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This page describes how to get the TEA build environment working on Windows. This is probably the most controversial aspect of TEA: the use of autoconf, configure, and make to build things as opposed to using VC++ project files.

We feel your pain.

But, we also build all our software automatically, and you really can't automate the process without makefiles. For a general description of TEA and autoconf/configure/make, please see our Tcl Extension Architecture paper.

Note: This page lists a bunch of steps you take by running commands. These commands must be run in the bash shell. The first part of the process is installing the Cygwin tools that include this. Don't try these commands at a DOS prompt.

10 Steps to Success

  1. Start by downloading the cygwin tools.
    These are free, and you get them from an FTP site near you. There is a list of mirror sites on the sourceware.cygnus.com Web site. The main site is ftp://sourceware.cygnus.com/pub/cygwin/, but this is busy and a mirror may provide faster access. This directory has a link called latest, which at the time of this writing goes to the b20 directory. There you should get the full installation (about 14 Meg), which is in a file called full.exe. Unfortunately, the "usertools" distribution (3 Meg) doesn't come with make, sigh.
    Full Cygwin Distribution (ftp.ajubasolutions.com)
    Full Cygwin Distribution (freesoftware.com)
  2. Install the package by running the full.exe installer.
    This unpacks into a single folder that occupies a little under 40 Meg on your hard drive. I installed mine on my D: drive under a cygnus folder. By the way, the installation includes a copy of Tk/Tcl 8.0, Tix 4.1, and [incr Tcl] 1.5.
    (You might be able to delete the H-i586-cygwin32/i586-cygwin32 folder to save about 16 Megabytes of space. This contains the compiler tools, which we don't actually use. Instead, we still use the VC++ compiler, but in the framework of other cygwin tools.)
  3. Run the bash shell via the cygwin.bat script.
    You can find cygwin.bat in the top-level directory of the cygwin installation. This batch file alters the PATH and runs the bash shell. If you don't know about UNIX shells, they are command interpreters like the "MS-DOS Prompt" tool available under windows. Essentially all the programs in the cygwin toolset are simple command line utilities that are designed to run under the bash shell, either interactively or in scripts. Yup, back to the good old days of command prompts and scripts.
  4. Create a /bin directory.
    Some tools, especially make, assume "/bin/sh" is available, so setting this up is crucial. The bin directory is something like d:/cygnus/cygwin-b20/H-i586-cygwin32/bin, which in 8.3 format will appear as d:/cygnus/CYGWIN~1/H-I586~1/bin. Note that you can use forward slashes in your file names under bash, much like you can in Tcl scripts. Run the bash program as described above, and utter the following command (suitably modified for your installation directory): 
    mount -f d:/cygnus/cygwin~1/H-i586~1/bin /bin
    This will create a sort of symbolic link from /bin down into the installation that will persist across reboots. It is only meaningful to bash; the MS-DOS programs won't see it. Alternatively, you can create a C:/bin directory and copy the sh.exe program into it.
  5. Set up your PATH so the Cynwin tools are available.
    Because nothing is installed into the shared windows folder, you must update your PATH explicitly. If you don't mind always running the cygwin.bat file, then that already takes care of it for you. The installer puts this into your Start menu for you, and you could create a shortcut to that batch file on your desktop.
    You can also alter your system environment settings via the Window control path to put the right directory into your PATH.
  6. Download autoconf.
    Autoconf is the program that converts configure.in files into configure scripts. In many cases the CVS repository will only contain configure.in and you must generate configure using autoconf. Unfortunately, the autoconf script is not part of the cygwin tools. You can download it from ftp.gnu.org. You'll probably need to use one of the mirror sites. Or, simply use this local copy from our FTP site:
    autoconf-2.13.tar.gz
  7. Install autoconf.
    You'll use configure and make to install autoconf. Unpack the .tar.gz file (WinZip can handle this format). Now, run bash and execute the following commands to configure and install autoconf. 
    cd d:/autoconf-2.13
sh configure --prefix=d:/cygnus/cygwin-b20 --exec-prefix=d:/cygnus/cygwin-b20/H-i586-cygwin32
make
make install
    The --prefix and --exec-prefix flags correspond to the Cygwin installation directory structure. If you leave out the --prefix, the default value is c:/usr/local, and --exec-prefix defaults to --prefix. The --prefix and --exec-prefix flag are explained in more detail in the TEA document. You'll see this sequence of configure and make more when we build Tcl, Tk, and some extensions.
  8. Build Tcl
    If you build from the CVS repository, you must start by running autoconf to create the configure script. 
    cd d:/tcl8.3/win
autoconf
    If you start from a Tcl source distribution from the FTP site, then this step has already been done. (We are still debating whether or not to put the configure file into CVS...) Now create a directory to build in, and configure the Makefile there, and run make to build Tcl 
    mkdir debug
cd debug
../configure --enable-symbols
make
make test
make install
  9. Build an Extension
    If you build from the CVS repository, you must start by running autoconf to create the configure script. 
    cd d:/thread1.0/
autoconf
    TEA extensions have their configure and Makefile at the top of their directory structure. These files are shared by UNIX and Windows builds. Run autoconf in the top directory.

    Create a build directory such as unix/solaris or win/debug. Change to that directory and run the configure script to generate your platform-specific Makefile. The --with-tcl flag is used to specify the directory in which Tcl was built. 

    mkdir win/debug
cd win/debug
d:/thread1.0/configure --enable-symbols --with-tcl=d:/tcl8.3/win/debug
make
make test
make install
  10. Common Problems
    • First, make sure you have Microsoft VC++ installed. In theory it will be possible to use gcc on Windows, but the configure files to not check for gcc nor set the correct compiler flags.
    • If the configure step cannot find the compiler even though it is installed, then your PATH probably does not include BIN directory of Developer Studio (e.g., d:/program files/Microsoft Visual Studio/VC98/Bin). There are a few other environment variables you need, too. What I did was copy the VCVARS32.bat file into the CYGWIN.bat file so everything is set up when I run bash.
    • If "make test" generates lots of errors, try running the test suite from a directory on the local hard drive. Many of the file system tests do not work well with remote file systems.
    • If "make install" puts the files into the wrong locations, specify the --prefix and --exec-prefix configure options to set those installation locations properly.

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    Last modified: August 07, 2000