INSTALL_WINDOWS

Compiling for Windows
=====================

  It is possible to compile p4est for Windows and build a DLL for use
in an external project within the Microsoft Visual Studio toolchain.

Instructions:
  1. Install MSYS2 from http://www.msys2.org/

  2. Follow instructions to update MSYS2 package database
     (see manual on http://www.msys2.org)

  3. Install the gcc toolchain using MSYS2 package manager

        pacman -S libtool
        packman -S automake
        pacman -S mingw-w64-x86_64-toolchain
        (select all)

  4. Install lua package

        cd ~/
        wget http://www.lua.org/ftp/lua-5.3.4.tar.gz
        tar -xzvf lua-5.3.4.tar.gz
        cd lua-5.3.4/
        make
        make install

     Checking lua works OK
        lua -v

  5. Building p4est largely follows the instructions provided for Linux with
     some alterations.
     The number of the required external packages was reduced in this example.
     The only essential change is disabling MPI as it does not seem to work
     correctly on a Windows machine.

    a. It is also required to change some of the files as some of the declarations
        and instructions are not available on Windows.

        File sc/src/sc.h line 96:
        //#include <libgen.h>

        File sc/src/sc.h line 121:
        #define __attribute__(x)

        File sc/test/test_node_comm.c line 36:
        #define srandom srand
        #define random rand

        In files src/p4est_algorithms.c, p8est_algorithms.c, p6est.c
        Include definitions of htonl-function
        #define htonl(_val) ( ((uint16_t)(_val) & 0xff00) >> 8 | ((uint16_t)(_val) & 0xff) << 8 )

        File test/test_balance_seeds2.c line 33:
        #define srandom srand
        #define random rand

    b. Compile the package (MPI is disabled as some changes on signals were made
        and it seems to result in the program crashing when MPI functions are used).

        cd p4est/
        ./bootstrap
        ./configure --disable-mpi --disable-vtk-build --without-blas
        ./make LDFLAGS="-no-undefined"
        ./make install

  6. Build DLLs suitable for Windows.  Linking .a files to MS VS project
      works fine for some projects but not for this one as it uses some functions
      that are implemented differently in Windows.

        gcc -g -O2 -o libp4est.dll src/src*.o -shared -Wl,--output-def=libp4est.def -mwindows
        -Wl,--out-implib,libp4est.dll.a -Wl,--export-all-symbols -Wl,--enable-auto-import local/lib/libsc.a
        -lz -lgomp -lpthread -llua

        gcc -g -O2 -o libsc.dll sc/src/src*.o -shared -Wl,--output-def=libsc.def -mwindows
        -Wl,--out-implib,libsc.dll.a -Wl,--export-all-symbols -Wl,--enable-auto-import sc/libb64/.libs/*.o
        -lz -lgomp -lpthread -llua

  7. Open Windows command promt and change directory to that with the compiled package.
      The following instructions create .lib files from .def and .a files.

        lib /def:libp4est.def /machine:x64
        lib /def:libsc.def /machine:x64

  8. Now the .lib and .dll files should be suitable to compile them within the
     MS Visual Studio framework.
     For that .lib files should be referenced as usual in Project
     Properties->Linker->Input->Additional dependencies and .dll files should
     be placed in the same folder with the .exe file or included in PATH.

Note:
1. The instructions given below have been tested for MS VS 2012.
2. The package can be compiled, built and installed under CygWin using
   instructions identical to those for linux.