Re: [boost] [build] bootstrap.sh is still broken

Subject: Re: [boost] [build] bootstrap.sh is still broken
From: Nathan Ridge (zeratul976_at_[hidden])
Date: 2013-10-28 19:45:56

>> MinGW and MSYS are two different things.
>>
>> MinGW is a Windows port of gcc.
>>
>> MSYS is a Windows port of just enough of a Unix environment (shell,
>> coreutils, autotools and such) to build projects that use an autotools
>> (configure+make) build system on Windows.
>>
>> The only relation between the two is:
>> - MSYS, and the original (and still most commonly used) variant of
>> MinGW, are made by the same group of people (MinGW.org)
>> - People who port Unix programs to Windows, or who just like
>> working in a Unix environment and need to work on Windows,
>> often use the two together.
>>
>> However, you don't have to use the two together, and many don't.
>
> Thanks for the explanation. Dare I ask where cygwin fits in? That's what
> I typically use, and it is braindead simple (which, apparently, is what
> I need).

Cygwin provides a port of gcc AND a Unix environment in which you can
build autotools projects AND a complete POSIX API implementation so
that you can compile programs that make POSIX system calls like fork()
(and a package management system and a few other things including
the kitchen sink).

An important difference between MinGW and Cygwin is that the programs
produced by Cygwin need to be linked to a DLL which is GPL-licensed,
and which therefore requires that the entire program be GPL-licensed.
This is why many people who don't need the extra functionality provided
by Cygwin (the POSIX APIs), use MinGW instead.

>>> 2) Stephan's mingw distribution doesn't include gcc. I'm wondering how
>>> he expects things to work.
>>
>> Huh? When I extract http://nuwen.net/files/mingw/mingw-11.2.exe, I
>> see a MinGW/bin/gcc.exe.
>
> Oh man. I just followed Stephan's instructions here:
>
> http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lib.boost.devel/245604
>
> That's clearly not enough. Is there any step-by-step instructions I can
> follow to verify whether the fix is working or not? Sorry for the back
> and forth, but I've managed to get myself pretty confused.

Those instructions seem to assume that you already have his MinGW
distro installed. It's very simple to install, just follow the "How to install"
section at http://nuwen.net/mingw.html.

Regards,
Nate