Installation notes to build Unison on Windows systems, with Visual C++

[The following instructions were tested for Unison 2.9.1 on a Windows
2000 machine running OCaml 3.04 -- that was a long time ago, so there
may be some discrepancies with current versions of things.  If you
notice any, please send a correction to unison-users@yahoogroups.com.]

Contents

1.Setting up the Windows system
  1.1 General requirements
  1.2 A Unix-like layer: CygWin
  1.3 Visual C++
  1.4 The OCaml compiler
2.Compiling Unison
  2.1 Text user interface
  2.2 Tk user interface
  2.3 Gtk user interface
3.Using new public versions of Tk/Gtk/LablGtk
  3.1 Using a new version of Tcl/Tk
  3.2 Patching a new version of Gtk
  3.3 Patching a new version of LablGtk
  3.4 Making patches from the public sources
Appendix
  A.Windows text format
  B.'.bashrc'
  C.Windows files and directories names
  D.Windows icons



Section 1 - Setting up the Windows system


1.1 General requirements

  We will assume your are logged in as a regular user. We will mention cases 
when you need to be granted administrator permissions.

  We will work in your home directory.

  For a complete installation from scratch, you will need about 300 Mb.

  CygWin, a Unix-like layer, is needed to be able to use GNU tools
like 'bash', 'make', 'sed', 'patch', etc.

  The native Win32 port of OCaml distribution version 3.04 is required.
It itself requires Visual C++ 6.0.

1.2 A Unix-like layer: CygWin

  Download CygWin from 'http://www.cygwin.com/': 
* click "install cygwin now" and follow the instruction to set up cygwin.
  install the essential packages such as "make", "fileutil", "openssh", etc.
  set the root directory (e.g. 'd:\cygwin')

  Setup 'bash':
* click on 'bash'.
* enter 'export HOME=/home/<username>', make the directory, then 'cd'.
* create a '.bashrc' in CygWin's root directory to suit your
  needs (see Appendix B for an example).
* check the environment variable OSTYPE with 'echo $OSTYPE'.  If the result is
  not 'cygwin' or 'cygwin20', then add 'export OSTYPE=cygwin' to the
  '.bashrc' file.  This variable helps the unison Makefile (project
  file) to understand that we are compiling under Windows platform.

  Remember you can access the whole Windows filesystem with a Unix
path through '/cygdrive/<drive letter>/<path>' (e.g. '/cygdrive/c/winnt' 
stands for 'C:\WinNT')


1.3 Visual C++

  Run the installation program from the CD with Administrator
permissions. We only need Visual C++ and MsDN is not required.

  To check out your installation, use 'bash' to enter 'cl /?'.

  If something goes wrong :
* your path must contain the Visual C++ 'bin' directory; you may have to 
  enter something like 
  'export PATH=$PATH:/cygdrive/progra~1/micros~1/vc98/bin'.
* your path must contain the Visual Studio '.dll' files' directory; you may
  have to enter something like 
  'export PATH=$PATH:/cygdrive/progra~1/micros~1/common/msdev98/bin'.
* the Visual C++ compiler must be able to access the headers; you may have to
  enter something like 'export INCLUDE='C:\progra~1\micros~1\vc98\include'' 
  (path between single quotes).
* the Visual C++ linker must be able to access the libraries; you may have to
  enter something like 'export LIB='C:\progra~1\micros~1\vc98\lib'' (path 
  between single quotes).


1.4 The OCaml compiler

  Download the Native Win32 port of OCaml 3.04 from 
'http://caml.inria.fr/ocaml/distrib.html'.  It's a self-extracting binary.

  Run it with Administrator permissions (only use 8 characters-long
names in the installation directory).

  To check out your installation, use 'bash' to enter 'ocamlc -v'.

  If something goes wrong :
* your path must contain the OCaml 'bin' directory;  you may have to enter 
  something like 'export PATH=$PATH:/cygdrive/c/ocaml/bin'.
* 'ocamlc -v' must report the OCaml 'lib' directory; you may have to enter
  something like "export CAMLLIB='C:\ocaml\lib'" (path between single 
  quotes).

