Linux – Configure options for building MinGW-64 on linux-64 for linux-64 (ultimately targetting windows-64)

linuxmingwmingw-w64

I want to build MinGW-w64 where:

A: I want to compile MinGW itself on Linux (64-bit).
B: I want the MinGW tools (compiler, etc) to run on Linux (64-bit).
C: I want the MinGW tools (compiler, etc) to produce code that runs on Windows 64-bit (Win7 & Win8).

I'm having trouble at the configure stage. I've googled around a bit but I can't find out what options I need to pass to configure.

I have downloaded the source for MinGW-w64 SVN from (https://svn.code.sf.net/p/mingw-w64/code/trunk/).
(AFAICT this is the current official repo).

The source has a text help (mingw-w64-doc/howto-build/mingw-w64-howto-build.txt). However, this is primarily intended for those wanting to run MinGW tools on Windows.
The example options (for a non-multilib w64 target) are:

--host=x86_64-w64-mingw32 --target=x86_64-w64-mingw32 --disable-multilib

But I think I want the host option to refer to linux (right?). I've tried

--host=x86_64-linux-gnu

and

--host=x86_64-pc-linux-gnu

but no luck.

I get the error:

configure: error: Please check if the mingw-w64 header set and the build/host option are set properly.

configure: error: ../../../svn/mingw-w64-v6615-2014-05-07/mingw-w64-crt/configure failed for mingw-w64-crt

