1DevCpp-Mingw Install & Compilation Sept 2005 2================================== 3 4Reference Emails available at curl@haxx.se: 5 6 Libcurl Install and Use Issues 7 Awaiting an Answer for Win 32 Install 8 res = curl_easy_perform(curl); Error 9 Makefile Issues 10 11 12Having previously done a thorough review of what was available that met my 13requirements under GPL, I settled for Libcurl as the software of choice for 14many reasons not the least of which was the support. 15 16Background 17---------- 18 19This quest started when I innocently tried to incorporate the libcurl library 20into my simple source code. I figured that a few easy steps would accomplish 21this without major headaches. I had no idea that I would be facing an almost 22insurmountable challenge. 23 24The main problem lies in two areas. First the bulk of support for libcurl 25exists for a Unix/linux command line environments. This is of little help when 26it comes to Windows O/S. 27 28Secondly the help that does exist for the Windows O/S focused around mingw 29through a command line argument environment. 30 31You may ask "Why is this a problem?" 32 33I'm using a Windows O/S with DevCpp. For those of you who are unfamiliar with 34DevCpp, it is a window shell GUI that replaces the command line environment 35for gcc. A definite improvement that I am unwilling to give up. However using 36DevCpp presented its own set of issues. Inadvertently I also made some 37careless errors such as compiling the 7.14 version of Makefile with an older 38version of source code. Thanks to Dan Fandrich for picking this up. 39 40I did eventually with the help of Daniel, Phillipe and others manage to 41implement successfully (the only mingw available version) 42curl-7.13.0-win32-ssl-devel-mingw32 into the DevCpp environment. Only the 43dynamic libcurl.dll libcurldll.a libraries worked. The static library which I 44was interested in did not. Furthermore when I tried to implement one of the 45examples included with the curl package (get info.c) it caused the executable 46to crash. Tracing the bug I found it in the code and function res = 47curl_easy_perform(curl);. 48 49At this point I had to make a choice as to whether invest my limited 50time-energy resource to fixing the bug or to compile the new version 51available. After searching the archives I found a very similar or the same bug 52reported from version 7.12x on. Daniel did inform me that he thought that this 53bug had been fixed with the latest version. So I proceeded to compile the 54latest SSL version where I faced other challenges. 55 56In order to make this process unremarkable for others using the same 57environment I decided to document the process so that others will find it 58routine. It would be a shame if newbies could not implement this excellent 59package for their use. 60 61I would like to thank the many others in this forum and in the DevCpp forum 62for their help. Without your help I may either have given up or it would have 63taken me many times longer to achieve success. 64 65The Cookbook Approach 66--------------------- 67 68This discussion will be confined to a SSL static library compilation and 69installation. Limited mention and comments will be inserted where appropriate 70to help with non-SSL, dynamic libraries and executables. 71 72 73 Using Makefile from DevCpp to compile Libcurl libraries 74 75Preamble 76-------- 77 78Using the latest version release - curl-7.14.0.tar.gz. Curl source code is 79platform independent. This simply means that the source code can be compiled 80for any Operating System (Linux/Unix Windows etc. and variations of thereof). 81 82The first thing to note is that inside curl-7.14.0 you will find two folders 83lib and src. Both contain Makefile.m32 (required for win mingw library or exe 84compilation) files which are different. The main difference between these two 85folders and the makefiles is that the src folder contents are used to compile 86an executable file(curl.exe) while the lib folder contents are used to compile 87a static (libcurl.a) and dynamic (libcurl.dll & libcurldll.a) file that can be 88used to compile libcurl with your own source code so that one can use and 89access all libcurl functions. 