last updated: 2025-06-07
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the MinGW64 + MSYS2 environment

MinGW64 is an open source C/C++ compiler for WIndows platforms based on the popular gcc available on Linux and on many other Operating Systems; Mingw64 can create both 32 and 64 bit binary executables.
MSYS2 is a command shell supporting a minimalistic Linux-like environment on Windows.
Using both them you can build standard open source software [originally developed for Linux] under Windows as well, simply using the classic build tool-chain, as in:

./configure
make
make install

Quite obviously, Windows isn't exactly the same as Linux, so you cannot expect to get always an easy and painless build.
May well be you have to adapt something here and there in order to get a successful build under Windows.
The following notes are aimed exactly to this goal: allow you to avoid wasting your time while fighting against oddities that can quite easily solved.

Important notice: all the following instructions require using the most recent versions of the compiler (i.e. gcc 14.2.0).

In order to check the actual version you are using, you simply have to execute the following command: gcc --version


The most recent versions of MinGW64 and MSYS2 are reasonably easy to install; just follow the instructions below.

Installing MSYS2

  1. download the MSYS2 intaller from here
  2. start the installer: I suggest you to set C:/dev/msys64 as the base installation path.
  3. once MSYS2 has been installed you must complete several further steps.
    Please follow the instructions you can find here
  4. Note: MSYS2 is a common shell environment supporting both the 32 bit and the 64 bit compilers, so you have to perform this step just once.

Familiarizing with pacman

After properly installing MSYS2 you'll be able to use pacman in order to complete your installation.
Pacman is a package manager similar to Red Hat's yum and Debian's apt-get, and will make really easy the task to prepare a complete build environment.
  1. Start an MSYS2 shell.
    Just click the icon of one between msys2.exe, mingw32.exe or mingw64.exe you'll find into the C:\dev\msys64 folder (the one or the other is not relevant in this context).
  2. Then execute the following commands from the shell:
  3. all right: you've now completed your MinGW64 + MSYS2 installation, and you are ready to start building your Windows binary executables.
Note: may well be you'll discover before or after that some tool is still missing. You can easily install it when required.
Example: the well known vim text editor is still missing; you can easily install it by executing: pacman -S vim
Hint: you can easily check all packages declaring a matching name and if they are already installed or not by executing: pacman -Ss package-name:

Understanding the two build environments: mingw32 and mingw64

In order to mantain a properly ordered filesystem layout, clearly separating 32 bit and 64 bit components we can't any longer adopt the classic /usr/local target as the standard destination where to install our custom builds.

Very important notice

The standard configuration adopted by MinGW64 forbids to effectively link libpthread as a static library.
You are required to manually apply the following small patch in order to avoid this issue.
  • this patch must be applied twice, once for the 32 bit compiler and once for the 64 bit compiler.
  • you must edit the /mingw32/include/pthread.h header file for the 32 bit compiler.
  • and/or you must edit the /mingw64/include/pthread.h header file for the 64 bit compiler.
Near line 85:
  #if defined DLL_EXPORT
  #ifdef IN_WINPTHREAD
  #define WINPTHREAD_API __declspec(dllexport)
  #else
< #define WINPTHREAD_API __declspec(dllimport)
> #define WINPTHREAD_API
  #endif
  #else
  #define WINPTHREAD_API
  #endif


Step 1) building libiconv

libiconv is the standard GNU library supporting locale charsets.
Required by: libspatialite, spatialite-tools

Building under Windows is not too much difficult. cd libiconv-1.18
./configure --prefix=/mingw32/local
make
make install-strip

Anyway, this will simply build and install the DLL: a further step is required in order to get the static library as well.

make distclean
./configure --prefix=/mingw32/local --disable-shared --enable-static
make
make install-strip

Now you've built and installed both the static library and the DLL.
However the above process has installed badly misconfigured libcharset.la and libiconv.la files
(which are required to build other libraries in the following steps).
So in order to get a properly configured libiconv you have to accomplish a further operation:

Step 2) building libz

libz is a popular library implementing Deflate, i.e. the compression algorithm used by gzip and Zip.
Depends on: nothing
Required by: libpng, libtiff, ...

Building under Windows is quite easy, but requires to pay some attenction. cd zlib-1.3.1
export "INCLUDE_PATH=/mingw32/local/include"
export "LIBRARY_PATH=/mingw32/local/lib"
export "BINARY_PATH=/mingw32/local/bin"
make -f win32/Makefile.gcc
make install -f win32/Makefile.gcc
cp libz.dll.a /mingw32/local/lib
cp zlib1.dll /mingw32/local/bin

All this will build and install both the static library and the DLL as well.
Anyway this process will not generate the libz.la file (which is required to build libtiff in one of the following steps).
So in order to get a fully installed libz you have to accomplish a further operation:

Step 3) building libjpeg

libjpeg is a popular library supporting the JPEG image compression.
Depends on: nothing
Required by: libtiff, librasterlite2

Building under Windows is absolutely a plain and easy task.

Warning

In order to support hi-speed image compression and decompression some parts of jpeg-turbo require to be compiled by the NASM Assembler.
If the Assembler is not installed when building you'll still get a functioning library but operating at a lower speed.

