePerl -> [http://www.activestate.com/store/activeperl/download/ Download]

Also, 800MB-1500MB free space on your hard disk (around 40MB to download the above packages and the rest for temporary compilation files and installations. The amount of space needed will largely depend on the configuration flags you use).

As a reference, the whole compilation process will take around 3 hours on a medium-high resourced computer.

== Installing the Minimal System ==

The first step is to create a [http://www.kernel.org Linux]-like environment, which is required in order to be able to perform the build. This can be done by following these steps '''in this order''':

#Install [http://www.mingw.org MinGW]. Select ''Compact installation'' unless you know what you are doing. When it prompts you for a folder, the default (''C:\mingw'') is slightly messy but the safer selection.
#Install [http://www.mingw.org/msys.shtml MSys]. When it prompts you for the [http://www.mingw.org MinGW] folder, it's very important to specify it correctly. Failure on this step will stop any compilation attempts. If for some reason you fail, install [http://www.mingw.org/msys.shtml MSys] again, or edit the file ''/etc/fstab'' in your [http://www.mingw.org/msys.shtml MSys] environment.
#Install the [http://www.mingw.org/msys.shtml MSys] developer toolkit.
#Install [http://www.gnu.org/software/libiconv LibIConv].
#Install [http://www.gnu.org/software/gettext GetText].
#Install ActivePerl.

== Compiling the libraries ==

There are three libraries that [[aMule]] will need compiled: [http://www.zlib.org zlib] [[libcrypto]] and [[wxWidgets]].

We will compile them from [http://www.mingw.org/msys.shtml MSys], so just run it. Once you are running [http://www.mingw.org/msys.shtml MSys], you'll be on your home folder. Copy the [http://www.zlib.org zlib] and [[wxWidgets]] files you downloaded above into this folder (something like ''C:\msys\1.0\home\'''user''''').

The steps for compiling them is as follow:
(Hint: If you are using a multi-core system, you can speed up compiling by adding "-jX" after the make command, where X is the number of cores in your system plus one. For instance, ''./configure --prefix=/mingw && make -j3 && make install'')

#[http://www.zlib.org zlib]: Uncompress [http://www.zlib.org zlib], cd to the newly created directory and run ''./configure --prefix=/mingw && make && make install''
#[[wxWidgets]]: Uncompress [[wxWidgets]], cd to the newly created directory and run ''./configure --enable-unicode --disable-shared --without-checklistbox && make && make install''
#[[Libcrypto]]: Uncompress the Crypto++ libraries (you'll need to create a directory yourself!), cd to the newly created directory and run ''make && PREFIX=/mingw/ make install''

If you want to help us developers, you can add ''--enable-debug'' flag to the [[wxWidgets]] configure command, right after ''--disable-shared'', but be warned it will result into an ''aMule.exe'' file bigger than 100MB.

== Compilation ==

Ok, we're all done with the compilation environment. Let's do the last step: compiling [[aMule]].

First of all, extract [[aMule]]'s sources and enter the newly created folder.

The compilation itself is actually just a matter of following the usual method: ''./configure && make''. Use your favorite flags on ''./configure'', for example, ''--disable-debug'' will remove debug info, but will also make it harder for us developers to understand the bugs you might find.

You might want to compile just the remote GUI: the flags would be ''--disable-monolithic --disable-ed2k --enable-amule-gui''

'''Beware:''' The following programs do not work yet on [http://www.microsoft.com/windows Windows]:
*[[aMuled|aMule Daemon]]: Doesn't even compile.
*[[CAS]]: Fails to find the [[signature]] file.

'''Note:''' To keep the size of the binaries down, you can run ''strip'' from within [http://www.mingw.org/msys.shtml MSys], e.g. ''find . -name '*.exe' -print | xargs -r strip''.

== Running ==

To run the binaries we've created you need ''mingwm10.dll''. This file can be found in ''C:\MinGW\bin\mingwm10.dll'' (or whatever path you used to install [http://www.mingw.org MinGW]).

You now have to place this file in some place so that the binaries find it when they are executed. Here you have three options:

#Place it in the same folder where the binaries are (if you have them spread in several different folders, copy this file once into each folder. Since it is a very small file, it is not much of a loss).
#Place it in ''C:\windows'' or some other any other path where [http://www.microsoft.com/windows Windows] might look for libraries (such as ''C:\Windows\System'' or ''C:\Windows\System32'').
#Add ''C:\MinGW\bin'' (or whatever path you used to install [http://www.mingw.org MinGW]) to your ''PATH'' environment variable.

Now... just run your binaries and have fun with [[aMule]] on your [http://www.microsoft.com/windows Windows] box!

'''Note:''' By default, the binaries are compiled to ''C:\MSys\1.0\home\'''user'''\amule-2.0.3\src\''.

== Having different languages ==

Now [[aMule]] will be successfully running, but you will not be able to use any other language but default english.

TO be able to choose between any of the lot of languages [[aMule]] is shipped with, from [http://www.mingw.org/msys.shtml MSys] go to [[aMule]]'s extracted folder and then into ''po/'' folder. Something like the following should do it:

cd
cd amule-2.0.3/po

Now install the languages:

make install-data-yes

This language files are now in ''C:\MSys\1.0\local\share\locale'', so exit [http://www.mingw.org/msys.shtml MSys], go to ''C:\msys\1.0\local\share\locale'' and copy that folder to the folder were you are keeping your compiled ''amule.exe'' and ''amulegui.exe'' files.

== Downloading precompiled win32 version ==

'''Keep in mind this is a user contributed build. Install it at your own risk'''

If you prefer a stable (and more recent) build, you can grab amulegui from the stable 2.1.1 sources here:
http://conrausch.elise.no-ip.com/aMuleGUI-2.1.1-all_lang.zip

Again, this is a user contributed build, which you should not trust ;). It works pretty well though. It is a little big (almost 3MB), but it contains the .dll plus all language packs that were available with the release. For problems with this one, please contact conrausch [at] gmx de

== Author ==
Originally by '''[[User:Madcat|Madcat]]'''

AMule Project FAQ - User contributions [en]

HowTo compile on Win32 with MinGW