90 91Before we start please make sure that DevCpp is installed properly. In 92particular make sure you have no spaces in the name of any of the directories 93and subdirectories where DevCpp is installed. Failure to comply with the 94install instructions may produce erratic behaviour in DevCpp. For further info 95check the following sites 96 97http://aditsu.freeunixhost.com/dev-cpp-faq.html 98http://sourceforge.net/forum/message.php?msg_id=3252213 99 100As I have mentioned before I will confine this to the SSL Library compilations 101but the process is very similar for compilation of the executable - curl.exe; 102just substitute the src folder makefile in its stead. 103 104First use a text processor Notepad, or your own favourite text processor. To 105engage your favourite text processor, select Makefile.m32 click once with your 106mouse on file icon; icon turns blue, press the shift key and right-click on 107mouse, menu appears select "Open with", select your favourite text processor. 108 109Next read the contents of Makefile.m32. It includes instructions on its use. 110 111Method I - DOS Command Line 112--------------------------- 113 114Note - The only reason I have included this method is that Method II which is 115the preferred method for compiling does not allow for the setting of option 116switches (e.g. SSL = 1 or SSL =0). At least that's what they tell me at the 117Dev-Cpp forum. 118 1191 - Make a copy of (D:\Dev-Cpp\bin) bin folder and name it "bin Original" 120place it in the Dev-Cpp installed directory (D:\Dev-Cpp\ for this example) 121 1222 - Copy the entire contents of the LIB folder of curl-7.14.0.tar.gz or zip 123version into the bin folder above (D:\Dev-Cpp\bin). The reason being is that 124the make.exe file resides in this folder. Make.exe will use - Makefile.m32, 125Makefile.inc, and the source code included in the lib folder to compile the 126source code. There is a PATH issue with make.exe that remains unresolved at 127least for me. Unless the entire source code to be compiled is placed entirely 128within the directory of make.exe an error message will be generated - "file 129xxxx.yyy not available". 130 1313- Go to Dev-Cpp\bin and double click on make .exe. You will see a DOS window 132quickly pop up and close very quickly. Not to worry! Please do not skip this 133step. 134 1354- Click on the start button\Programs\MS-DOS Prompt.Once the DOS Window is up 136Type the disk drive letter (e.g. E: ) engage the enter button. The path should 137automatically take you to the directory of the make.exe file. 138 1395- To compile the source code simply type at the DOS prompt make -f 140Makefile.m32 as per instructions contained in the Makefile.m32 file (use any 141text processor to read instructions). I don't believe that this makefile 142allows for the option of non SSL. Ignore any warnings. 143 1446- Collect and make copies of libcurl.a, libcurl.dll, libcurldll.a and any *.o 145compilations you might need in another directory outside of the bin directory 146as you will need this files shortly to set up libcurl for use with 147Dev-cpp. For most apps *.o is not required. Later on we will show what to do 148with these files. 149 1507- You are finished but before closing we need to do cleanup - erase the bin 151folder and rename the "bin Original" folder created in step 1 to bin. 152 153Note to compile a curl executable the process is probably similar but instead 154of using the LIB folder contents use the SRC folder contents and Makefiles in 155curl-7.14.0.tar.gz. File directories relative placements must be respected for 156compiling to take place successfully. This may not be possible with the PATH 157problem that make.exe experiences. If anyone has solved this PATH issue and 158please make sure it actually works on Win 9x/2000/XP before letting me 159know. Then please let me or Daniel in on the solution so that it can be 160included with these instructions. Thanks. 161 162or 163 164Method II - Dev-Cpp GUI 165----------------------- 166 1671- Copy the entire contents of the LIB folder of curl-7.14.0.tar.gz or zip 168version into any folder outside of (Dev-Cpp\bin). 169 1702- Drop the File/New/click on Project. 171 1723- New Project Dialogue box appears. Double click on the Static Library. 173 1744- Create Project Dialogue box appears. Select the LIB folder location to 175place and locate your Project File Name. Placing the Project File Name 176elsewhere may cause problems (PATH issue problem again). 177 1785- Drop down the Project/Project Options. Project Options Dialogue box 179appears. 