Compiling linux library for mingw

Question

I have been using a socket library for C++. Some other info: 32 bit Linux, Codelite and GCC toolset. I want to be able to compile my program for Windows using the windows edition of Codelite. The socket library I have been using doesn't have a mingw32 build of the library, but it's open source. So how can I make a mingw32 build of the socket library so I can make a windows build using the source provided?

Answer 1

Most open source linux libraries are built with the make build system (although there others like jam etc, and custom written scripts for building). MinGW comes with the make utility, it's mingw32-make.exe . It may be possible (if you're lucky) to simply rebuild your library by making it on Windows.

The more usual scenario is that you will need to configure the project before you can build it though. The windows shell doesn't support the scripting requirements required to configure, but there's another part of the MinGW project that does called MSYS . If you install msys and all the required tools you need for it, you'll be able to ./configure your project before running make.

Of course, the above will only work if the library is written to be portable. There are some breaking difference between the linux socket implementation (sys/socket.h), and the windows implementation (winsock2.h). You may be forced to edit chunks of the code to ensure that it is versioned correctly for the platform (or that any dependencies required are also built for Windows).

Also, there is the chance that the library may already be built for Windows, but using a different compiler like MSVC, which produces .lib and .dll files. Mingw requires .a files for libraries, but a clever feature is the ability to link directly against a .dll, without the need for an imports library, so you can often use an existing windows library that was not built against Mingw (Although this won't help for static linking). There is also a tool, dlltool , which can convert .lib to .a.

If you give detail on the specific library you're working with, I may be able to pick out for you what needs to be done to run it on Win.

Answer 2

You port it to the new platform. :)

You're fortunate that it is opensource, because then it would be practically impossible to port it (You'd have to pay $$$'s to get a copy of the code for a particular license, or rewrite the entire product).

Enjoy.

Alternatively, they may well already have a port... Check the documentation for the library you are using.

Answer 3

首先，您需要确保不包括任何Linux特定的库。