336 lines
14 KiB
Plaintext
336 lines
14 KiB
Plaintext
= Release notes for the Microsoft Windows ports of OCaml =
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:toc: macro
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There are no fewer than three ports of OCaml for Microsoft Windows, each
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available in 32 and 64-bit versions:
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- native Windows, built with the Microsoft C/C++ Optimizing Compiler
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- native Windows, built using the Mingw-w64 version of GCC
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- Cygwin (http://www.cygwin.com[www.cygwin.com])
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Here is a summary of the main differences between these ports:
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|=====
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| | Native Microsoft | Native Mingw-w64 | Cygwin
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4+^| Third-party software required
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| for base bytecode system | none | none | none
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| for `ocamlc -custom` | Microsoft Visual C++ | Cygwin | Cygwin
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| for native-code generation | Microsoft Visual C++ | Cygwin | Cygwin
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4+^| Features
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| Speed of bytecode interpreter | 70% | 100% | 100%
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| Replay debugger | yes <<tb2,(**)>> | yes <<tb2,(**)>> | yes
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| The Unix library | partial | partial | full
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| The Threads library | yes | yes | yes
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| The Graphics library | yes | yes | no
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| Restrictions on generated executables? | none | none | yes <<tb1,(*)>>
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|=====
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[[tb1]]
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(*):: Cygwin-generated `.exe` files refer to a DLL that is distributed under the
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GPL. Thus, these `.exe` files can only be distributed under a license that is
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compatible with the GPL. Executables generated by Microsoft Visual C++ or
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Mingw-w64 have no such restrictions.
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[[tb2]]
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(**):: The debugger is supported but the "replay" functions are not enabled.
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Other functions are available (step, goto, run...).
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Cygwin aims to provide a Unix-like environment on Windows, and the build
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procedure for it is the same as for other flavours of Unix. See
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link:INSTALL.adoc[] for full instructions.
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The native ports require Windows XP or later and naturally the 64-bit versions
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need a 64-bit edition of Windows (note that this is both to run *and* build).
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The two native Windows ports have to be built differently, and the remainder of
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this document gives more information.
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toc::[]
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== PREREQUISITES
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All the Windows ports require a Unix-like build environment. Although other
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methods are available, the officially supported environment for doing this is
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32-bit (x86) Cygwin.
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Only the `make` Cygwin package is required. `diffutils` is required if you wish
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to be able to run the test suite.
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Unless you are also compiling the Cygwin port of OCaml, you should not install
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the `gcc-core` or `flexdll` packages. If you do, care may be required to ensure
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that a particular build is using the correct installation of `flexlink`.
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[[bmflex]]
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In addition to Cygwin, FlexDLL must also be installed, which is available from
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http://alain.frisch.fr/flexdll.html. A binary distribution is available;
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instructions on how to build FlexDLL from sources, including how to bootstrap
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FlexDLL and OCaml are given <<seflexdll,later in this document>>. Unless you
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bootstrap FlexDLL, you will need to ensure that the directory to which you
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install FlexDLL is included in your `PATH` environment variable.
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The base bytecode system (ocamlc, ocaml, ocamllex, ocamlyacc, ...) of all three
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ports runs without any additional tools.
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== Microsoft Visual C/C++ Ports
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=== REQUIREMENTS
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The native-code compiler (`ocamlopt`) and static linking of OCaml bytecode with
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C code (`ocamlc -custom`) require a Microsoft Visual C/C++ Compiler and the
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`flexlink` tool (see <<bmflex,above>>).
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Any edition (including Express/Community editions) of Microsoft Visual Studio
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2005 or later may be used to provide the required Windows headers and the C
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compiler. Additionally, some older Microsoft Windows SDKs include the
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Visual C/C++ Compiler.
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|=====
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| | `cl` Version | Express | SDK
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| Visual Studio 2005 | 14.00.x.x | 32-bit only <<vs1,(*)>> |
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| Visual Studio 2008 | 15.00.x.x | 32-bit only | Windows SDK 7.0 also provides 32/64-bit compilers
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| Visual Studio 2010 | 16.00.x.x | 32-bit only | Windows SDK 7.1 also provides 32/64-bit compilers
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| Visual Studio 2012 | 17.00.x.x | 32/64-bit |
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| Visual Studio 2013 | 18.00.x.x | 32/64-bit |
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| Visual Studio 2015 | 19.00.x.x | 32/64-bit |
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|=====
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[[vs1]]
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(*):: Visual C++ 2005 Express Edition does not provide an assembler; this can be
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downloaded separately from
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https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/download/details.aspx?id=12654
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=== COMPILATION FROM THE SOURCES
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The command-line tools must be compiled from the Unix source distribution
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(`ocaml-X.YY.Z.tar.gz`), which also contains the files modified for Windows.
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(Note: you should use cygwin's `tar` command to unpack this archive. If you
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use WinZip, you will need to deselect "TAR file smart CR/LF conversion" in
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the WinZip Options Window.)
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Microsoft Visual C/C++ is designed to be used from special developer mode
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Command Prompts which set the environment variables for the required compiler.
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There are multiple ways of setting up your environment ready for their use. The
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simplest is to start the appropriate command prompt shortcut from the program
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group of the compiler you have installed.
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The details differ depending on whether you are using a Windows SDK to provide
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the compiler or Microsoft Visual Studio itself.
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For the Windows SDK, there is only one command prompt called "CMD Shell" in
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versions 6.1 and 7.0 and "Windows SDK 7.1 Command Prompt" in version 7.1. This
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launches a Command Prompt which will usually select a `DEBUG` build environment
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for the operating system that you are running. You should then run:
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SetEnv /Release /x86
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for 32-bit or:
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SetEnv /Release /x64
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for 64-bit. For Visual Studio 2005-2013, you need to use one of the shortcuts in
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the "Visual Studio Tools" program group under the main program group for the
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version of Visual Studio you installed. For Visual Studio 2015, you need to use
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the shortcuts in the "Windows Desktop Command Prompts" group under the
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"Visual Studio Tools" group.
