Getting Angband from Github and compiling it

[TJS]

I'm trying to build the latest version of Vanilla on Windows XP and don't seem to be getting anywhere.

I'm not really used to building projects using the command line.

Do I navigate into the Angband parent directory using Command Prompt and type?

"make -f makefile.win MINGW=YES"

I get the 'make not recognised' error. Same if I try with the Visual Studio command prompt.

If I try the following with Visual studio command prompt in the src directory

"nmake -f makefile.win MINGW=YES"

I get the error "syntax error missing ) in macro invocation (line 19)".

Any ideas?

[Magnate]

Originally Posted by TJS

I'm trying to build the latest version of Vanilla on Windows XP and don't seem to be getting anywhere.

I'm not really used to building projects using the command line.

Do I navigate into the Angband parent directory using Command Prompt and type?

"make -f makefile.win MINGW=YES"

I get the 'make not recognised' error. Same if I try with the Visual Studio command prompt.

If I try the following with Visual studio command prompt in the src directory

"nmake -f makefile.win MINGW=YES"

I get the error "syntax error missing ) in macro invocation (line 19)".

Any ideas?

I think you're mixing two different things here. If you're using VS, you shouldn't need to use a command prompt at all. I know nothing about VS, but I think Blubaron left quite comprehensive VS compilation instructions somewhere in src/win/. Not sure how version-dependent they are, but you could have a go and see.

Using the command prompt is for compiling using MinGW/Msys. I think these instructions are in compiling.txt, and you no longer need to invoke Makefile.win. I think (but not certain and at work so can't check) that you need to run configure --your-preferred-options (run configure --help to see what they are), and then just type make. Hint: if configure options frighten you, just use configure --with-no-install. That will build angband in src/, and you just start it with src/angband.exe

[TJS]

Originally Posted by Magnate

I think you're mixing two different things here. If you're using VS, you shouldn't need to use a command prompt at all. I know nothing about VS, but I think Blubaron left quite comprehensive VS compilation instructions somewhere in src/win/. Not sure how version-dependent they are, but you could have a go and see.

Using the command prompt is for compiling using MinGW/Msys. I think these instructions are in compiling.txt, and you no longer need to invoke Makefile.win. I think (but not certain and at work so can't check) that you need to run configure --your-preferred-options (run configure --help to see what they are), and then just type make. Hint: if configure options frighten you, just use configure --with-no-install. That will build angband in src/, and you just start it with src/angband.exe

I'm don't want to use VS, just previously you could build using the VS command prompt with the nmake command so I thought I'd try it again after the standard command prompt didn't work.

I've downloaded and installed MinGW, but the standard command prompt doesn't recognise the command 'make' when I try to build.

How do you run configure?

MinGW seems a bit of a mystery to me as I've seen the MinGW shell mentioned, but I see no way of opening it and there's no exe in the MinGW folder.

Edit: Have tried building through visual studio via those instructions and get this error from a dll:

libpng12.dll : fatal error LNK1107: invalid or corrupt file: cannot read at 0x290

[Mikko Lehtinen]

Originally Posted by TJS

I've downloaded and installed MinGW, but the standard command prompt doesn't recognise the command 'make' when I try to build.

IIRC, the make command is actually mingw32-make (if you're on 32-bit Windows).

MinGW's bin folder needs to be in your path. Then the command prompt will recognize the mingw32-make command.

I haven't built the modern Angband on Windows, but I hope these two bits help rather than confuse.

[Magnate]

Originally Posted by TJS

I'm don't want to use VS, just previously you could build using the VS command prompt with the nmake command so I thought I'd try it again after the standard command prompt didn't work.

I've downloaded and installed MinGW, but the standard command prompt doesn't recognise the command 'make' when I try to build.

How do you run configure?

MinGW seems a bit of a mystery to me as I've seen the MinGW shell mentioned, but I see no way of opening it and there's no exe in the MinGW folder.

Edit: Have tried building through visual studio via those instructions and get this error from a dll:

libpng12.dll : fatal error LNK1107: invalid or corrupt file: cannot read at 0x290

Ok, let's leave VS aside and focus on mingw/msys.

I think the problem you are having is that you have installed mingw but not msys, so you're typing the 'make' command into a Windows prompt rather than a mingw shell. Once we cross that hurdle things should get a lot easier.

Sadly I don't use Windows myself, but I'm hoping fizzix will see this thread and wade in, because I think he uses this build method.

[fizzix]

Mikko is correct. To compile with Mingw you need to add the bin to path manually. For some reason, mingw doesn't do that. Here are some instructions for xp.

After that, the command to build is "mingw32-make -f Makefile.win MINGW=YES" you have to tell it to build from the Makefile.win file and not the generic makefile. I've never built with VS, but I think you need to configure first and then build.

I've still had problems with the .dlls not being copied correctly into the src directory for some reason (and the .exe). So you may need to manually copy the .dll files and the .exe file from the src/ directory. I'll load up IRC at work today if you have any more questions.

[TJS]

Hey thanks for the help, but I'm still having problems.

I've already set the path for the MinGW, but I don't understand what I'm supposed to type the command "mingw32-make -f Makefile.win MINGW=YES" into.

Is it the normal command prompt? If so it still doesn't recognise the mingw32-make command.

I've now installed MSYS, but I don't really know what it is or what it does.

[Mikko Lehtinen]

Originally Posted by TJS

I've already set the path for the MinGW, but I don't understand what I'm supposed to type the command "mingw32-make -f Makefile.win MINGW=YES" into.

Is it the normal command prompt? If so it still doesn't recognise the mingw32-make command.

Yes, the normal Windows command prompt. (And in the angband/src directory.) You need to open a new command prompt window after setting the PATH.

Check your mingw/bin folder: does it have the file mingw32-make.exe?

[TJS]

Originally Posted by Mikko Lehtinen

Yes, the normal Windows command prompt. (And in the angband/src directory.) You need to open a new command prompt window after setting the PATH.

Check your mingw/bin folder: does it have the file mingw32-make.exe?

Yes it has the mingw32-make.exe file (along with a load of other ones).

When I installed MSYS it said I needed to rename the make.exe as the mingw32-make.exe, but when I looked in the bin folder there was no make.exe and the mingw32-make.exe was already there.

Is it possible to point directly to the mingw32-make.exe somehow in the command line?

[Mikko Lehtinen]

Originally Posted by TJS

Is it possible to point directly to the mingw32-make.exe somehow in the command line?

Yes.

C:\path\to\mingw\bin\mingw32-make -f Makefile.win MINGW=YES