Re: [Mingw-users] good reference to use libraries in mingw?

[Greg C. <chi...@mi...>]

Kenneth Long wrote:
> 
> I'm kind fo new using MinGW. I cna install and
> compile some programs. I'm using Msys 1.0, too.
> 
> I've been able to install some libraries, such 
> as zlib. (configure, make, make install)
> 
> The library is created... and out there.

Presumably 'make install' put it in some canonical
location such as /usr/local/lib/ in MSYS, which might
be the same as c:\msys\1.0\usr\local\lib .

> I have another application...one that only has a
> pre-made makefile, no configure routine. 
> 
> when I go to compile, my libz.a is not found. 
> its not in my environment?  I thought make install
> would setup so that its available. I guess not.

There's no 'environment' that registers the location
of installed packages to make them universally
available. There are conventions that work for
packages that respect them. A makefile that expects
zlib to be in c:\Program Files\zlib\lib because
that's the way the author's computer is set up is
unlikely to find the zlib you created with
'make install'.

> Should I edit my makefile to include this other
> libraries?
> 
> I'm not sure the best way to go about doing this...
> I can move my library to Mingw lib and include
> directories... but I'd rather not do _that_.

I'd probably look for a variable in that makefile
that specifies the library path it searches, and
pass an appropriate value for that variable when
invoking 'make', e.g.

   make ZLIB_PATH=/usr/local/lib

The path for zlib's headers can be handled
similarly.