INSTALL.txt

   Midnight Commander Win32 Native build and installation tools.

      Requirements:

           o Suitable compiler chain, from one of the following

                o Open Watcom 1.9 or the later 2.0.
                o Microsoft Visual Studio 2013 (or greater).
                o mingw32/64

           o Perl - Make system generation and run-time support.

           o Unix binary tools - Make system run-time support.

           o InnoSetup - Required for the creation of installation packages.


      Components:

           o mcsrc - Midnight Commander source (currently 4.8.29).

               mc-win32 changes enclosed within "ifdefined(WIN32)"
               and/or are labelled with "//WIN32" comment blocks.

           o mcwin32 - Windows specific code and build env.


      Build steps:

        1. binutils

              A unix style bintools needs to be available, plus the installation should be
              visible within the current PATH.

              Examples:

                o gnuwin32 [ http://unxutils.sourceforge.net/ ]

                    Note:
                    These set of tools are aging, for example the gmake bundled with gnuwin32 is
                    an older 3.81 release, which wont function correctly. GNU make 4.0 or greater
                    is required, advise replacing with the bundled 'mcwin32/support/gmake-42.exe'.

                o msys2

              Note: cygwin is not suitable nor supported.


        2. Compiler installation

              One of the following C/C++ toolchains needs to be available, plus the installation
              should be visible within the current PATH.

              Suitable distributions include:

                o Open Watcom 1.9 or the later 2.0.
                o Microsoft Visual Studio 2013 (or greater).
                o mingw32/64 [ experimental ].

              Note: OpenWatcom is currently utlised for releases.


        3. Perl installation

              A perl installation needs to be available plus the installation should be visible
              within the current PATH.

              Suitable perl distributions include:

                o ActiveState Perl.
                o Strawberry Perl.


        4. InnoSetup installation, optional

              Install InnoSetup 5.6.x within its default installation path; if modified the
              arguments to the support scripts below shall need to tbe adjusted to match,
              set the envvar INNO="<install-path>" prior to priming the tree.

              This package is optional and only required if an installer is being built.

              6.x Inno and later is also an option, but the Installer will only function on Vista
              or greater. 6.x and later versions of Inno no longer support Windows 2000, XP, and Server
              2003.


        4. Prime the build tree; generate makefiles

                 $ cd mcwin32

                 $ support\vc2015config.bat
              or $ support\vc2017config.bat
              or $ support\vc2019config.bat
              or $ support\owcconfig.bat
              or $ support\owc20config.bat

              Note:
              These scripts execute the perl module makelib.pl which generates Makefiles targeted
              for the specified toolchain.


        5. Build the entire tree with:

                 $ gmake release
              or $ support\gmake-42 release

              Usage:

                | make [VERBOSE=1] [release or debug] target
                |
                |       Build one or more of the following targets recursively within each sub-directory
                |       for the toolchain <toolchains>.
                |
                | Options:
                |       VERBOSE - increase run-time diagnostics; suppress stderr filtering.
                |
                | Targets:
                |
                |       build - build everything.
                |       package - build package.
                |       clean - delete everything which can be remade.
                |       vclean - delete all.
                |       help - command line usage.


        6. To create the installer.

                 $ support\gmake-42 release package
              or $ start mc-inno-setup.iss

              Note:
              Alternatively zip/copy the bin tree to your desired install location, as the
              application is portable.


        7. Finally, please review the packaged example alternative configurations as win32
           development environments can be problematic, dependent on the host setup:

             o .github/workflows, github build actions for latest OWC, MSVC abd MINGW toolchains.

             o Appveyor CI integration notes under mcwin32/support.

           plus other helper scripts under mcwin32/support.


Last Update: Feb/2023
=end=