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the MinGW + MSYS environment

MinGW is an open source C/C++ compiler based on the popular gcc; MSYS 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.

We'll suppose you are using the latest MinGW and MSYS
So, if you have installed anything using the default settings [the wisest thing to do], now you have the following path correspondence:

C:\MinGW\msys\1.0\local will be mapped [in the MSYS own perspective] as: /usr/local

Accordingly, this one will be the standard home for any software you'll then build and install.

preparing to use PKG-CONFIG

pkg-config is a well known package configuration manager; it's widely used by many open sorce packages.
Unhappily pkg-config doesn't comes already installed once you've installed MinGW and MSYS.
And, to make things worst, installing pkg-config on Windows is quite difficult and not at all straighforward.

First of all, you must download pkg-config.exe from GTK+ for Windows.
Then you can simply unzip this downloaded zip-file, and then copy the pkg-config.exe executable into /MinGW/bin

That's not enough: this executable depends on the GLib DLL.
So you must download GLib DLL too, always from GTK+ for Windows.
Once again, you have to unzip this downloaded zip-file, and then copy liglib-2.0-0.dll into /MinGW/bin

You have not yet finished: pkg-config still has an unresolved DLL dependency.
But this time simply performing a trivial copy will suffit. So you must now open an MSYS shell:

cd C:/MinGW/bin
cp libintl-8.dll intl.dll

And this time that's really all: now you have pkg-confif properly installed and ready to work.

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-1.14
./configure
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 --disable-shared
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-1.2.5
make -f win32/Makefile.gcc

Now you simply have to manually copy the following files:

cp zlib1.dll /usr/local/bin
cp zconf.h zlib.h /usr/local/include
cp libz.a /usr/local/lib
cp libzdll.a /usr/local/lib/libz.dll.a

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, libgaiagraphics

Important notice: you can now choose between two alternative implementations: Building the one or the other under Windows is absolutely a plain and easy task.

How-to-build libjpeg-turbo

Please note: the NASM assembler is absolutely required: if you don't have it already installed on your system, you can download and install now. cd libjpeg-turbo-1.1.90
./configure --prefix=/usr/local
make
make install-strip

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

How-to-build libjpeg

cd jpeg-8b
./configure
make
make install-strip

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

Step 4) building libpng

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

Building under Windows is absolutely a plain and easy task. cd libpng-1.5.7
export "CFLAGS=-I/usr/local/include"
export "LDFLAGS=-L/usr/local/lib"
./configure
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.

Important notice #2: in order to get ./configure support you must absolutely download the .tar.gz, because the .zip doesn't supports it.

Step 5) building libtiff

libtiff is a popular library supporting the TIFF image format.
Depends on: libz, libjpeg
Required by: libgaiagraphics

Building under Windows is absolutely a plain and easy task. cd tiff-3.9.5
export "CFLAGS=-I/usr/local/include"
export "LDFLAGS=-L/usr/local/lib"
./configure
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 6) building libproj

libproj is a library supporting coordinate's transformation between different Reference Systems [PROJ.4]
Depends on: nothing
Required by: libgeotiff, libspatialite, spatialite-tools

Building under Windows is an easy task. cd proj-4.7.0
./configure --without-mutex
make
make install-strip

Important notice: may well be you'll get the following fatal errors:

pj_mutex.c:167: error: redefinition of 'pj_acquire_lock'
pj_mutex.c:65: error: previous definition of 'pj_acquire_lock' was here
pj_mutex.c:181: error: redefinition of 'pj_release_lock'
pj_mutex.c:75: error: previous definition of 'pj_release_lock' was here
pj_mutex.c:192: error: redefinition of 'pj_cleanup_lock'
pj_mutex.c:82: error: previous definition of 'pj_cleanup_lock' was here
pj_mutex.c:206: error: redefinition of 'pj_init_lock'
pj_mutex.c:91: error: previous definition of 'pj_init_lock' was here

in such an evenience you have to edit the -/src/pj_mutex.c source as follows:

