Difference between revisions of "HowTo compile with Visual Studio"

Revision as of 20:53, 13 September 2008

Requirements for compiling aMule for Windows using Visual Studio

You will need the following packages:

• Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 (called "VS"), the free Express Edition (called "VSE") is supported for aMule SVN only
• Windows port of wxWidgets library (knows as wxMSW) -> Download (2.8.8)
• Crypto++ library -> Download(5.5.2)
• zlib compression library is already included in wxMSW
• aMule 2.2.2 source or latest SVN source tarball -> Download aMule

Also, 1100MB free space on your hard disk (around 40MB to download the above packages and the rest for temporary compilation files and installations. The amount of space needed will largely depend on the configuration flags you use).

As a reference, the whole compilation process will take around 20 min on a medium-high resourced computer.

Unpacking the sources

• Create a root folder. You can name it whatever you want. In this example it is called "aMule".
• Unpack wxMSW to "aMule\wxWidgets" (no intermediate subfolder).
• Unpack cryptopp to "aMule\cryptopp" (no intermediate subfolder).
• Unpack aMule to "aMule\trunk" (no intermediate subfolder). This folder can be named as you like, the 2 library folders must have exact the names from above, or the project won't load.

Preparing the library projects

• Open "aMule\wxWidgets\build\msw\wx.dsw" in VS. It asks, if it should convert the project. Answer "Yes to all".
• Close VS, saving the changes.

Selecting the solution

1. aMule 2.2.2 ships with only one solution "aMule-MSVC.sln" which works only with the commercial edition of VS. This solution includes everything - aMule, tools, external libs, organized in folders (which VSE does not allow).
2. In aMule SVN there are two additional solutions: "aMule-MSVCE-ExtLibs.sln" builds wxWidgets and cryptopp into a single big lib "libext.lib". "aMule-MSVCE.sln" builds aMule (including aMule's internal libs) and aMule's tools. That way the (now flat) aMule solution is not cluttered with all the wxWidgets libs, and a Clean Solution won't clean the wxWidgets build (which usually is not the intention). These soultions can be used with the commercial VS edition too.

Compiling the external libraries for 1)

• Open the aMule solution "aMule\trunk\MSVC Solution\aMule-MSVC.sln" in VS (for aMule 2.2.2 VS will again ask to convert it).
• In the toolbar set the Solution Configuration to Debug or Release (whatever you prefer) and the Solution Platform to Win32.
• In the solution explorer open properties of external libraries/cryptlib.
• In Configuration Properties/C-C++/Code Generation change Runtime Library to Multithreaded Debug DLL (/MDd) for the debug build or to Multithreaded DLL (/MD) for the release build.
• If you aren't interested in Unit Tests (or don't know what it's about) remove the UnitTests tree from the solution.
• Right-click on external libraries and select build.

Compiling the external libraries for 2)

• Open the aMule solution "aMule\trunk\MSVC Solution\aMule-MSVCE-ExtLibs.sln" in VS.
• In the toolbar set the Solution Configuration to Debug or Release (whatever you prefer) and the Solution Platform to Win32.
• In the solution explorer open properties of cryptlib.
• In Configuration Properties/C-C++/Code Generation change Runtime Library to Multithreaded Debug DLL (/MDd) for the debug build or to Multithreaded DLL (/MD) for the release build.
• Hit F7.
• If everything was fine, load "aMule\trunk\MSVC Solution\aMule-MSVCE.sln" to continue.

Compiling aMule

Just hit F7 and lean back.

If you get errors:

error in Scanner.cpp

change

b->yy_is_interactive = 0;
// b->yy_is_interactive = file ? (isatty( fileno(file) ) > 0) : 0;

'GetTickCount64' : redefinition

This happens on Vista with VS 2008. To fix it, open "GetTickCount.h" and insert

#define GetTickCount64 GetTickCount_64
uint64 GetTickCount64();

error accessing something.pdb

Sometimes VS stumbles over it's own feet. Just delete the offending pdb and try again.

Running

To run aMule from VS, right-click on Monolithic build/aMule and Set as StartUp project. Then hit F5.

To run aMule on a machine with no VS installed you have to install the Visual Studio Runtime.

aMule's configuration will be stored in your document folder in "AppData\Roaming\aMule" (under Vista).