So, if you haven't already installed the NASM Assembler, you just have to execute now the following command on the MSYS2 shell:
pacman -S nasm

cd libjpeg-turbo-3.1.0
mkdir msys_build
cd msys_build
cmake -G "MSYS Makefiles" -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/mingw32/local ..
make
make install/strip

This will build and install both the static library and the DLL as well.

Anyway this process will not generate the libjpeg.la file (which is required to build libtiff in one of the following steps).
So in order to get a fully installed libjpeg-turbo you have to accomplish a further operation:

Step 4) building libpng

libpng is a popular library supporting the PNG image compression.
Depends on: libz
Required by: librasterlite2

Building under Windows is absolutely a plain and easy task. cd libpng-1.6.48
export "CPPFLAGS=-I/mingw32/local/include"
export "LDFLAGS=-L/mingw32/local/lib"
./configure --prefix=/mingw32/local
make
make install-strip

Important notice: you have to properly set the shell environment in order to retrieve the already installed libz; this is the duty of the two above export directives.

This will build and install both the static library and the DLL as well.

Step 5) building giflib

giflib is a popular library supporting the GIF image compression.
Depends on: nothing
Required by: librasterlite2, libwebp...

Building under Windows is absolutely a plain and easy task.
Very important notice: recent versions of this library has no build scripts.
Just a Makefile is supplied, but unhappily it's only intended for Linux and is absolutely useless for MinGW on Windows.

Resolving this issue isn't difficult at all: you are simply required to download Makefile-giflib-mingw32 saving it into the main directory of giflib.

cd giflib-5.2.2
make -f Makefile-giflib-mingw32
make -f Makefile-giflib-mingw32 install

This will build and install both the static library and the DLL as well.

Anyway this process will not generate the libgif.la file (which is required to build libleptonica in one of the following steps).
So in order to get a fully installed libgif you have to accomplish a further operation:

Step 6) building XZ (liblzma)

liblzma is a popular library supporting the LZMA advanced compression (it's a component of the XZ package).
Depends on: nothing
Required by: libtiff

Building under Windows is absolutely a plain and easy task. cd xz-5.8.1
./configure --prefix=/mingw32/local --disable-nls --with-libiconv-prefix=/mingw32/local --with-libintl-prefix=/mingw32/local
make
make install-strip

This will build and install both the static library and the DLL as well.

Step 7) building liblz4

liblz4 is an innovative library supporting very fast lossless data compression and decompression.
Depends on: nothing
Required by: librasterlite2

Building under Windows is absolutely a plain and easy task.
It only has the rather unusual characteristics to adopt CMake-based build scripts, so you'll probably be required to install CMake before attempting to build LZ4.
Anyway you can easily download the most recent CMake Windows Installer from here cd lz4-1.10.0/build/cmake
mkdir build_dll
cd build_dll
cmake -G "MSYS Makefiles" -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/mingw32/local ..
make
make install/strip

Please note: this will build and install the DLL alone. Now you must build the static library as follows:

cd ..
mkdir build_static
cd build_static
cmake -G "MSYS Makefiles" -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/mingw32/local -DBUILD_SHARED_LIBS=OFF ..
make
make install/strip

This will build and install both the static library and the DLL as well.

Step 8) building libzstd

libzstd is an innovative library supporting fast lossless data compression and decompression.
Depends on: nothing
Required by: libtiff, librasterlite2

Building under Windows is absolutely a plain and easy task.
It only has the rather unusual characteristics to adopt CMake-based build scripts, so you'll probably be required to install CMake before attempting to build ZSTD.
Anyway you can easily download the most recent CMake Windows Installer from here cd zstd-1.5.7/build/cmake
mkdir build
cd build
cmake -G "MSYS Makefiles" -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/mingw32/local ..
make
make install/strip

This will build and install both the static library and the DLL as well.

Step 9) building libtiff

libtiff is a popular library supporting the TIFF image format.
Depends on: libz, liblzma, libzstd, libjpeg, libwebp
Required by: librasterlite2

Note: there is a circular dependency between libtiff and libwebp
  • libtiff depends on libwebp
  • and libwebp depends on libtiff
So both libraries require to be built two times in order to correctly resolve the circular dependency.
Let's start the first pass.


Building under Windows is absolutely a plain and easy task. cd tiff-4.7.0
export "CPPFLAGS=-I/mingw32/local/include"
export "LDFLAGS=-L/mingw32/local/lib"
./configure --prefix=/mingw32/local
make
make install-strip

Important notice: you have to properly set the shell environment in order to retrieve the already installed libz; this is the duty of the two above export directives.

This will build and install both the static library and the DLL as well.

Step 10) building libwebp

libwebp is an innovative library supporting the recently introduced WebP image compression.
Depends on: libjpeg, libpng
Required by: libtiff, librasterlite2, ...

Building under Windows is absolutely a plain and easy task. cd libwebp-1.5.0
sh ./autogen.sh
export "CPPFLAGS=-I/mingw32/local/include"
export "LDFLAGS=-L/mingw32/local/lib"
./configure --prefix=/mingw32/local
make
make install-strip

This will build and install both the static library and the DLL as well.