33c33
< #ifndef _WIN32
---
> #if defined (_WIN32) && !defined(__MINGW32__)
40c40
< #ifndef _WIN32
---
> #if defined (_WIN32) && !defined(__MINGW32__)

Step 7) building libgeotiff

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

Building under Windows is an easy task. cd libgeotiff-1.3.0
export "CFLAGS=-I/usr/local/include"
export "LDFLAGS=-L/usr/local/lib"
./configure --enable-incode-epsg
make
make install-strip

Important notice: it doesn't seem possible to build as a DLL using MinGW + MSYS. AFAIK, there is no way to do such a thing.
So you have to manually apply the following patch to circumvent this issue. Edit the /usr/local/lib/libgeotiff.la file as follows:

10c10
< library_names=''
---
> library_names='libgeotiff.a'

Step 8) 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; building on Windows is an incredibly time consuming task. cd geos-3.3.2
./configure
make
make install-strip

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

Step 9) 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-2.0.1
./configure
make
make install

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

Step 10) building FreeXL

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

Building under Windows is an easy task. cd freexl-1.0.0b
export "CFLAGS=-I/usr/local/include"
export "LDFLAGS=-L/usr/local/lib"
./configure
make
make install-strip

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

Step 11) building libspatialite

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

Building under Windows is an easy task. cd libspatialite-amalgamation-3.0.0-stable
export "CFLAGS=-I/usr/local/include"
export "LDFLAGS=-L/usr/local/lib"
./configure --target=mingw32
make
make install-strip

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

Step 12) building spatialite-tools

spatialite-tools the SpatiaLite command-line management tools
Depends on: libiconv, libproj, libgeos, FreeXL, libspatialite, libexpat
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=/usr/local/lib/pkgconfig"

After this you are now ready to build as usual:

cd spatialite-tools-3.0.0-stable
export "CFLAGS=-I/usr/local/include"
export "LDFLAGS=-L/usr/local/lib"
./configure --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-MinGW
cp static_bin/* /usr/local/bin

Step 13) 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 wxMSW-2.8.12
mkdir msw_build
cd msw_build
export "CFLAGS=-I/usr/local/include"
export "CXXFLAGS=-I/usr/local/include"
export "LDFLAGS=-L/usr/local/lib"
../configure --disable-shared --disable-debug \
    --disable-threads --enable-monolithic --enable-unicode \
    --without-expat --without-regex --enable-graphics_ctx

Please note: the wxMSW ./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 2.8.12 for `i686-pc-mingw32'

  Which GUI toolkit should wxWidgets use?                 msw
  Should wxWidgets be compiled into single library?       yes
  Should wxWidgets be compiled in debug mode?             no
  Should wxWidgets be linked as a shared library?         no
  Should wxWidgets be compiled in Unicode mode?           yes
  What level of wxWidgets compatibility should be enabled?
                                       wxWidgets 2.4      no
                                       wxWidgets 2.6      yes
  Which libraries should wxWidgets use?
                                       jpeg               sys
                                       png                sys
                                       regex              no
                                       tiff               sys
                                       zlib               sys
                                       odbc               no
                                       expat              no
                                       libmspack          no
                                       sdl                no

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

make
make install-strip

Step 14) 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-2.4.8
./configure
make
make install

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

Step 15) 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-2.8.0
export "CFLAGS=-I/usr/local/include -DLIBICONV_STATIC"
export "LDFLAGS=-L/usr/local/lib"
./configure --disable-docs
make
make install-strip

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

Step 16) 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.
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=/usr/local/lib/pkgconfig"

All right, your system configuration is ready to build pixman, so you can now: cd pixman-0.24.0
./configure
make
make install-strip

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

Step 17) building libcairo

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

Building under Windows is a little bit harder than usual.
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=/usr/local/lib/pkgconfig"

All right, your system configuration is ready to build libcairo, so you can now: cd cairo-1.10.2
export "CFLAGS=-I/usr/local/include"
export "LDFLAGS=-L/usr/local/lib"
./configure --disable-pthread
make
make install-strip

