Re: [xml] compile libxml2.7.8 under cygwin&Win7 with mingw toolchain

[Earnie <earnie users sourceforge net>]

lin hong wrote:
> Hi, all
>
> we are making a release of our software with libxml under windows. we end
> up compiling it from source code, I thought it might worth writing it down
> here.
>
> first thing is, if you don't care about dependency of cygwin libraries
> (which means the program require cygwin installed to run), just get libxml
> through cygwin setup. For us, it's not fair to ask normal user to install
> cygwin, so we try binary first.

I'm more comfortable with MSYS.

> we got the binary from http://xmlsoft.org/sources/win32/
>
> but it does not work on cygwin + Win7 , just try to run any exe file under
> /bin dir, we got this.
>
> ./xsltproc.exe
> /usr/i686-pc-mingw32/xslt_xml2/bin/xsltproc.exe: error while loading
> shared libraries: ?: cannot open shared object file: No such file or
> directory

Where do the .dll live?  In /usr/i686-pc-mingw32/xslt_xml2/bin?  If not,
you'll need to add the path to the dll to PATH or move the dll to this
xslt_xml2/bin directory.

> I believe it works for WinXP because I saw the msg on the website:
> "The binaries are supported on an operating system based on the NT-kernel,
> such as Windows NT, Windows 2000 and Windows XP, exclusively"
>
> also it seems require iconv, which we don't really need.

libxslt requires it.

> anyway, we decide to compile it ourselves,  here are the changes I did:

You'll need the patches I just submitted to this list.

> 0. for windows, makefile and configure are under /win32, run configure
> like Readme.txt sugguests:

I believe you'll need to specify the --host switch if you're using Cygwin.

> cscript configure.js threads:no static:yes compiler:mingw iconv:no
> prefix=where_you_want_to_install   include=where_your_mingw_include_is 
> lib=where_your_mingw_lib_is debug=yes
>
> 1. We are using mingw , so Makefile.mingw is the one for us. modify
> Makefile.mingw:

With MSYS I just use configure to create the Makefile.

> 1.1 We want the program be independent from cygwin library, add
> "-mno-cygwin" to CC
> ! CC = gcc.exe -mno-cygwin

The -mno-cygwin switch is dead.  Cygwin now uses a cross build concept
instead of a bastardized separation of MinGW gcc and Cygwin gcc.  This
is the reason you'll need to specify the --host if you Cygwin to
configure it.

> 1.2 Want more output during compiling? add "-v"
> ! CFLAGS += -v -DWIN32 -D_WINDOWS -D_MBCS -DNOLIBTOOL

I don't know about these defines, I did not have to do that.

> 1.3 The default gcc linker refuse to look into Mingw directory before
> Cygwin directory, I don't know why, so I use flexlink instead, modify LD:

Again you need to add --host to the configure.

> LD = flexlink
> also add flags flexlink needs:
> + #flexlink flag
> + FL_LDFLAGS = -chain mingw
> + FL_LDFLAGS += -L $(BINDIR) -L $(LIBPREFIX)

I don't have any idea what flexlink is.

> 1.4 Then call our LD with its flags to make "dll"
> # Creates the libxml shared object.
> ! #XMLSO_LDFLAGS = $(LDFLAGS) -shared -Wl,--dll
> -Wl,--out-implib,$(BINDIR)/$(XML_IMP)
>   $(BINDIR)/$(XML_SO) : $(BINDIR) $(XML_OBJS)
> !  $(LD) $(FL_LDFLAGS) -o $(BINDIR)/$(XML_SO) $(XML_OBJS) $(LIBS)

Configure with --disable-static --enable-shared or vice versa.

> 1.5 Make ".a" , there is a typo in the original makefile, they mess up the
> "/" with "\" -- you will get a "bin.mingwlibxml2.a" instead of
> "bin.mingw/libxml2.a" because of this.
>  # Creates the libxml archive.
>   $(BINDIR)/$(XML_A) : $(BINDIR) $(XML_OBJS_A)
> !  $(AR) $(ARFLAGS) $(BINDIR)/$(XML_A) $(XML_OBJS_A)

The Makefile.mingw is probably constructed to be used with mingw32-make
which can handle the \ in paths but lacks in other things.

> 1.6 Make sure STATIC is set to 1 in config.mingw -- if you did configure
> with "static:yes", you are good. Add "-exe" to flexlink so it will create
> executable instead of dll file.
> ! # An implicit rule for xmllint and friends.
> ! # STATIC=1 is set in config.mingw
> ! # I also change XML_BASENAME to XML_NAME.(-llibxml2 to -lxml2)
>   ifeq ($(STATIC),1)
>   $(BINDIR)/%.exe : $(UTILS_SRCDIR)/%.c
>    $(CC) -DLIBXML_STATIC $(CFLAGS) -o $(subst .c,.o,$(UTILS_INTDIR)/$(<F))
> -c $<
> !  # $(LD) $(LDFLAGS) -o $@ $(subst .c,.o,$(UTILS_INTDIR)/$(<F))
> -l$(XML_BASENAME) $(LIBS)
> !  $(LD) $(FL_LDFLAGS) -exe -o $@ $(subst .c,.o,$(UTILS_INTDIR)/$(<F))
> -l$(XML_NAME) $(LIBS)
>
> That's pretty much everything for makefile.
>
> 3. so far everything we did so far is under win32, config.h in the upper
> dir needs to be changed
>
> in config.h, find these two undef
>
>    /* Determine what socket length (socklen_t) data type is */
>    #undef XML_SOCKLEN_T
>    /* Define to 1 if you have the <stdint.h> header file. */
>    #undef HAVE_STDINT_H
>
> Define them
>
> Without stdint.h you will get error message like "uint32 undefined".
>
> 4. set flag C_INCLUDE_PATH.
> Set c_include_path flag can fix the "could not find libxml/xxx.h" problem
> Head files are under /libxml2-2.7.8/include and
> /libxml2-2.7.8/include/libxml/,
> to make our gcc look into these directories, we need to point
> C_INCLUDE_PATH to them,  just setting C_FLAGS is NOT enough -- that's
> really really strange.
> although later I found out /libxml2-2.7.8/libxml/ also have a set of all
> head files, so maybe pointing C_INCLUDE_PATH to that is also ok.
>
>
> OK,  take a breath and run
>
> make -f Makefile.mingw
>
> that's it.

Without my patch xmlcatalog will fail to read the entries in the catalog
if you use GCC-4.6.1.

All I needed to do with MinGW + MSYS otherwise was

cd libxml2-2.7.8
mkdir bld
cd bld
../configure --prefix=/mingw --without-python --enable-shared
--disable-static
make
make install

I've also built it with the python bindings but you must ensure that
your environment is set up with PYTHON variables.

-- 
Earnie
-- https://sites.google.com/site/earnieboyd/