It's now time to start the second pass required by the circular dependency.
  1. rebuilding libtiff once again.
    • Carefully remove all installed components:
      make uninstall
    • Be sure to reset the configuration:
      make distclean
    • Then restart building and installing libtiff from scratch.
  2. The same is for libwebp

Step 11) building libxxhash

libxxhash is an extremely fast C library for crating hash codes.
Depends on: nothing
Required by: libspatialite

Building under Windows is absolutely a plain and easy task.
It only has the rather unusual characteristics to adopt CMake-based build scripts, so you'll probably be required to install CMake before attempting to build libxslxwriter.
Anyway you can easily download the most recent CMake Windows Installer from here cd xxHash-0.8.3/cmake_unofficial
mkdir build_static
cd build_static
cmake -G "MSYS Makefiles" -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/mingw32/local -DBUILD_SHARED_LIBS=OFF ..
make
make install/strip

Please note: this will build and install the DLL alone. Now you must build the static library as follows:

cd ..
mkdir build_dll
cd build_dll
cmake -G "MSYS Makefiles" -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/mingw32/local ..
make
make install/strip

This will build and install both the static library and the DLL as well.

Step 12) building libsqlite

libsqlite is the library implementing the SQLite DBMS engine
Depends on: libz, libxxhash
Required by: libspatialite, librasterlite

Building under Windows is an easy task.
  • download the latest sources: sqlite-autoconf-3500100.tar.gz
  • uncompress this gzipped-file
  • then uncompress the tarball
  • then open an MSYS2 shell (mingw32.exe)
    • cd sqlite-autoconf-3500100
    export "CPPFLAGS=-DSQLITE_ENABLE_STAT3=1 -DSQLITE_ENABLE_TREE_EXPLAIN=1 -DSQLITE_ENABLE_UPDATE_DELETE_LIMIT=1 -DSQLITE_ENABLE_FTS3_PARENTHESIS=1 -DSQLITE_ENABLE_COLUMN_METADATA=1 -DSQLITE_THREADSAFE=1 -DSQLITE_DQS=0"
    ./configure --prefix=/mingw32/local --enable-load-extension
    make
    make install

    This will build and install both the static library and the DLL as well.

    Caveat !!!

    The most recent versions of sqlite3 have radically changed their ./configure script, and unhappily it's now impossibile to build a fully working library on Windows using Msys2 and MinGW.
    So, in order to circumvert this issue you should follow this alternative approach:
    1. Download the tarball, uncompress it and then change the current working directory as usual.
    2. Now download Makefile-sqlite3-mingw32 saving it into the same directory
    3. make -f Makefile-sqlite3-mingw32
    4. make -f Makefile-sqlite3-mingw32 install
    5. That's not yet finished.
      Now you have to download libsqlite3.la saving it into /mingw32/local/lib
      Very final step: download sqlite3.pc saving it into /mingw32/local/lib/pkgconfig
      All right; now you have correctly built and installed libsqlite3 for MinGW32


    Step 13) building OpenSSL

    OpenSSL is a well known standard library supporting SSL, i.e. the encrypted HTTPS web protocol.
    Depends on: nothing
    Required by: libcurl

    Building under Windows is a little bit difficult, and requires to pay close attention.
    The configure script isn't at all a standard one: please read carefully the following instructions.
    cd openssl-3.5.0
    ./Configure mingw --prefix=/mingw32/local shared
    make
    make install

    This will build and install both the static libraries and the DLLs as well.

    Step 14) building libcurl

    libcurl is a well known library supporting URLs (networking, web protocols)
    Depends on: libz, OpenSSL
    Required by: proji, librasterlite2, ...

    Building under Windows is an easy task. cd curl-8.14.1
    ./configure --prefix=/mingw32/local --enable-shared=yes --with-zlib=/mingw32/local --disable-tls-srp --disable-rtsp --without-brotli --without-libidn2 --without-libpsl --without-nghttp2 --with-openssl
    make
    make install-strip

    All right; this will build and install both the static library and the DLL as well.

    Step 15) building libproj

    libproj is a library supporting coordinate's transformation between different Reference Systems [PROJ]
    Depends on: nothing
    Required by: libgeotiff, libspatialite, spatialite-tools

    Building under Windows is an easy task. cd proj-9.6.2
    mkdir build_dll
    cd build_dll
    cmake -G "MSYS Makefiles" -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/mingw32/local \
    -DCMAKE_CXX_FLAGS=-DCURL_STATICLIB \
    -DSQLITE3_INCLUDE_DIR=/mingw32/local/include \
    -DSQLITE3_LIBRARY=/mingw32/local/lib/libsqlite3.dll.a \
    -DTIFF_INCLUDE_DIR=/mingw32/local/include \
    -DTIFF_LIBRARY=/mingw32/local/lib/libtiff.dll.a \
    -DCURL_INCLUDE_DIR=/mingw32/local/include/curl \
    -DCURL_LIBRARY=/mingw32/local/lib/libcurl.dll.a ..
    make
    make install/strip

