Re: [Mingw-users] Trying to understand how to use MinGW/msys to configure and make a GNU package

[John B. <joh...@ho...>]

On Thu, 21 Nov 2013 00:26:51 -0500, Peter J. Farley III wrote:

[snip/] 
> My goal is to be able to take a GNU project -- e.g. gawk 4.1 -- and
> figure out how to run the configure step to create the Makefile(s) and
> then use mingw32-make to build a MinGW executable, not an msys
> executable.
> 
[snip]> ...  configure does
> not find things I think I see as supported in MinGW/msys, like
> "dlfcn.h" for the dynamic linking facility.
> > Well, at least I think "dlfcn.h" is supported.  I saw that the
> MinGW/msys version of "dlfcn.h" exists only in the msys include
> directory, not in the MinGW include directory.  Does that mean that
> "dlopen" functions are only supported for msys-based executables?
Such POSIX features are not available to a MinGW program unless theyhave been ported. In the specific case, you can tryhttps://code.google.com/p/dlfcn-win32/.
> I
> tried exporting CFLAGS and LDFLAGS definitions containing both the
> MinGW include and msys include directories before running the
> configure script, but "dlfcn.h" was still not found.
> 
That was the wrong thing to do, so luckily it did not work.
> I guess I am just not quite getting what GNU facilities are available
> for pure MinGW compiles.  Is it only what is contained in the MinGW
> include directory?  So, for instance, "stdarg.h" is not available for
> MinGW compiles, only for msys compiles, since "stdarg.h" lives only in
> msys include?
> 
That is correct. If the bare MinGW installation does not include a librarythat you need, then you must install it under /mingw, or install it whereveryou like (except under the msys include and lib directories, of course)and adjust your CFLAGS and LDFLAGS appropriately. If you are lucky,the library can be built by MinGW. Otherwise, you must find a port fromGNUWin32 or wherever, or port it yourself.
> I see in zip files pulled from ezwinports that the entire GNU
> configure process is bypassed and Eli's hand-crafted Makefile's are
> substituted instead (e.g., for gawk 4.x).  Is this the only way to
> build MinGW versions of GNU projects?
No, the standard process should work as long as the prerequisites arein place.
[snip/] 
Regards,John Brown.