INSTALL.windows

This file contains instructions for building Piqi on Windows platform.

Windows build described in this documented relies on MinGW/Msys. Building Piqi
using Microsoft toolchain has not been tested.


(Piqi also successfully builds and runs on Windows under Cygwin. For building
Piqi under Cygwin, follow general instructions for Unix platforms provided in
INSTALL file.

Note that under Cygwin, there could be problems with broken/outdated OCaml and
Flexdll versions. These problems can be usually solved by downloading the latest
versions of Flexdll and OCaml and building them from sources.)


INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS
=========================

1. Download and install prerequisites

1.1. MinGW and Msys

        Install MinGW and Msys using automated installer which can be downloaded
        from here:

                http://sourceforge.net/projects/mingw/files/Automated%20MinGW%20Installer/mingw-get-inst/

        Refer to MinGW website for additional information if necessary:
                
                http://www.mingw.org

        If you choose to install MinGW to non-default location (c:\mingw), make
        sure the location doesn't contain spaces in directory names.


1.2. OCaml compiler suite

        Download and install binary OCaml distribution for Windows from the
        official website:

                http://caml.inria.fr/download.en.html

        The website offers two kinds of binary distributions for Windows: the
        first one is based on MinGW and the second one relies on Microsoft
        compiler toolchain.

        It is critical that the one that is based on MinGW is installed.

        The latest OCaml version, distributed through the official website, that
        is known to work can be downloaded using this URL:

                http://caml.inria.fr/pub/distrib/ocaml-3.11/ocaml-3.11.0-win-mgw.exe


1.3. Flexdll
        
        Download and run self-extracting Flexdll installer from here:

                http://alain.frisch.fr/flexdll.html#download


1.4. Ocamlfind/Findlib -- library manager for OCaml

        Download findlib sources (but don't build it yet!):

                http://projects.camlcity.org/projects/findlib.html

        Put the tarball to some filesystem location, for example, to
        "c:\build\".


1.5. Piqi source code distribution

        Download Piqi sources (but don't try to build it!):

                http://piqi.org/downloads/

        Put the Piqi tarball to the same filesystem location where you've put
        the findlib archive (e.g. "c:\build\").


2. Build Findlib and Piqi


2.1. Start MinGW shell

        Start MinGW/Msys shell. The MinGW installer usually creates a desktop
        shortcut for it.

        Go to your build directory:
                
                cd c:/build


2.2. Unpack Findlib

        tar -xzf findlib-*


2.3. Unpack Piqi sources

        tar -xzf piqi-*

        Ignore all warnings and errors printed by tar.


2.4. Configure Windows-specific build parameters

        Note: this step is not necessary if MinGW, OCaml and Flexdll are
        installed to the default locations suggested by their installers.

        Use your favorite editor to setup environment variables in

                c:\build\piqi\setenv-mingw.sh


2.5. Apply build parameters

        Go back to the opened MinGW shell and type the following commands:

                cd piqi

                . setenv-mingw.sh


2.6. Build and install Findlib

        Now, go to the unpacked findlib source code directory:

                cd ..

                cd findlib-<version>
        
        
        And do the following:

                ./configure

                make all

                make opt

                make install

        Note: once you've build and installed Findlib, you will no longer need
        to repeat this step for subsequent Piqi builds.


2.7. Build Piqi
        
        Go back to the unpacked Piqi source code directory:

                cd ..

                cd piqi


        Run the following commands:

                make deps

                make


        Successful build will produce two stand-alone Windows executables:

               piqi-tools/piqi.exe

               piqic/piqic.exe


3. Further actions that are not specific to Windows

        Refer to general instructions provided in INSTALL file.