    Please note: this will simply build and install the DLL. Now you must build the static library as follows:

    cd ..
    mkdir build_static
    cd build_static
    cmake -G "MSYS Makefiles" -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/mingw32/local \
    -DCMAKE_CXX_FLAGS=-DCURL_STATICLIB \
    -DBUILD_SHARED_LIBS=OFF \
    -DSQLITE3_INCLUDE_DIR=/mingw32/local/include \
    -DSQLITE3_LIBRARY=/mingw32/local/lib/libsqlite3.dll.a \
    -DTIFF_INCLUDE_DIR=/mingw32/local/include \
    -DTIFF_LIBRARY=/mingw32/local/lib/libtiff.dll.a \
    -DCURL_INCLUDE_DIR=/mingw32/local/include/curl \
    -DCURL_LIBRARY=/mingw32/local/lib/libcurl.dll.a ..
    make
    make install/strip

    All done: now you've built and installed both the static library and the DLL as well.

    Anyway this process will not generate the libproj.la file (which is required to build libgeotiff and libspatialite in following steps).
    So in order to get a fully installed libproj you have to accomplish a further operation:

    Step 16) building libgeotiff

    libgeotiff is a library supporting the GeoTIFF raster format
    Depends on: libtiff, libproj
    Required by: librasterlite2

    Building under Windows is an easy task. cd libgeotiff-1.7.4
    export "CPPFLAGS=-I/mingw32/local/include"
    export "LDFLAGS=-L/mingw32/local/lib"
    sh ./autogen.sh
    ./configure --prefix=/mingw32/local --with-proj --with-libz --with-jpeg
    make
    make install-strip

    This will build and install both the static library and the DLL as well.

    Step 17) building libgeos

    libgeos is a library representing a C++ porting of JTS [Java Topology Suite].
    Depends on: nothing
    Required by: libspatialite, spatialite-tools

    This library really is an huge and complex piece of software; cd geos-3.13.1
    mkdir build_dll
    cd build_dll
    cmake -G "MSYS Makefiles" -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/mingw32/local ..
    make
    make install/strip

    Please note: this will build and install the DLL alone. Now you must build the static library as follows:

    cd ..
    mkdir build_static
    cd build_static
    cmake -G "MSYS Makefiles" -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/mingw32/local -DBUILD_SHARED_LIBS=OFF ..
    make
    make install/strip

    All done: now you've built and installed both the static library and the DLL as well.

    Anyway this process will not generate the libgeos.la and libgeos_c.la files (which are required to build librttopo and libspatialite in the following steps).
    So in order to get a fully installed GEOS you have to accomplish few further operations:

    Step 18) building libexpat

    libexpat is a well known standard library supporting XML parsing.
    Depends on: nothing
    Required by: libfontconfig, spatialite-tools, ...

    Building under Windows really is a piece-of-cake. cd expat-2.7.1
    ./configure --prefix=/mingw32/local
    make
    make install

    This will build and install both the static library and the DLL as well.

    Step 19) building minizip

    minizip is an innovative library supporting direct creation of compressed ZipFile archives.
    Depends on: libz
    Required by: freexl, libspatialite, DataSeltzer, ...

    Building under Windows is absolutely a plain and easy task. cd minizip-1.3.1
    make -f Makefile-mingw32
    make -f Makefile-mingw32 install

    This will build and install both the static library and the DLL as well.

    Anyway this process will not generate the libminizip.la (which is required to build FreeXL in the following steps).
    So in order to get a fully installed minizip you have to accomplish few further operations:

    Step 20) building FreeXL

    FreeXL is an utility library implementing read-access for Excel (.xls) spreadsheets
    Depends on: libiconv, minizip, libexpat
    Required by: spatialite-tools, libspatialite, spatialite-gui

    Building under Windows is an easy task. cd freexl-2.0.0
    export "CPPFLAGS=-I/mingw32/local/include -DLIBXML_STATIC"
    export "LDFLAGS=-L/mingw32/local/lib"
    ./configure --prefix=/mingw32/local
    make
    make install-strip

    This will build and install both the static library and the DLL as well.

    Please note: if you wish, you can now execute the complete test coverage in order to verify if your build was fully succesful.
    This further step is optional and requires a small extra time, but it's strongly suggested anyway.

    make check

    Step 21) building ReadOSM

    ReadOSM is an utility library supporting OSM datasets parsing
    Depends on: libz, libexpat
    Required by: spatialite-tools

    Building under Windows is an easy task. cd readosm-1.1.0a
    export "CPPFLAGS=-I/mingw32/local/include"
    export "LDFLAGS=-L/mingw32/local/lib"
    ./configure --prefix=/mingw32/local
    make
    make install-strip

    This will build and install both the static library and the DLL as well.

    Please note: if you wish, you can now execute the complete test coverage in order to verify if your build was fully succesful.
    This further step is optional and requires a small extra time, but it's strongly suggested anyway.

    make check

    Step 22) building PostgreSQL

    PostgreSQL is a well known enterprise DBMS; building PostgreSQL seems to be a really odd dependency for SpatiaLite (and really is).
    Anyway it's required by GDAL/OGR; if you aren't interested in supporting GDAL/OGR you can directy jump to libxml2

    Depends on: libz, OpenSSL
    Required by: GDAL/OGR
    Building under Windows is an easy task. cd postgresql-17.5
    export "CPPFLAGS=-I/mingw32/local/include -Wno-error=implicit-function-declaration"
    export "LDFLAGS=-L/mingw32/local/lib"
    ./configure --prefix=/mingw32/local --without-icu
    make
    make install-strip

    This will build and install both the static library and the DLL as well.