1.5  Microsoft Macro Assembler (MASM32)

Download MASM32 from http://www.masm32.com/masmdl.htm, unzip and install
it. Add the MASM32 bin directory (e.g. C:\masm32\bin) to your Path. Test
the assembler with

  ml

Your shell should answer with

  Microsoft (R) Macro Assembler Version 6.14.8444
  Copyright (C) Microsoft Corp 1981-1997.  All rights reserved.

  usage: ML [ options ] filelist [ /link linkoptions]
  Run "ML /help" or "ML /?" for more info


Section 2 - Compiling Unison
 

2.1 Text user interface

  Unpack the Unison sources.

  Using 'bash', enter 'make clean', then 'make UISTYLE=text' to compile.

  If something goes wrong :
* if 'make' reports 'missing separator', be sure the makefiles are in
  Unix text format (see Appendix A).
* if .depend is not provided, create one using 
  'ocamldep *.mli *.ml > .depend'; you will have to convert this file
  to Unix text format (see Appendix A).
* the minor 'etags' error is reported when 'emacs' is missing; you may
  want to install it.

2.2 Gtk user interface

  You need the Gtk libraries (already installed if you got the Tcl/Tk
libraries). Get the 'guilib.tar.gz' tarball from the 'resources'
directory of the Unison web site and unpack it in your Ocaml 'lib'
directory. This will create a 'guilib' directory containing the
libraries.

  Now you need the LablGtk extension to OCaml. 
  First, the Gtk development package is required. Get the
'wingtk.patched.tar.gz' tarball from the 'resources' directory of the
Unison web site and unpack it. This will create a 'wingtk' directory.

  Now, get the 'lablgtk-1.2.3-msvc-static.tar.gz' tarball from the
'resources' directory of the Unison web site and unpack it somewhere
(a building location, just for the compilation).  This will create a
'lablgtk-1.2.3-static' directory. Edit the 'config.make.nt' file to
set up the access path to your OCaml 'lib' directory and to the
'wingtk' directory you created in the previous step.  In
'lablgtk-1.2.3-static/src', run 'nmake -f Makefile.nt'. If you can use
the OCaml native-code compiler, run 'nmake -f Makefile.nt opt' too. If
you can't, you probably need the MASM assembler, also available in the
'resources' directory of the Unison web site.  If everything goes
well, run 'nmake -f Makefile.nt install' to install the software.  You
may want to remove the compilation directory 'lablgtk-1.2.3-static'.

  Using 'bash' in the Unison sources directory, enter 'make clean'
then 'make UISTYLE=gtk'.

  Run 'unison.exe' with the Gtk .dll's in your search path (they can
be found in the 'guilib' directory), unless you built with the
NATIVE=true option.

  "unison.exe" built with NATIVE=true option is statically linked.
This means that the executable doesn't refer to Cygwin and Gtk DLLs,
and can therefore be distributed as a standalone application.


Section 3 - Using new public versions of Tk/Gtk/LablGtk

3.1 Patching a new version of Gtk

  Download the 'wingtk.patch.tar.gz' tarball from the 'resources'
directory of the Unison web site and unpack it. Follow the
instructions in the 'README.patch' file to download the Gtk sources,
to patch them and to build the new static and dynamic libraries.

  Important: if a patch fails for any reason, try to apply the patches on a
             Unix system.

  Copy those new libraries to your 'ocaml/lib/guilib' directory, along
with the .dll's (dynamic version).

  Using the new version of 'wingtk', recompile LablGtk (see section 2.3).
  

3.2 Patching a new version of LablGtk

   Download lablgtk-1.2.3.tar.gz from the LablGtk homepage
<http://wwwfun.kurims.kyoto-u.ac.jp/soft/olabl/lablgtk.html>.  Unpack
it.

  Download the 'lablgtk-1.2.3-msvc-static.patch.gz' from the 'resources'
directory of the Unison web site. Apply the patch by typing: 
  'patch < lablgtk.patch'
above the 'lablgtk' directory.