The full log is

checking whether to enable maintainer-specific portions of Makefiles... no
checking for a BSD-compatible install... /usr/bin/install -c
checking whether build environment is sane... yes
/make/tool/MinGW/svn/mingw-w64-v6615-2014-05-07/build-aux/missing: Unknown `--is-lightweight' option
Try `/make/tool/MinGW/svn/mingw-w64-v6615-2014-05-07/build-aux/missing --help' for more information
configure: WARNING: 'missing' script is too old or missing
checking for x86_64-linux-gnu-strip... no
checking for strip... strip
checking for a thread-safe mkdir -p... /bin/mkdir -p
checking for gawk... gawk
checking whether make sets $(MAKE)... yes
checking whether make supports nested variables... yes
checking build system type... x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
checking host system type... x86_64-pc-linux-gnu
checking whether to build the headers... yes
checking whether to build the crt... yes
checking whether to build the optional libraries... no
checking whether to build the optional tools... no
checking that generated files are newer than configure... done
configure: creating ./config.status
config.status: creating Makefile
config.status: creating config.h
config.status: config.h is unchanged
=== configuring in mingw-w64-headers (/make/tool/MinGW/build/v6615-2014-05-07/mingw-w64-headers)
configure: running /bin/bash ../../../svn/mingw-w64-v6615-2014-05-07/mingw-w64-headers/configure --disable-option-checking '--prefix=/make/tool/MinGW/use/v6615/x86_64-w64-mingw32' '--target=x86_64-w64-mingw32' '--host=x86_64-linux-gnu' '--disable-multilib' '--with-sysroot=/make/tool/MinGW/use/v6615/x86_64-w64-mingw32' 'host_alias=x86_64-linux-gnu' 'target_alias=x86_64-w64-mingw32' --cache-file=/dev/null --srcdir=../../../svn/mingw-w64-v6615-2014-05-07/mingw-w64-headers
checking for a BSD-compatible install... /usr/bin/install -c
checking whether build environment is sane... yes
/make/tool/MinGW/svn/mingw-w64-v6615-2014-05-07/mingw-w64-headers/build-aux/missing: Unknown `--is-lightweight' option
Try `/make/tool/MinGW/svn/mingw-w64-v6615-2014-05-07/mingw-w64-headers/build-aux/missing --help' for more information
configure: WARNING: 'missing' script is too old or missing
checking for x86_64-linux-gnu-strip... no
checking for strip... strip
checking for a thread-safe mkdir -p... /bin/mkdir -p
checking for gawk... gawk
checking whether make sets $(MAKE)... yes
checking whether make supports nested variables... yes
checking whether to enable maintainer-specific portions of Makefiles... no
checking build system type... x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
checking host system type... x86_64-pc-linux-gnu
checking for a sed that does not truncate output... /bin/sed
checking whether to rebuild headers with widl... no
checking whether to build a w32api package for Cygwin... no
checking for c-runtime headers... yes
checking for optional sdk headers... ddk,directx
checking if installing idl files is enabled... no
checking whether to enable the secure API... no
checking that generated files are newer than configure... done
configure: creating ./config.status
config.status: creating Makefile
config.status: creating crt/_mingw.h
config.status: creating config.h
config.status: config.h is unchanged
=== configuring in mingw-w64-crt (/make/tool/MinGW/build/v6615-2014-05-07/mingw-w64-crt)
configure: running /bin/bash ../../../svn/mingw-w64-v6615-2014-05-07/mingw-w64-crt/configure --disable-option-checking '--prefix=/make/tool/MinGW/use/v6615/x86_64-w64-mingw32' '--target=x86_64-w64-mingw32' '--host=x86_64-linux-gnu' '--disable-multilib' '--with-sysroot=/make/tool/MinGW/use/v6615/x86_64-w64-mingw32' 'host_alias=x86_64-linux-gnu' 'target_alias=x86_64-w64-mingw32' --cache-file=/dev/null --srcdir=../../../svn/mingw-w64-v6615-2014-05-07/mingw-w64-crt
checking for a BSD-compatible install... /usr/bin/install -c
checking whether build environment is sane... yes
checking for x86_64-linux-gnu-strip... no
checking for strip... strip
checking for a thread-safe mkdir -p... /bin/mkdir -p
checking for gawk... gawk
checking whether make sets $(MAKE)... yes
checking whether make supports nested variables... yes
checking whether to enable maintainer-specific portions of Makefiles... no
checking build system type... x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
checking host system type... x86_64-pc-linux-gnu
checking for sysroot... /make/tool/MinGW/use/v6615/x86_64-w64-mingw32
checking for a sed that does not truncate output... /bin/sed
checking for gawk... (cached) gawk
checking for x86_64-linux-gnu-gcc... x86_64-linux-gnu-gcc
checking whether the C compiler works... yes
checking for C compiler default output file name... a.out
checking for suffix of executables...
checking whether we are cross compiling... no
checking for suffix of object files... o
checking whether we are using the GNU C compiler... yes
checking whether x86_64-linux-gnu-gcc accepts -g... yes
checking for x86_64-linux-gnu-gcc option to accept ISO C89... none needed
checking whether x86_64-linux-gnu-gcc understands -c and -o together... yes
checking for style of include used by make... GNU
checking dependency style of x86_64-linux-gnu-gcc... gcc3
checking for x86_64-linux-gnu-g++... x86_64-linux-gnu-g++
checking whether we are using the GNU C++ compiler... yes
checking whether x86_64-linux-gnu-g++ accepts -g... yes
checking dependency style of x86_64-linux-gnu-g++... gcc3
checking how to run the C preprocessor... x86_64-linux-gnu-gcc -E
checking for x86_64-linux-gnu-ranlib... no
checking for ranlib... ranlib
checking for x86_64-linux-gnu-dlltool... no
checking for dlltool... no
checking for x86_64-linux-gnu-ar... no
checking for x86_64-linux-gnu-lib... no
checking for x86_64-linux-gnu-link... no
checking for ar... ar
checking the archiver (ar) interface... ar
checking dependency style of x86_64-linux-gnu-gcc... gcc3
checking for x86_64-linux-gnu-as... no
checking for as... as
checking whether to build a w32api package for Cygwin... no
checking whether to build the Win32 libraries... no
checking whether to build the Win64 libraries... yes
checking whether to build the WinCE libraries... no
checking whether to enable globbing... no
checking whether to enable private exports... no
checking whether to enable delay import libs... no
checking whether to enable experimental features... no
checking whether the compiler supports -municode... no
checking for grep that handles long lines and -e... /bin/grep
checking for egrep... /bin/grep -E
checking for ANSI C header files... yes
checking for sys/types.h... yes
checking for sys/stat.h... yes
checking for stdlib.h... yes
checking for string.h... yes
checking for memory.h... yes
checking for strings.h... yes
checking for inttypes.h... yes
checking for stdint.h... yes
checking for unistd.h... yes
checking _mingw_mac.h usability... no
checking _mingw_mac.h presence... no
checking for _mingw_mac.h... no
configure: error: Please check if the mingw-w64 header set and the build/host option are set properly.
configure: error: ../../../svn/mingw-w64-v6615-2014-05-07/mingw-w64-crt/configure failed for mingw-w64-crt