    Step 23) building libxml2

    libxml2 is the well known XML parser of Gnome. it's an optional dependency for libspatialite.
    If you aren't interested in supporting libxml2 you can directy jump to libspatialite

    Depends on: libz, libiconv
    Required by: libspatialite
    Building under Windows is an easy task. cd libxml2-2.14.3
    mkdir build_dll
    cd build_dll
    cmake -G "MSYS Makefiles" -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/mingw32/local \
    -DLIBXML2_WITH_PYTHON=OFF -DLIBXML2_WITH_HTTP=ON ..
    make
    make install/strip

    Please note: this will build and install the DLL alone. Now you must build the static library as follows:

    cd ..
    mkdir build_static
    cd build_static
    cmake -G "MSYS Makefiles" -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/mingw32/local \
    -DLIBXML2_WITH_PYTHON=OFF -DLIBXML2_WITH_HTTP=ON -DBUILD_SHARED_LIBS=OFF ..
    make
    make install/strip

    This will build and install both the static library and the DLL as well.

    Anyway this process will not generate the libxml2.la file (which is required in some of the following steps).
    So in order to get a fully installed libxml2 you have to accomplish a further operation:

    Step 24) building librttopo

    librttopo is a new library implementing several usefull geometry functions and fully supporting ISO-Topology operators.
    If you aren't interested in supporting librttopo you can directy jump to libspatialite

    Depends on: libgeos
    Required by: libspatialite (optional dependency)
    Building under Windows is an easy task. cd librttopo
    export "CPPFLAGS=-I/mingw32/local/include"
    export "LDFLAGS=-L/mingw32/local/lib"
    sh autogen.sh
    ./configure --prefix=/mingw32/local --with-geosconfig=/mingw32/local/bin/geos-config
    make
    make install-strip

    This will build and install both the static library and the DLL as well.

    Step 25) building libspatialite

    libspatialite is the main core of SpatiaLite
    Depends on: libiconv, libproj, libgeos, FreeXL
    Required by: spatialite-tools, librasterlite2, spatialite-gui, DataSeltzer

    Building under Windows is an easy task. cd libspatialite-5.1.0
    export "CPPFLAGS=-I/mingw32/local/include -DLIBXML_STATIC"
    export "LDFLAGS=-L/mingw32/local/lib"
    export "PKG_CONFIG_PATH=/mingw32/local/lib/pkgconfig"
    ./configure --prefix=/mingw32/local --with-geosconfig=/mingw32/local/bin/geos-config --target=mingw32
    make
    make install-strip

    Please note: the above example assumes that librttopo is available; if this is not your case you should obviously omit to specify the corresponding build option.

    This will build and install both the static library and the DLL as well.

    Please note: if you wish, you can now execute the complete test coverage in order to verify if your build was fully succesful.
    This further step is optional and requires a small extra time, but it's strongly suggested anyway.

    make check

    Step 26) building spatialite-tools

    spatialite-tools the SpatiaLite command-line management tools
    Depends on: libiconv, libproj, libgeos, FreeXL, ReadOSM, libspatialite, libexpat
    Building under Windows is an easy task. cd spatialite-tools-5.1.0a
    export "CPPFLAGS=-I/mingw32/local/include -DLIBXML_STATIC"
    export "LDFLAGS=-L/mingw32/local/lib"
    export "PKG_CONFIG_PATH=/mingw32/local/lib/pkgconfig"
    ./configure --prefix=/mingw32/local --disable-readline --target=mingw32
    make
    make install-strip

    Please note: following the above method you'll get dynamically linked tools [i.e. depending on DLLs].
    If you wish instead to build statically linked tools [i.e. self contained, not depending on DLLs], now type:

    mkdir static_bin
    make -f Makefile-static-mingw32
    cp static_bin/* /mingw32/local/bin

    Step 27) building wxWidgets MSW

    wxWidgets is a popular widgets library, supporting GUI in a cross-platform fashion; MSW is the specific porting supporting Windows.
    Depends on: nothing
    Required by: spatialite-gui, spatialite-gis

    This library really is an huge and complex piece of software; building on Windows is an incredibly time consuming task, but is quite plain and easy. cd wxWidgets-3.2.8
    mkdir msw_build
    cd msw_build
    export "CPPFLAGS=-Wno-narrowing -I/mingw32/local/include"
    export "LDFLAGS=-L/mingw32/local/lib"
    ../configure --prefix=/mingw32/local --disable-shared --disable-debug --enable-monolithic --enable-unicode --without-regex --with-liblzma --enable-graphics_ctx

    Please note: the wxWidgets ./configure is highly configurable: you must apply exactly the above settings.
    Anyway, when ./configure stops, it's a good practice to check if the final report looks exactly like this:

    Configured wxWidgets 3.2.8 for `i686-w64-mingw32'