180 1816- Select the Makefile tab in the Project Options Dialogue Box. Check Box - 182Use Custom Makefile. Click on the Folder icon at the extreme right of the 183Check Box. Select Makefile.m32 in the folder wherever you have placed the 184contents of the LIB Folder. Press OK and close the Dialogue Box. 185 1867- Drop the Menu Project/Click on Add to Project. Open File Dialogue Box 187appears. The Dialogue Box should open in the folder wherever you have placed 188the contents of the LIB Folder. If not go there. 189 1908- Select Crtl-A to select all files in the LIB folder. Click on open to add 191files and close box. Wait till all files are added. This may take 30 seconds 192or longer. 193 1949- Drop the Menu Execute/Click on Compile. 195 19610- That's it. 197 198 199 The following steps must be completed if Curl is to work properly 200 ================================================================= 201 202LIB folder inclusions (*.a placement) 203------------------------------------- 204 2051- Refer to Method I - DOS Command Line point # 6 Take libcurl.a, libcurldll.a 206and install it in the directory C( or whichever drive Dev is installed) 207:\Dev-Cpp\lib. 208 209 210Include Folder 211-------------- 212 2131- Create a new folder by the name of curl (do not change the name curl to 214some other name as it will cause major issues) in the directory 215C:\Dev-Cpp\include. 216 2172- Copy the entire contents of the curl folder of curl-7.14.0.tar.gz or zip 218 version into the newly created curl directory - C:\Dev-Cpp\include\curl. 219 220Links To Include And Lib Folder 221------------------------------- 222 2231- Drop the Menu - Tools\Compiler Options\Directories\Libraries. Make sure 224that C( or whichever drive Dev is installed):\DEV-CPP\lib is included. 225 2262- Next select the Menu - Tools\Compiler Options\Directories\C Includes. Make 227sure that C:\DEV-CPP\include and C:\Dev-Cpp\include\curl are included. 228 2293- Next select the Menu - Tools\Compiler Options\Directories\C++ 230Includes. Make sure that C:\DEV-CPP\include and C:\Dev-Cpp\include\curl are 231included. 232 233Linker Links 234------------ 235 2361- Drop the Menu - Tools\Compiler Options\Directories\Compiler. 237 2382- Make sure that the box "Add these commands to the linker command line" is 239checked. 240 2413- Include in the white space immediately below the box referred in 2 -lcurl 242-lws2_32. 243 244SSL Files 245--------- 246 2471- Get the latest openSSL (as of time of this writing) 248openssl-0.9.7e-win32-bin.zip for the minimalist package of the openssl-0.9.7e 249binaries ported to MS Windows 95/98/NT/XP using the MingW32/GCC-3.1 250development environment. The file may be downloaded at 251http://curl.haxx.se/download/. 252 2532- Open the above zip file. You will find two files - SDL.dll, 254SDL_mixer.dll. Install them in the directory C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32 for Win 9x 255users and c:\winnt\system32 for NT-family users. 256 257Multithreading Files 258-------------------- 259 260To be completed 261 262#define 263------- 264 2651- Make sure that your program includes the following - #define CURL_STATICLIB 266must be declared FIRST before any other define functions may be 267added. Otherwise you may experience link errors. 268 2692- Don't forget to include #include "curl/curl.h". 270 271e.g. 272 #define CURL_STATICLIB 273#include <windows.h> 274 #include "curl/curl.h" 275#include <fstream> 276#include <iostream> 277#include <vector> 278etc... 279 280 281Static or Dynamic Library 282------------------------- 283 284The above steps apply for the use by a static library. Should you choose to 285use a dynamic library you will be required to perform these additional steps. 286 2871- Refer to Method I - DOS Command Line point # 6. Install libcurl.dll in the 288directory C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32 for Win 9x users and c:\winnt\system32 for 289NT-family users. 290 2912- Refer to Linker Links point 3 - Replace -lcurl with -lcurldll. 292 293Voila you're done. 294 295The non-SSL static Library build may not be possible to use at least as of the 296time of this writing - v7.14. Check reference emails - Phillipe and I found it 297impossible to fully compile as certain files were missing for linking. No big 298loss as SSL is a major plus. 299 300Hope this Helps 301 302Tom 303