  Important: if a patch fails for any reason, try to apply the patches on a
             Unix system.


3.3 Making patches from the public sources

  The way from public Gtk/LablGtk sources to the provided Gtk/LablGtk
dynamic/static extension has been somehow perilous. We strongly
recommand using the provided sources and patches as a base for your
further enhancements.

  To be exhaustive, here are the steps followed to create the provided
sources (hoping it would help when trying to adapt a new version):  

  WinGtk: 

* Download the Gtk win32 sources from
  'http://www.gimp.org/~tml/gimp/win32//downloads.html'. We need
  'glib-src-yyyymmdd' and 'gtk+-src-yyyymmdd' where 'yyyymmdd' is the
  release date. Version 2000/04/16 of these files was used.  

* We will make new Windows Makefiles from the old ones. Here is how to
  convert a Makefile:
  - change all '/MD' to '/MT' to use the same windows system 
    libraries than ocaml
    (e.g. 'OPTIMIZE = -Ox -MD' becomes 'OPTIMIZE = -Ox -MT')
  - turns all '.dll' targets to '.lib' ones using
    'MKLIB = lib /nologo /out:'
    you must remove all references to '.def' files
    you must remove all references to other '.lib' and '.res' but 
    you will have to provide them when linking an executable later
    (e.g. 
     glib-$(GLIB_VER).dll : $(glib_OBJECTS) glib.def
	$(CC) $(CFLAGS) -LD -Feglib-$(GLIB_VER).dll $(glib_OBJECTS) \
        user32.lib advapi32.lib wsock32.lib $(LDFLAGS) /def:glib.def
     becomes:
     glib-$(GLIB_VER).lib : $(glib_OBJECTS)
	$(MKLIB)glib-$(GLIB_VER).lib $(glib_OBJECTS)
     )
  - remove all '-GD' compilation flags
    (e.g.
     .c.obj :
	$(CC) $(CFLAGS) -GD -c -DGLIB_COMPILATION \
        -DG_LOG_DOMAIN=g_log_domain_glib $<
     becomes:
     .c.obj :
	$(CC) $(CFLAGS)     -c -DGLIB_COMPILATION \
        -DG_LOG_DOMAIN=g_log_domain_glib $<
     )
  - provides the right libraries when linking executables
    (e.g.
     testgtk.exe : gtk-$(GTK_VER).dll testgtk.obj
	$(CC) $(CFLAGS) testgtk.obj gtk-$(GTK_VER).lib \
        ..\gdk\gdk-$(GTK_VER).lib $(GLIB)\glib-$(GLIB_VER).lib \
        $(LDFLAGS)
     becomes: 
     testgtk.exe : gtk-$(GTK_VER).lib testgtk.obj
	$(CC) $(CFLAGS) testgtk.obj gtk-$(GTK_VER).lib \
        ..\gdk\gdk-$(GTK_VER).lib ..\gdk\win32\gdk-win32.lib \
        $(GLIB)\glib-$(GLIB_VER).lib $(GLIB)\gmodule-$(GLIB_VER).lib \
        user32.lib advapi32.lib wsock32.lib gdi32.lib imm32.lib \
        shell32.lib ole32.lib ../gdk/win32/gdk.res $(LDFLAGS)
     )

* Convert 'glib/makefile.msc' and remove all references to the
  'gthread' and 'pthread' directories and libraries from it (but keep
  'gthread.obj').

* Erase the 'gthread' directory.

* Comment out the '#include <psapi.h>' line in
  'glib/gmodule/gmodule-win32.c'.

* You should now be able to compile the 'glib' and 'gmodule' libraries
  by typing 'nmake -f <new makefile>'. You can test it with 'testglib'
  and the other test programs. Remember to provide those two libraries
  when linking programs.

* In 'gtk+/config.h.win32', undefine the following variables by
  commenting out their definition lines:
  HAVE_WINTAB, ENABLE_NLS, HAVE_GETTEXT, HAVE_LIBINTL

* Convert 'gtk+/gdk/win32/makefile.msc' and remove all references to
  'WTKIT', 'wntab32x', 'INTL' and 'gnu-intl' from it.