      Which GUI toolkit should wxWidgets use?                 msw
      Should wxWidgets be compiled into single library?       yes
      Should wxWidgets be linked as a shared library?         no
      Should wxWidgets be compiled in Unicode mode?           yes (using wchar_t)
      What level of wxWidgets compatibility should be enabled?
                                           wxWidgets 2.8      no
                                           wxWidgets 3.0      yes
      Which libraries should wxWidgets use?
                                           STL                no
                                           jpeg               sys
                                           png                sys
                                           regex              no
                                           tiff               sys
                                           lzma               sys
                                           zlib               sys
                                           expat              sys
                                           libmspack          no
                                           sdl                no

    now, when ./configure stops, you have to continue as usual:

    make
    make install-strip

    Important notice: make install-strip will probably raise some error, but you could safely ignore it at all.

    Step 28) building libfreetype

    libfreetype is a standard library supporting TrueType fonts.
    Depends on: nothing
    Required by: libcairo, ...

    Building under Windows is an easy task. cd freetype-2.13.3
    ./configure --prefix=/mingw32/local --with-bzip2=no --with-brotli=no
    make
    make install

    This will build and install both the static library and the DLL as well.

    Step 29) building libfontconfig

    libfontconfig is a standard library supporting font customization and configuration.
    Depends on: libexpat, libfreetype, libiconv
    Required by: libcairo, ...

    Building under Windows is an easy task. cd fontconfig-2.16.0
    export "CPPFLAGS=-I/mingw32/local/include"
    export "LDFLAGS=-L/mingw32/local/lib"
    export "PKG_CONFIG_PATH=/mingw32/local/lib/pkgconfig"
    ./configure --prefix=/mingw32/local --disable-docs --disable-nls --enable-shared --enable-static
    make
    make install-strip

    This will build and install both the static library and the DLL as well.

    Step 30) building libpixman

    libpixman is the standard library implementing pixel manipulation for Cairo.
    Depends on: nothing
    Required by: libcairo, ...

    Building under Windows is an easy task.
    cd pixman-0.42.2
    export "CPPFLAGS=-I/mingw32/local/include"
    export "LDFLAGS=-L/mingw32/local/lib"
    export "PKG_CONFIG_PATH=/mingw32/local/lib/pkgconfig"
    ./configure --prefix=/mingw32/local
    make
    make install-strip

    This will build and install both the static library and the DLL as well.

    Step 31) building libcairo

    libcairo is a very popular graphics library.
    Depends on: libpixman, libfreetype, libfontconfig, libpng
    Required by: librasterlite2, ...

    Building under Windows is a little bit harder than usual.
    cd cairo-1.16.0
    export "CPPFLAGS=-I/mingw32/local/include"
    export "LDFLAGS=-L/mingw32/local/lib"
    export "PKG_CONFIG_PATH=/mingw32/local/lib/pkgconfig"
    ./configure --prefix=/mingw32/local
    make
    make install-strip

    This will build and install both the static library and the DLL as well.

    Important notice: you are required to manually edit the ./configure script in order to avoid a failing link due to unresolved symbols:
    Line 19174: replace -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 as: -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=0

    Step 32) building lcms2

    lcms2 is an innovative library implementing a Color Management Engine.
    Depends on: libjpeg, libpng, libtiff
    Required by: OpenJpeg-2

    Building under Windows is absolutely a plain and easy task. cd lcms2-2.17
    export "CPPFLAGS=-I/mingw32/local/include"
    export "LDFLAGS=-L/mingw32/local/lib"
    ./configure --prefix=/mingw32/local
    make
    make install-strip

    Important notice: you have to properly set the shell environment in order to retrieve the already installed libz; this is the duty of the two above export directives.
    This will build and install both the static library and the DLL as well.

    Step 33) building OpenJpeg-2

    OpenJpeg-2 is an open source library supporting Jpeg2000 compressed images.
    Depends on: libcms2, libpng, libtiff
    Required by: librasterlite2

    Building under Windows is absolutely a plain and easy task.
    It only has the rather unusual characteristics to adopt CMake-based build scripts, so you'll probably be required to install CMake before attempting to build OpenJpeg.
    Anyway you can easily download the most recent CMake Windows Installer from here Important notice: you absolutely have to apply the following patch before attempting to build OpenJpeg.
    The intended scope is the one to redefine the DLL's specific prefix accordingly to MinGW64 requirements. So manually edit the -/src/lib/openjp2/openjpeg.h source:
    near line 94:
    ----------------------------------------
       #define OPJ_API
       #define OPJ_LOCAL
       #endif
       #define OPJ_CALLCONV
    < #else
    < #define OPJ_CALLCONV __stdcall
    > #else
    > #if defined (__MINGW32__)
    > #define OPJ_CALLCONV
    > #else
    > #define OPJ_CALLCONV __stdcall
    > #endif

    then you should continue to apply this second patch into the same file:
    near line 110:
    ----------------------------------------
       #if defined(OPJ_EXPORTS) || defined(DLL_EXPORT)
       #define OPJ_API __declspec(dllexport)
       #else
    < #define OPJ_API __declspec(dllimport)
    > #if defined (__MINGW32__)
    > #define OPJ_API extern
    > #else
    > #define OPJ_API __declspec(dllimport)
    > #endif /* MinGW64 */