NOTE: I can successfully compile native GCC & Clang from source.

Purpose:
My ultimate goal is to use the latest Clang to produce C++14 code for Windows 7/8 64-bit (including D3D11 & OpenGL).
I want to build trunk MinGW because the latest Clang produces assembly code that the default MinGW cannot assemble (mainly "junk at end of line" errors).
As of 2014-05-07 (today), only Clang offers full C++14 support, and I am making use of features only available in Clang (eg: variable templates).
Yet, Clang relies on GCC / MinGW for assembling and linking.

Info:
OS: Linux Mint 16 64-bit (XFCE).

Thanks for all assistance.

Best Answer

Old question, but an answer might be helpful to those coming from google.

The host and build flags are a bit misleading. The info from the help page at mingw-w64-crt/configure --help shows:

System types:
  --build=BUILD     configure for building on BUILD [guessed]
  --host=HOST       cross-compile to build programs to run on HOST [BUILD]

So we want to leave --build alone, and specify the windows system we wish to cross-compile for with --host.

So, the way to build for 64bit windows, and include both 32bit and 64bit libraries and std::experimental features is with:

./configure --enable-lib32 --enable-lib64 --enable-experimental --host=x86_64-w64-mingw32

It's very similar if you want to build for 32bit windows, but of course you can't enable 64bit mode:

./configure --enable-lib32 --enable-experimental --host=i686-w64-mingw32

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Linux – How to prompt for Yes/No/Cancel input in a Linux shell script

The simplest and most widely available method to get user input at a shell prompt is the read command. The best way to illustrate its use is a simple demonstration:

while true; do
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Another method, pointed out by Steven Huwig, is Bash's select command. Here is the same example using select:

echo "Do you wish to install this program?"
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        No ) exit;;
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With select you don't need to sanitize the input – it displays the available choices, and you type a number corresponding to your choice. It also loops automatically, so there's no need for a while true loop to retry if they give invalid input.

Also, Léa Gris demonstrated a way to make the request language agnostic in her answer. Adapting my first example to better serve multiple languages might look like this:

set -- $(locale LC_MESSAGES)
yesptrn="$1"; noptrn="$2"; yesword="$3"; noword="$4"

while true; do
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    if [[ "$yn" =~ $yesexpr ]]; then make install; exit; fi
    if [[ "$yn" =~ $noexpr ]]; then exit; fi
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Obviously other communication strings remain untranslated here (Install, Answer) which would need to be addressed in a more fully completed translation, but even a partial translation would be helpful in many cases.

Finally, please check out the excellent answer by F. Hauri.

Linux – How to configure Qt for cross-compilation from Linux to Windows target

Just use M cross environment (MXE). It takes the pain out of the whole process:

Get it:

$ git clone https://github.com/mxe/mxe.git

Install build dependencies
Build Qt for Windows, its dependencies, and the cross-build tools; this will take about an hour on a fast machine with decent internet access; the download is about 500MB:
```
$ cd mxe && make qt
```
Go to the directory of your app and add the cross-build tools to the PATH environment variable:
```
$ export PATH=<mxe root>/usr/bin:$PATH
```

Run the Qt Makefile generator tool then build:

$ <mxe root>/usr/i686-pc-mingw32/qt/bin/qmake && make

You should find the binary in the ./release directory:
```
$ wine release/foo.exe
```

Some notes:

Use the master branch of the MXE repository; it appears to get a lot more love from the development team.
The output is a 32-bit static binary, which will work well on 64-bit Windows.

Best Answer

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