This guide describes how to build a custom MSYS/MinGW development environment on windows. The goal is to create a set of matching libraries that can be used to build and distribute your own programs, with SDL2, Qt 4 or GTK 2.

The guide was inspired by the Linux from Scratch way of working. If you have experience with building packages on Linux, building an MSYS/MinGW environment should feel familiar.

The directory structure emulates a traditional UNIX system with msys installation and the mingw compiler as base system in /usr, additional binaries in /opt and our own packages in /local32 and/or /local64.

Content

Part 1: Setting up the base system
Part 2: Building local packages
Part 3: Building GTK+
Part 4: Buildling Qt
Part 5: Building extra tools
Part 6: Building projects

Thanks

• maci, for the nice examples in his Quake2World mingw scripts.
• Thomas Hooge, for the remark about building libxml2 with python installed.
• Dr Oliver Bajor for helpful remarks, recommendations and conversation.
• Paul Hentschel, for correcting the libvorbis and atk instructions.

ChangeLog

2017-06-05

• Updated compiler to gcc 7.1.0
• Updated 7zip to version 16.04
• Updated Git to version 2.13.0
• Updated Subversion to version 1.8.17
• Updated cmake to version 3.8.1
• Updated Python to version 3.6.1

• Updated zlib to version 1.2.11
• Updated nasm to version 2.13.01
• Updated SDL2 to version 2.0.5
• Updated libpng to version 1.6.29
• Updated libtiff to version 4.0.8
• Updated libwebp to version 0.6.0
• Corrected libogg docdir
• Updated flac to version 1.3.2
• Updated openssl to version 1.0.2l
• Updated curl to version 7.54.0
• Updated bullet to version 2.86.2

• Updated libiconv to version 1.15
• Updated gettext to version 0.19.8
• Updated icu4c to version 58.2
• updated glib to version 2.52.2
• updated pkg-config to version 2.29.2
• Updated freetype to version 2.8
• Updated harfbuzz to version 1.4.6
• Added libxslt version 1.1.29
• Added gperf version 3.1
• Updated fontconfig to version 2.12.3
• Updated cairo to version 1.14.8
• Updated pango to version 1.40.6
• Updated atk to version 2.24.0
• Updated gdk-pixbuf to version 2.36.6
• updated gtk2 to version 2.24.31

2016-07-16

• updated compiler to gcc 5.4
• updated 7zip to version 16.02
• updated git to version 2.9.0
• updated subversion to version 1.8.16
• updated cmake to version 3.6.0
• updated python to version 3.5.2

• updated nasm to version 2.12.02
• updated sdl to version 2.0.4
• updated libpng to version 1.6.23
• updated libjpeg to version 9b
• updated libtiff to version 4.0.6
• updated libwebp to version 0.5.1
• updated sdl_image to version 2.0.1
• updated sdl_ttf to version 2.0.14
• updated openalsoft to version 1.17.2
• updated sdl_mixer to version 2.0.1
• updated openssl to version 1.0.2h
• updated curl to version 7.46.0
• updated bullet to version 2.83.6

• updated icu4c to version 57.1
• updated glib to version 2.48.1
• updated pkg-config to version 2.29.1
• updated freetype to version 2.6.5
• updated harfbuzz to version 1.2.7
• updated expat to version 2.2.0
• updated libxml2 to version 2.9.4
• updated pixman to version 0.34.01
• updated cairo to version 1.14.6
• updated pango to version 1.40.1
• updated atk to veresion 2.20.0
• updated gdk-pixbuf to version 2.34.0
• updated gtk2 to version 2.24.30

2015-08-02

• Added OpenSSL version 1.0.2c
• Update Qt4 to version 4.8.6

2015-06-18

• Removed superfluous spaces from the libvorbis installation instructions
• Removed --disable-debug from the ATK configure options

2015-06-14

• Added icu4c version 55.1
• Added HarfBuzz version 0.9.40

2015-06-13

• Updated compiler to gcc 4.9.2
• Changed prompt color to red in 64-bit environment
• Updated PortableGit to version 1.9.5
• Updated subversion to version 1.8.13
• Updated cmake to version 3.2.3
• Added Python version 3.4.3
• Removed building instructions for legacy SDL libraries
• Added script to create the zlib pkgconfig file
• Updated nasm to version 2.11.08
• Updated libpng to version 2.6.17
• Updated libjpeg to version 9a
• Updated libtiff to version 4.0.4beta
• Updated libwebp to version 0.4.3
• Updated OpenALSoft to version 1.16.0
• Updated libogg to version 1.3.2
• Updated libvorbis to version 1.3.5
• Updated libFLAC to version 1.3.1
• Updated cURL to version 7.42.1
• Updated FreeGLUT to version 3.0.0
• Updated Bullet to version 2.83.5
• Updated GNU gettext to version 1.19.4
• Added libffi version 3.2.1
• Updated glib to version 2.44.1
• Updated FreeType to version 2.6
• Updated libXML2 to version 2.9.2
• Updated fontconfig to version 2.11.1
• Updated pixman to version 0.32.6
• Updated cairo to version 1.14.2
• Updated pango to version 1.36.8
• Updated ATK to version 2.16.0
• Updated gdk-pixbuf to version 2.31.4
• Updated GTK+ to version 2.24.28

MinGW home page
MSYS wiki
MinGW downloads on SourceForge
TDM's Experimental GCC/MinGW32 Builds
MinGW Distro - nuwen.net
Wget for win32
MinGW/MSYS for Tux Paint
Gtk for win32
Compiling Gtk 2 for windows