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

Step 18) building libgaiagraphics

libgaiagraphics is a common utility library supporting graphics rendendering
Depends on: libjpeg, libpng, libtiff, libgeotiff, libcairo

Required by: spatialite-gui [next-to-come releases of librasterlite and spatialite-gis]

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=/usr/local/lib/pkgconfig"

All right, your system configuration is ready to build libgaiagraphics, so you can now: cd libgaiagraphics-0.4b
export "CFLAGS=-I/usr/local/include"
export "LDFLAGS=-L/usr/local/lib"
./configure --target=mingw32
make
make install-strip

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

Step 19) building spatialite_gui

spatialite_gui the SpatiaLite GUI user-friendly tool
Depends on: libspatialite, wxWidgets, libgaiagraphics
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=/usr/local/lib/pkgconfig"

After this you are now ready to build as usual:

cd spatialite_gui-1.5.0-stable
export "CFLAGS=-I/usr/local/include"
export "LDFLAGS=-L/usr/local/lib"
./configure
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-MinGW
cp static_bin/* /usr/local/bin

Step 20) building RasterLite

librasterlite is a library allowing to store huge raster coverages within a SpatiaLite DB
Depends on: libjpeg, libpng, libtiff, libgeotiff, libspatialite

Required by: spatialite-gis

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=/usr/local/lib/pkgconfig"

All right, your system configuration is ready to build librasterlite, so you can now: cd librasterlite-1.1b
export "CFLAGS=-I/usr/local/include"
export "LDFLAGS=-L/usr/local/lib"
./configure
make
make install-strip

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

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-MinGW
cp static_bin/* /usr/local/bin

Step 21) building libharu

libharu [aka libhpdf] is a library supporting output to PDF documents
Depends on: libpng

Required by: spatialite-gis

Building under Windows is an easy task: cd libharu-2.2.1
export "CFLAGS=-I/usr/local/include"
export "LDFLAGS=-L/usr/local/lib"
./configure
make
make install-strip

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

Important notice: libharu 2.2.1 isn't fully compatible with recent libpng versions;
you are required to manually edit the -/src/hpdf_image_png.c source as follows:

replace any occurrence of: info_ptr->height as: getHeight(info_ptr)
replace any occurrence of: info_ptr->width as: getWidth(info_ptr)
replace any occurrence of: info_ptr->bit_depth as: getBitDepth(info_ptr)
replace any occurrence of: info_ptr->color_type as: getColorType(info_ptr)

Step 22) building spatialite_gis

spatialite_gis a minimalistic GIS built on the top of SpatiaLite and RasterLite
Depends on: libspatialite, wxWidgets, librasterlite
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=/usr/local/lib/pkgconfig"

After this you are now ready to build as usual:

cd spatialite_gis-1.0.0c
export "CFLAGS=-I/usr/local/include"
export "LDFLAGS=-L/usr/local/lib"
./configure --target=mingw32
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-MinGW
cp static_bin/* /usr/local/bin

Step 23) 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.
tar zxvf openssl-1.0.0e.tar.gz
cd openssl-1.0.0e
./Configure mingw --prefix=/usr/local shared
make
make install

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

Step 24) building libcurl [not strictly required by the current SpatiaLite version !!!]

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

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=/usr/local/lib/pkgconfig"

After this you are now ready to build as usual:

cd curl-7.23.1
export "CFLAGS=-I/usr/local/include"
export "LDFLAGS=-L/usr/local/lib"
./configure
make
make install-strip

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

Step 25) 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 25: replace # FOSSIL_ENABLE_SSL=1 as: FOSSIL_ENABLE_SSL=1
Line 30: replace ZLIBDIR = /programs/gnuwin32 as: ZLIBDIR = /usr/local

After this you are now ready to build:

cd fossil-src-20111213135356
make -f win/Makefile.mingw
strip --strip-all fossil.exe

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