* In 'gtk+/gdk/win32/rc/gdk.rc', comment out ',BUILDNUMBER'.

* In 'gtk+/gdk/win32/gdkcursor-win32.c', replace 'gdk_DLLInstance' by
  'gdk_ProgInstance'.

* You should now be able to compile 'gdk-win32.lib'.

* Convert 'gtk+/gdk/makefile.msc' and remove all references to
  'WTKIT', 'wntab32x', 'INTL' and 'gnu-intl' from it. Include
  'gdk-win32.lib' as an object for the 'gdk' library.
 
* You should now be able to compile the 'gdk' library. Remember to
  provide 'win32/gdk.res' as well as the 'gdk' library when linking
  programs.

* Convert 'gtk+/gtk/makefile.msc' and remove all references to
  'WTKIT', 'wntab32x', 'INTL', 'gnu-intl' and 'PTHREAD' from it.

* Be sure to include all needed libraries in the '.exe' files' compilation
  command lines.
  In most case you need the following:
  gtk-$(GTK_VER).lib ..\gdk\gdk-$(GTK_VER).lib \
  $(GLIB)\glib-$(GLIB_VER).lib $(GLIB)\gmodule-$(GLIB_VER).lib \
  user32.lib advapi32.lib wsock32.lib gdi32.lib imm32.lib shell32.lib \
  ole32.lib \
  ../gdk/win32/gdk.res

* You should now be able to compile the 'gtk' library. You can test it
  with 'testglib' and the other test programs.

* With some cleaning of the Makefiles, it is also possible to build a
  dynamic version of the libraries, along with the .dll's, so that we
  finally obtain static/dynamic sources.

* Make a patch with 'diff -Nr -C 5 <old dir> <new dir>' (you have to
  use the GNU diffutils' 'diff'). You will apply the patch with 
  'patch -p1 < <patch file>'.

  LablGtk:

* Download LablGtk from 'http://www.gtk.org' or
  'ftp://ftp.inria.fr/lang/caml-light/bazar-ocaml/'.

* You can remove all subdirectories.

* Edit 'config.make.nt' to include the right Gtk libraries.

* Comment out all references to 'gutter' to be found in the sources
  with 'grep gutter *.h *.c *.mli *.ml'.

* Compile with 'nmake -f Makefile.nt'. If you can use the OCaml
  native-code compiler, run 'nmake -f Makefile.nt opt' too. If you
  can't, you probably need the MASM assembler. It was downloaded from
  'http://www.cs.uu.nl/wais/html/na-dir/assembly-language/x86/microsoft.html'.

* Make a patch as for WinGtk.



Appendix A - Windows text format

Windows and Unix use different text file formats. This section
explains how to convert a file from a format to another.

A.1 Text format conversion
  
  In order to convert a dos text file to a unix text file, we have to
remove all extra characters that are : 
* carriage return or CR  or ^M (ctrl-M) or \x0d or \o13 or \r 
* dos end-of-file or SUB or ^Z (ctrl-Z) or \x1a or \o26

A.2 Conversion tools 

  On a Unix-like top level (e.g any unix system or cygwin), you can use:

* dos -> unix
  - tr -d '\15\32' < dosfile.txt > unixfile.txt
  - awk '{ sub("\r$", ""); print }' dosfile.txt > unixfile.txt
  - perl -p -e 's/\r$//' < dosfile.txt > unixfile.txt

* unix -> dos
  - awk 'sub("$", "\r")' unixfile.txt > dosfile.txt
  - perl -p -e 's/$/\r/' < unixfile.txt > dosfile.txt

  You may want to use a short script like the following to convert
more than one file at a time (doesn't work recursively; use at your
own risk):

  #!/bin/sh
  echo dos2unix
  for F in "$@"
  do
    echo converting "$F"
    tr -d '\15\32' < $F > $F.tmp
    mv -f $F.tmp $F
  done

A.3 Transmission issues

  If you transfer files using 'ftp' between a Unix system and a
Windows system, be sure to run it in binary mode to disable any
automatic conversion. To switch to binary mode, enter 'binary' (or
simply 'bin').



