I have a C++ module on windows which I want to compile such that I get a dynamic library for linux *.so.
Does a cross-compiler exist that can help me out?
Several comments mentioned using Windows Subsystem for Linux. I would personally recommend this as it is far easier than trying to use a cross-compiler. It also comes with the added benefit that you can test your code in the same environment in which you compile it.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/about is a great resource for getting started with WSL.
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My experience with C++, GCC, MinGW and Cygwin is very limited. However, I already tested it and realized that Cygwin is not the ideal solution for what I am trying to do. Even though a GTK+ program with GTKWebkit works fine on Cygwin, it's not that great in terms of packaging the final project to a single .exe. The dependency on the cywin1.dll, etc... is a deal breaker.
I tested MinGW and it works flawlessly for a standard GTK only application in Windows. And the file size is great!
I tested a standard GCC compiler to compile a GTK & WebKitGtk application on Mac and it worked flawlessly.
But in the windows world where I am getting confused with GTK and WebkitGTK. What I want to do is compile a sample WebkitGTK application on Windows using MinGW. So, all the required libraries are statically linked and has a single .exe.
What are my choices? How do I actually build WebsiteGTK on Windows? Please give me the tools and as much details as you can.
FYI, QtWebkit is not going to cut it. Their licensing terms are not that commercial friendly.
I never did get WebKitGtk to compile on Windows. I think I could have got it to work using cygwin, but that's a non-starter for the project I'm working on.
I ended up using Chromium Embedded Framework instead: https://code.google.com/p/chromiumembedded/. It has clear instructions and sample apps for Mac, Linux, Windows, and mobile.
Here someone says that the easiest way to do that it's to cross-compile from virtual machine. Actually, there is binary there.
He uses OpenSUSE booted through VirtualBox. Then, using osc tool, get the mingw32-webkitgtk from windows:mingw:win32 and build it with osc.
I'm working on a program which uses autotools for its build system and compiles fine on linux. To build for windows I'm trying to get a mingw cross-compiler working for windows. Now when I compile on linux and move to windows of course I am missing some dll's that are not installed by default on windows. This leads to missing dll errors. I cannot statically link my program due to restrictions in the LGPL.
So my question is what is the correct way to cross compile in this situation? I feel like I need to wrap my exe in a installer which automatically resolves and installs the dll dependencies for windows but I haven't been able to locate something explaining how to do this. Basically I'm thinking of yum/apt-get for windows. How do I manage dll dependencies on windows? I'm a linux guy, not a windows guy, so please bear with me.
Probably the easiest thing would be if you could move your development to a Windows machine. But short of that, you could install Windows-Mingw on your Linux machine using Wine. (IIRC winetricks has even a target for this) That way you get a "feel" for the issues on windows. An alternative could be Windows in a virtual machine, but Wine should be ok for a development environment.
I also strongly suggest that you install Microsoft Visual C++. The express versions will do fine. There are a number of tools coming with MSVC++ that can make your life a lot easier, like dll-dependency checker etc. An additional excellent source of information are the Sysinternals tools from Mark Russinovich and his blog.
I want to build cross-platform statically linked library in C++.
How am I supposed to do this(I am a complete NOOB, never been using g++,gcc,mingw etc I looked on the internet for a solution to my problem, but didn't find anything. Except that mingw is a Minimalist GNU for Windows...)? I've been always using Visual c++ on windows, but now I have to build lib which will be attached to Qt projects for: windows,mac,linux.
If anyone know a good tutorial, on using compilers, and how to build libraries, I'll appreciate sharing them here :)
Thanks, may the force be with you.
MinGW is a very good compiler! I use it all the time. Even though MinGW stands for Minimalist GNU for Windows, MinGW has everything you need to program in either C++ or C. If you are creating a QT Application, I recommend using QT Creator (just google it). I haven't used it lately, but I think it supports Cross-Platform compiling (as does MinGW, with some command-line commands...).
The best way to cross-compile though, is but getting a copy of each OS that you are going to compile for. So if you are doing Windows, Mac, and Linux, I recommend getting one of each (Mac OS X is around $25 and Linux is free). Then just use the included compilers (XCode on Mac; GCC on Linux) to compile. Unfortunately when you are performing cross compiling, you need to support each OS individually (some parts can shared between OSes).
Since you will be using a toolkit (QT), you probably don't have to worry much about platform specific calls or anything. Just make sure you use the QT typedefs and structs and not the Microsoft Windows ones...
I make this program in C++ using Code::Blocks on Ubuntu. I need to turn it into a Windows executable binary (.exe file), but I don't know how to do this. Is it possible?
If you meant, compiling an executable for Windows on Linux you might find some pointers on how to do that here.
Both the MinGW32 distribution of GCC and Wine should be available for your distribution.
MinGW has instructions and winegcc wraps a similar compiler that comes with the Wine distribution.
I've used both to compile both applications and libraries for Windows.
You could read here on how to compile wxWidget applications on Linux for Windows using Code::Blocks.
This is a fairly unusual question. What you're asking is that you want to develop on Ubuntu, but the target platform is Windows?
My guess is that you have an assignment to turn in. My belief is that you should go to a lab and compile it and make sure it's working.
However, doing some research, you should try mingw at http://www.mingw.org/
I have the source code for some very simple command line programs. I was considering the option of compiling them on a Linux machine (they were deveoped here) so they can be used on Windows. If I am not wrong this is called Cross-compiling. I have never tried it, but reading yesterday some information, it seems to be kind of complicated or not successful. I would like to hear about your opinions, and how could I port a simple "hello world" program, which compiles on Linux with g++.
Thanks
Look into mingw, a suite of tools for building Win32 applications in Linux. If the programs don't depend on any Linux-specific functionality not supported by mingw, you should be fine.
Note that cross-compilation is not the same thing as cross-platform. With cross compilation, you compile the code to a Windows executable on the Linux box, then transfer the executable to a Windows box. With cross-platform, you transfer the source code to the Windows box and compile to a Windows executable using a Windows compiler.
The former is quite difficult (but not impossible), the latter is very easy, using a compiler such as MinGW, a others have mentioned.
I cross-compile on a daily basis. But I don't set up cross-compilers on a daily basis. It can be tricky, but it's certainly possible.
As long as you use standard C++ your code will be cross-platform. You can also use cross-platform libraries like STL, boost, Poco, Qt, etc...
Only when you start to use platform specific code you lose portability. For example including <windows.h> will make your code only compilable on Windows. (There are techniques around this like the #ifdef macro. This enables certain code portions only on one platform.)
So a simple hello world program should work on Linux, Mac, Windows or any other platform. You don't need anything special for this.
Note:
Some may mention Cygwin or mingw32. I'll briefly explain what they are:
Cygwin allows you to compile Linux applications using gcc/g++ on a Windows machine.
Mingw32 allows you to compile Windows applications using gcc/g++ on a Windows machine.
Edit:
If you want to setup a system for cross-compilation, then I recommend that you have a look at cmake.
Yes. We are currently compiling a 250 kloc app, running Qt with daily builds. It's working prefectly everyday, although I've to admit it is not distributed outside the company, but only used internal. For official releases, Visual Studio is prefered.
Compiled using mingw standard packages on Debian.