使用Mingw构建环境C ++？

Question

I haven't programmed for a while and am trying to set up my build environment on a new laptop. I've just forgotten how and think that I did allot of things wrong last time!

What I'm trying to do is have that common Include Directory and common Lib directory so when I build projects or other dependencies, etc... my compiler is able to find all the include and lib files it needs. I'm not formally trained so some obvious things to you guys are learning points for me.

I'm going to use a Mingw compiler and MSYS. Off memory I put the Include directory and the lib directory in the Mingw directory but I could be wrong there.

I'm just trying to set up an effective and simple build environment on Windows 7.

Where should all my directories go? Thanks

Answer 1

If you aren't already, MSYS2 is generally preferred over MSYS. I'm going to answer this assuming MSYS2. I use the 64 bit version, so that is what I'll show, but it should be simple enough to change.

I will also assume you put the msys64 directory in the base directory, if not replace C:/msys64/ with C:/wherever/you/put/it/msys64/ .

When using the msys shell, /c/msys64/usr/ is the same as C:/msys64/usr/ which is the same as /usr/ since it tries to blend Linux file organization with windows, and it can sometimes be slightly unintuitive. When you install msys libraries, usually the include files are in C:/msys64/usr/include/ and the libraries are in C:/msys64/usr/lib/ . The exception to this is when you have a 64-bit version and a 32-bit version of a program, in which case the headers are in C:/msys64/mingw64/include/ and the libs in C:/msys64/mingw64/lib/ for 64-bit ( mingw32 for 32 bit).

In order to build using these, you will need to add the appropriate include paths and library paths. So, to make all 64-bit programs available, you would add the following flags

-IC:/msys64/usr/include -IC:/msys64/mingw64/include -LC:/msys64/usr/lib -LC:/msys64/mingw64/lib

When you compile your own programs from source, you put them wherever you'd like. It is best not to put them in the same directory as the package manager to avoid collisions. Running make install sometimes won't run as seamlessly on msys as it would on linux. In these cases, creating a folder such as C:/msys64/custom/include/ is a safer alternative. See https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/30/where-should-i-put-software-i-compile-myself for some more insight on this.