Appendix B - '.bashrc'.

  Copy the following '.bashrc' as a base to your own one. Be sure this
file is in Unix text format.

# .bashrc
# gommier@saul.cis.upenn.edu

export HOME=/
export PS1="[\u@\h \w]$ "
cd

# Set up Path
# $PATH currently contains the Windows Path converted to Unix path,
export PATH=./:/bin:$PATH
echo "Current path is :"
echo $PATH
echo " "

# end



Appendix C - Windows files and directories names

  Here are some general rules for applications creating names for
directories and files or processing names supplied by the user:

* Use any character in the current code page for a name, but do not
  use a path separator, a character in the range 0 through 31, or any
  character explicitly disallowed by the file system. A name can
  contain characters in the extended character set (128-255).

* Use the backslash (\), the forward slash (/), or both to separate
  components in a path.  No other character is acceptable as a path
  separator. Note that UNC names must adhere to the following format:
  \\server\share.

* Use a period (.) as a directory component in a path to represent the
  current directory.

* Use two consecutive periods (..) as a directory component in a path
  to represent the parent of the current directory.

* Use a period (.) to separate the base file name from the extension
  in a directory name or file name.

* Do not use the following characters in directory names or file
  names, because they are reserved: < > : " / \ |

* Do not use device names, such as aux, con, lpt1, and prn, as file
  names or directory names.

* Process a path as a null-terminated string. The maximum length for a
  path, including a trailing backslash, is given by MAX_PATH.

* The Unicode versions of several functions permit paths that exceed
  the MAX_PATH length if the path has the "\\?\" prefix. The "\\?\"
  tells the function to turn off path parsing. However, each component
  in the path cannot be more than MAX_PATH characters long. Use the
  "\\?\" prefix with paths for local storage devices and the
  "\\?\UNC\" prefix with paths having the Universal Naming Convention
  (UNC) format. The "\\?\" is ignored as part of the path. For
  example, "\\?\C:\myworld\private" is seen as "C:\myworld\private",
  and "\\?\UNC\bill_g_1\hotstuff\coolapps" is seen as
  "\\bill_g_1\hotstuff\coolapps".

* Do not assume case sensitivity. Consider names such as OSCAR, Oscar,
  and oscar to be the same.



Appendix D - Windows icons

  Here is some general information on how to make your Windows
program have a nice icon.

* What we mean by icon is a set of bitmaps that are displayed by
  Windows to represent your program on the desktop, on the top left
  corner of each window, etc. For your program's binary to include an
  icon, you will have to draw each bitmap and to store them in .bmp
  files, then to archive them in a .ico file, then to archive that
  icon file in a .res file along with other resources, and finally to
  link your program with that very .res file.

* Current graphic formats for icons are 16 x 16, 32 x 32 and 48 x 48
  pixels with 16 or 256 colors. One format must always exist for
  compatibility with all Windows versions: the 32 x 32 x 16 format.
  Furthermore, the colors refer to the standard palette (sometimes
  called www palette), which means you mustn't use optimized palette
  when turning RGB colors to indexed colors. If you need subtle nuances,
  remember you can interleave pixels of two different colors to create
  the impression of a third, average one.

* Once your bitmaps are ready, you can use the Visual C++ IDE to create
  your .ico file. Use the resource tool bar to create a 'new icon'.
  Open your .bmp files and simply cut and paste them into the icon
  window. You have to select the proper device (or format) for each
  bitmap before achieving the copy. When your icon (i.e. set of bitmaps)
  is ready, right-click on the icon name in the resource list window to
  export it.
  Note: you should never trust that IDE when dealing with colors, since
        it seems to get quickly lost between 16 or 256 colors.

* To include your icon into a resource file, add a line for it into the
  .rc script file and compile with rc to create the .res file.

* Just add the .res file to the link command line to have your binary
  include the icon.