    cd openjpeg-2.5.3
    mkdir build_dll
    cd build_dll
    cmake -G "MSYS Makefiles" -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/mingw32/local \
    -DBUILD_PKGCONFIG_FILES=ON \
    -DZLIB_INCLUDE_DIR=/mingw32/local/include \
    -DZLIB_LIBRARY=/mingw32/local/lib/libz.dll.a \
    -DPNG_PNG_INCLUDE_DIR=/mingw32/local/include/libpng16 \
    -DPNG_LIBRARY=/mingw32/local/lib/libpng16.dll.a \
    -DTIFF_INCLUDE_DIR=/mingw32/local/include \
    -DTIFF_LIBRARY=/mingw32/local/lib/libtiff.dll.a \
    -DLCMS2_INCLUDE_DIR=/mingw32/local/include \
    -DLCMS2_LIBRARY=/mingw32/local/lib/liblcms2.dll.a ..
    make
    make install/strip

    Please note: this will simply build and install the DLL. Now you must build the static library as follows:

    cd ..
    mkdir build_static
    cd build_static
    cmake -G "MSYS Makefiles" -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/mingw32/local \
    -DBUILD_SHARED_LIBS=OFF \
    -DZLIB_INCLUDE_DIR=/mingw32/local/include \
    -DZLIB_LIBRARY=/mingw32/local/lib/libz.dll.a \
    -DPNG_PNG_INCLUDE_DIR=/mingw32/local/include/libpng16 \
    -DPNG_LIBRARY=/mingw32/local/lib/libpng16.dll.a \
    -DTIFF_INCLUDE_DIR=/mingw32/local/include \
    -DTIFF_LIBRARY=/mingw32/local/lib/libtiff.dll.a \
    -DLCMS2_INCLUDE_DIR=/mingw32/local/include \
    -DLCMS2_LIBRARY=/mingw32/local/lib/liblcms2.dll.a ..
    make openjp2
    cp bin/libopenjp2.a /mingw32/local/lib

    All done: now you've built and installed both the static library and the DLL as well.

    Anyway this process will not generate the libopenjp2.la file (which is required to build libleptonica in one of the following steps).
    So in order to get a fully installed libopenjp2 you have to accomplish a further operation:

    Step 34) building fcgi2

    fcgi2 is a library supporting CGI / FastCGI web interfaces
    Depends on: nothing

    Required by: librasterlite2

    Building under Windows is an easy task.
    cd fcgi2-2.4.2
    sh ./autogen.sh
    export "CPPFLAGS=-I/mingw32/local/include -Wno-error=incompatible-pointer-types"
    export "LDFLAGS=-L/mingw32/local/lib"
    ./configure --prefix=/mingw32/local
    make
    make install-strip

    This will build and install both the static library and the DLL as well.

    Step 35) building Leptonica

    Leptonica is a library for advanced image processing and image analysis
    Depends on: libpng, libjpeg, libtiff, libgif, libwebp, openjepg

    Required by: librasterlite2

    Building under Windows is an easy task.
    cd leptonica-1.85.0
    sh ./autogen.sh
    export "CPPFLAGS=-I/mingw32/local/include"
    export "LDFLAGS=-L/mingw32/local/lib"
    ./configure --prefix=/mingw32/local --disable-programs
    make
    make install-strip

    This will build and install both the static library and the DLL as well.

    Step 36) building librasterlite2

    librasterlite2 is a library supporting rasters
    Depends on: libjpeg, libpng, libtiff, libgeotiff, libcairo, libgif, libwebp
    Required by: spatialite-gui

    Building under Windows is an easy task.
    cd librasterlite2-1.1.0-beta1
    export "CPPFLAGS=-I/mingw32/local/include -DCURL_STATICLIB -DLIBXML_STATIC"
    export "LDFLAGS=-L/mingw32/local/lib"
    export "PKG_CONFIG_PATH=/mingw32/local/lib/pkgconfig"
    ./configure --prefix=/mingw32/local --target=mingw32
    make
    make install-strip

    This will build and install both the static library and the DLL as well.

    Step 37) building libvirtualpg

    libvirtualpg is a library supporting VIRTUAL TABLES acting as bridges between SQLite and PostgreSQL/PostGIS.
    Depends on: libslite3, libpq
    Required by: spatialite-gui

    Building under Windows is an easy task.
    cd virtualpg-2.0.0
    export "CPPFLAGS=-I/mingw32/local/include"
    export "LDFLAGS=-L/mingw32/local/lib"
    export "PKG_CONFIG_PATH=/mingw32/local/lib/pkgconfig"
    ./configure --prefix=/mingw32/local --target=mingw32 \
            --with-pgconfig=/mingw32/local/bin/pg_config
    make
    make install-strip

    This will build and install both the static library and the DLL as well.

