I compiled and ran a C++ program using Eclipse on my MacBook Pro. I now need to convert the Unix executable to a windows executable. How do I go about this? Specifally, how do I get this code to run on a Windows machine from the command prompt?
The only way you can get the unix executable to run on a Windows system is using a virtual machine (Something like VMWare or VirtualBox). This isn't REALLY running it on Windows, of course, it's setting up a UNIX system on Windows and running it on that UNIX system.
The executables (and the needed runtime environment) are vastly different between the two systems, you can't just run executables from one on the other.
Your only other option is to setup Eclipse on your Windows system and compile the application there.
You cannot "convert" an executable, you need to recompile for your target system. If you are using a GCC toolchain that is set up for Eclipse and there is no Mac specific code, it should be as easy as moving the project over, setting it up in Eclipse, and recompiling it. If that is too much of a hassle, you can consider setting up a Makefile and using MingW or Cygwin, or even Visual Studio if you'd like. If there is Mac specific code, then you need to look up the appropriate Windows documentation, or use something cross-platform like GTK+ or Qt.
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I have created a C++ standalone exe with VS2019.
This exe uses 1 external ressource file.
This exe creates WAV files.
It does not use any special libraries.
I have been asked if this application runs under Linux, too.
What would I have to do / check to see if / how I can compile my application for Linux, and would that be possible using VS2019?
Thank you very much for the help.
ps: Here is a screenshot of the properties of my project:
Usually to build C++ applications for Linux, you must first use a compiler that will build for the target OS. In this case VS2019 (and it's associated compiler) builds executables for Windows only.
If you're trying to target Linux, you have two options:
You can move over to a Linux system and build your project with the GNU c++ compiler (I recommend using CMAKE to build your project since it's not tied to any particular IDE and can generate makefiles for gcc). https://cmake.org/cmake-tutorial/
You can install the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) and do a remote build with VS2019. You'll see more and more of this these days in production environments. https://devblogs.microsoft.com/cppblog/linux-development-with-c-in-visual-studio-2019-wsl-asan-for-linux-separation-of-build-and-debug/
Hope this helps!
Ideally, I want to compile our QT-based apps, which also link other third-party libraries, on 64-bit Linux using GCC, but for a 64-bit Windows target. Again ideally, I want the result to run on 64-bit Windows without any additional runtime support, just as if we had compiled the same source code in Visual Studio. Is this possible with MinGW-w64?
I have successfully used MinGW-w64 to compile simple apps with GCC on Windows. I'm not sure how much of the MinGW-w64 installation is runtime support for executables as opposed to support for the GCC compilation environment. I did attempt to run a WinGW-w64 hello world executable on an installation of Windows without MinGW-w64, but had missing dll errors. This tells me that some runtime support was necessary, but I would like to know more precisely what is required.
If you don't want to install Windows, I think the best way is using a Virtual Machine. That's because even if the source code compiles for Windows, how could it be verified to run? You will need a real target environment to finally test your application.
From a complexity point of view, I think setting up a Windows machine (VM or not) and the necessary environment for Qt is a whole lot simpler than cross compiling bug hunting afterwards.
You can install Qt on the installed Windows, copy your project there, compile it and see the results in the real environment. This way you can cope with the minor differences when porting from one OS to another easily.
Nothing stops you from developing on Linux. You can do the entire development on Linux and just test the code on the prepared Windows by compiling and running. Sending the code to the Windows environment is simple by using git. The development process can be like :
Make a repository of your application, clone the repository both on Linux and Windows
Do the Major development on Linux and push
Pull on Windows from time to time, compile, test and make minor fixes and then push
I have an application written in C++ using wxWidgets. How can I compile it for Linux and Unix os like Debian, FreeBSD, CentOS, in Windows?
Thanks!
Not entirely sure if I understood the question, but I think you are asking if you can compile an application for linux using a compiler in the windows environment.
My short answer: No, but.
The but: You may be able to use Cygwin in windows, however I think there is an easier way. If you are uncomfortable with setting up your computer to have multiple partitions and installing linux on at least one of these partitions, you can use VirtualBox, VMWare, or similar virtualization software to "install" linux on your windows machine. From there you can set up build environments and such. As for how, I would leave your windows build as is, but then in create a Makefile for Linux (or use CMake to replace both your windows-specific builder (the vsproj if using visual studio, etc) and linux-specific builder (make)) so that your source will compile both on windows and linux without having to modify the actual code or project.
i would recommend to use CMake as build system
I am working on a C, project which uses ffmpeg library.
Currently I'm working on windows platform, and I'll be cross compiling the project for Linux ARM.
With that background, I have few basic questions.
If I use ANSI C++, I can be sure that, I'll be able to cross compile the project using corresponding compilers [ MSVC, MingW ]
But ..
If I'm using "Win32" and other "Windows" specific APIs in my project, how does the cross compiler will handle it, to make the project able to run on Linux.
Similarly, If I'm using Linux specific "features" in my project, how does the cross compiler will handle it, to make the project able to run on Windows.
When you cross-compile, the code that is being cross-compiled must use APIs that are available on the target platform (ie, the one that it will eventually run on). A cross-compiler does not magically give access to Win32 APIs when its output is run on a Linux machine; it is the same as compiling the code on the target machine, but means you don't need to actually do so. You could achieve the same thing, in other words, by just running a native (non-cross) compiler on an ARM Linux box, but you'd need a powerful enough ARM box to run the compiler.
That said, in principle, you could cross-compile to Linux while using winelib to provide win32 APIs. Not sure how well it works on ARM though - it's only really meant to be used on x86.
Finally, note that cross-compiling tends to be quite complex even in the best of times. It may make your life simpler to cross-compile from x86 Linux to ARM Linux instead of x86 Windows to ARM Linux - while it's possible to do cross-OS and cross-platform builds, the less variables you have changing the simpler things will be.
If you use Winapi, your project will not be able to run on Linux.
I have eclipse installed on windows and use cygwin to develop programs for linux. I compile using the cygwin toolchain and I also do my tests on cygwin.
Now I would like to compile my program also with the native linux toolchain and I also would like to debug it from the windows machine.
Is something possible with Indigo SR2? What is the best way to accomplish this?
I found this but then I would have two projects one for windows and one for linux. I would like to have just one project for both platforms to avoid syncrhonizing the sources back and forth.
Thanks.
I guess you want a cross platform development environment.
There are various tools for the job, but my choice would be CMake. Basically, you will write CMakelists.txt file instead of Eclipse .classpath and .project files, and generate those files with cmake executable. But in details, you will need to overcome some difficulties which are inherent in cross platform development.
I have successfully created more than one project with these tools, and they currently under a heavy load.