Re: [Mingw-msys] What is the difference between the tools in msys and mingw

[Charles W. <cwi...@us...>]

zwz wrote:
> I use mingw+msys on Windows.
> I find there are some tools in both msys and mingw, such as libtool,
> autoconf, automake, xz, zlib etc..
> 
> This really confuses me. I do not know why there will be two versions.
> What is the difference? Which one should I use?

The packages that are available in both "mingw" and "msys" flavors can
be divided into three groups:

1) autoconf, automake, libtool, gettext, libiconv:
These are "autotools".  The "mingw" versions are the tools suitable for
use when you want to build or maintain mingw (that is, native win32)
applications and libraries.  In other words, the mingw versions are the
ones most people want.  The "msys" versions are used to build and
maintain msys tools.  Most people have no need for the "msys" versions
-- except for the runtime library
libltdl-2.2.7a-1-msys-1.0.11-dll-7.tar.lzma, which is needed by some of
the other msys applications.

2) gzip, bzip2, xz, (and eventually, libarchive/bsdtar)
These are archiving and compression tools. Either version may be used.
Historically, we have provided the msys versions.  The mingw versions
are a new addition -- that eventually will allow us to ship a "mingw"
version of bsdtar that supports (gz/bzip2/lzma/xz) compression. With
this new tool -- not yet available -- you will be able to "unpack"
packages distributed by mingw.org on a "virgin" system -- one that does
not already contain an existing msys installation.  (The msys versions
of gzip/bzip2/xz/libarchive/bsdtar/GNUtar all require the msys dll
itself to have already been installed).  I also expect that the new,
currently-in-development mingw-get installer program will be compiled
using the mingw gzip/bzip2/xz libraries so that it, too, will be able to
deal with compressed archives.

HOWEVER, if you a;lready have a regular MSYS installation, then the msys
versions of these tools are normally preferred.

3) others: cygutils, popt
popt is a runtime library used by cygutils. You only need the msys
version if you have installed the msys version of cygutils. You only
need the mingw version if you have installed the mingw version of cygutils.

As for cygutils itself, the "cygutils-dos2unix" package is provided in
both msys and mingw flavors as a historical curiosity: the mingw version
replaces (part of) the historical "mingw-utils" package, which in
version 0.3 provided dos2unix/unix2dos programs.  The msys version
provides updated versions of the d2u/u2d *scripts* that have been part
of the core msys package for many years.  You don't NEED either, and it
really doesn't matter which flavor of cygutils-dos2unix you install --
or neither, or both.

Note that cygutils-1.3.4-3-msys-1.0.11-bin is available only in an msys
flavor. It provides the cygutils tools OTHER than d2u/u2d.

Hope that helps.

--
Chuck