    Step 38) building libxlsxwriter

    libxlsxwriter is a C library for creating MS Excel XLSX files.
    Depends on: libz
    Required by: spatialite_gui

    Building under Windows is absolutely a plain and easy task.
    It only has the rather unusual characteristics to adopt CMake-based build scripts, so you'll probably be required to install CMake before attempting to build libxlsxwriter.
    Anyway you can easily download the most recent CMake Windows Installer from here cd libxlsxwriter-1.2.2
    mkdir build_dll
    cd build_dll
    cmake -G "MSYS Makefiles" -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/mingw32/local -DBUILD_SHARED_LIBS=ON ..
    make
    make install/strip

    Please note: this will build and install the DLL alone. Now you must build the static library as follows:

    cd ..
    mkdir build_static
    cd build_static
    cmake -G "MSYS Makefiles" -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/mingw32/local ..
    make
    make install/strip

    This will build and install both the static library and the DLL as well.

    Step 39) building spatialite_gui

    spatialite_gui the SpatiaLite GUI user-friendly tool
    Depends on: libspatialite, wxWidgets, librasterlite2, libvirtualpg
    Building under Windows is an easy task. cd spatialite_gui-2.1.0-beta1
    export "CPPFLAGS=-I/mingw32/local/include -DCURL_STATICLIB -DLIBXML_STATIC"
    export "LDFLAGS=-L/mingw32/local/lib"
    export "PKG_CONFIG_PATH=/mingw32/local/lib/pkgconfig"
    ./configure --prefix=/mingw32/local --with-wxconfig=/mingw32/local/bin/wx-config --with-geosconfig=/mingw32/local/bin/geos-config --with-pgconfig=/mingw32/local/bin/pg_config --with-libpq_deferred
    make
    make install-strip

    Please note: following the above method you'll get a dynamically linked GUI tool [i.e. depending on DLLs].
    If you wish instead to build a statically linked GUI tool [i.e. self contained, not depending on DLLs], now type:

    mkdir static_bin
    make -f Makefile-static-mingw32
    cp static_bin/* /mingw32/local/bin

    Step 40) building libcgi

    libcgi is a standard library supporting the CGI environment.
    Depends on: nothing
    Required by: DataSeltzer

    Building under Windows is absolutely a plain and easy task. cd libcgi-1.0
    ./configure
    make
    make install

    This will build and install both the static library and the DLL as well.

    Step 41) building DataSeltzer CGI

    DataSeltzer is a CGI component supporting OpenData dissemination built on the top of SpatiaLite.
    Building under Windows is an easy task. First of all, you must check if you've already installed pkg-config.exe
    If not, please read the above instructions

    And now you must set the PKG_CONFIG_PATH as appropriate:

    export "PKG_CONFIG_PATH=/mingw32/local/lib/pkgconfig"

    After this you are now ready to build as usual:

    cd dataseltzer-1.0.0
    export "CPPFLAGS=-I/mingw32/local/include"
    export "LDFLAGS=-L/mingw32/local/lib"
    ./configure --target=mingw32
    make
    Please note: following the above method you'll get a dynamically linked CGI component [i.e. depending on DLLs].
    If you wish instead to build a statically linked CGI [i.e. self contained, not depending on DLLs], now type:

    mkdir static_bin
    make -f Makefile-static-MinGW64

    Please note: installing a CGI component requires special precautions depending on the specific Web Server configuration.

    Step 42) building GDAL

    GDAL is the well known Geospatial Data Abstraction library. it's strictly required by mod_gdalsplite.
    Depends on: practically all libraries built since now
    Required by: mod_gdalsplite
    Building under Windows is a very long but easy task. cd gdal-2.0.1
    export "CPPLAGS=-I/mingw32/local/include"
    export "LDFLAGS=-L/mingw32/local/lib"
    ./configure --with-liblzma=yes --with-spatialite=yes --with-webp=yes
    make
    make install-strip

    This will build and install both the static library and the DLL as well.

    Step 43) building fossil

    fossil is the SCM [Source Code Management] used by SpatiaLite (and companion) projects.
    Building on Windows is an easy and plain task. Important notice: you are required to manually edit the -/win/Makefile.mingw script as follows:

    Line 55: replace # FOSSIL_ENABLE_SSL = 1 as: FOSSIL_ENABLE_SSL = 1
    Line 81: replace ZINCDIR = $(SRCDIR)/../zlib-1.2.6 as: ZINCDIR = /mingw32/local/include
    Line 82: replace ZLIBDIR = $(SRCDIR)/../zlib-1.2.6 as: ZLIBDIR = /mingw32/local/lib
    Line 89: replace OPENSSLINCDIR = $(SRCDIR)/../openssl-1.0.0g/include as: OPENSSLINCDIR = /mingw32/local/include
    Line 90: replace OPENSSLLIBDIR = $(SRCDIR)/../openssl-1.0.0g as: OPENSSLLIBDIR = /mingw32/local/lib
    Line 661,662: delete both lines
    zlib:
        $(MAKE) -C $(ZLIBDIR) PREFIX=$(PREFIX) -f win32/Makefile.gcc libz.a
    Line 663: delete zlib at the end of the line.

    After this you are now ready to build:

    cd fossil-src-20130216000435
    make -f win/Makefile.mingw
    strip --strip-all fossil.exe

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    last updated: 2025-06-07