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Unlike `SetEnv` for the Windows SDK, the architecture is selected by using a
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different shortcut, rather than by running a command.
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For Visual Studio 2005-2010, excluding version-specific prefixes, these are
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named "Command Prompt" for 32-bit and "x64 Cross Tools Command Prompt" or
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"x64 Win64 Command Prompt" for 64-bit. It does not matter whether you use a
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"Cross Tools" or "Win64" version for x64, this simply refers to whether the
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compiler itself is a 32-bit or 64-bit program; both produce 64-bit output and
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work with OCaml.
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For Visual Studio 2012 and 2013, both x86 and x64 Command Prompt shortcuts
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indicate if they are the "Native Tools" or "Cross Tools" versions. Visual Studio
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2015 makes the shortcuts even clearer by including the full name of the
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architecture.
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You cannot at present use a cross-compiler to compile 64-bit OCaml on 32-bit
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Windows.
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Once you have started a Command Prompt, you can verify that you have the
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compiler you are expecting simply by running:
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cl
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Microsoft (R) C/C++ Optimizing Compiler Version 19.00.23506 for x86
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...
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You then need to start Cygwin from this Command Prompt. Assuming you have
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installed it to its default location of `C:\cygwin`, simply run:
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C:\cygwin\bin\mintty -
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(note the space and hyphen at the end of the command).
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This should open a terminal window and start bash. You should be able to run
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`cl` from this. You can now change to the top-level directory of the directory
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of the OCaml distribution.
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The Microsoft Linker is provided by a command called `link` which unfortunately
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conflicts with a Cygwin command of the same name. It is therefore necessary to
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ensure that the directory containing the Microsoft C/C++ Compiler appears at
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the beginning of `PATH`, before Cygwin's `/usr/bin`. You can automate this from
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the top-level of the OCaml distribution by running:
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eval $(tools/msvs-promote-path)
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If you forget to do this, `make -f Makefile.nt world` will fail relatively
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quickly as it will be unable to link `ocamlrun`.
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Now run:
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cp config/m-nt.h config/m.h
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cp config/s-nt.h config/s.h
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followed by:
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cp config/Makefile.msvc config/Makefile
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for 32-bit, or:
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cp config/Makefile.msvc64 config/Makefile
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for 64-bit. Then, edit `config/Makefile` as needed, following the comments in
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this file. Normally, the only variable that needs to be changed is `PREFIX`,
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which indicates where to install everything.
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Finally, use `make -f Makefile.nt` to build the system, e.g.
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make -f Makefile.nt world bootstrap opt opt.opt install
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After installing, it is not necessary to keep the Cygwin installation (although
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you may require it to build additional third party libraries and tools). You
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will need to use `ocamlopt` (or `ocamlc -custom`) from the same Visual Studio or
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Windows SDK Command Prompt as you compiled OCaml from, or `ocamlopt` will not
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be able to find `cl`.
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If you wish to use `ocamlopt` from Cygwin's bash on a regular basis, you may
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like to copy the `tools/msvs-promote-path` script and add the `eval` line to
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your `~/.bashrc` file.
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* The Microsoft Visual C/C++ compiler does not implement "computed gotos", and
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therefore generates inefficient code for `byterun/interp.c`. Consequently,
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the performance of bytecode programs is about 2/3 of that obtained under
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Unix/GCC, Cygwin or Mingw-w64 on similar hardware.
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* Libraries available in this port: `bigarray`, `dynlink`, `graphics`, `num`,
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`str`, `threads`, and large parts of `unix`.
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* The replay debugger is partially supported (no reverse execution).
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=== CREDITS
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The initial port of Caml Special Light (the ancestor of OCaml) to Windows NT
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was done by Kevin Gallo at Microsoft Research, who kindly contributed his
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changes to the OCaml project.
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== Mingw-w64 Ports
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=== REQUIREMENTS
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The native-code compiler (`ocamlopt`) and static linking of OCaml bytecode with
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C code (`ocamlc -custom`) require the appropriate Mingw-w64 gcc and the
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`flexlink` tool (see <<bmflex,above>>). Mingw-w64 gcc is provided by the
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`mingw64-i686-gcc-core` package for 32-bit and the `mingw64-x86_64-gcc-core`
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package for 64-bit.
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- Do not try to use the Cygwin version of flexdll for this port.
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- The standalone mingw toolchain from the Mingw-w64 project
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(http://mingw-w64.org/) is not supported. Please use the version packaged in
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Cygwin instead.
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=== COMPILATION FROM THE SOURCES
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The command-line tools must be compiled from the Unix source distribution
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(`ocaml-X.YY.Z.tar.gz`), which also contains the files modified for Windows.
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(Note: you should use cygwin's `tar` command to unpack this archive. If you
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use WinZip, you will need to deselect "TAR file smart CR/LF conversion" in
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the WinZip Options Window.)
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Now run:
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cp config/m-nt.h config/m.h
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cp config/s-nt.h config/s.h
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followed by:
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cp config/Makefile.mingw config/Makefile
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for 32-bit, or:
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cp config/Makefile.mingw64 config/Makefile
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for 64-bit. Then, edit `config/Makefile` as needed, following the comments in
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this file. Normally, the only variable that needs to be changed is `PREFIX`,
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which indicates where to install everything.
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Finally, use `make -f Makefile.nt` to build the system, e.g.
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make -f Makefile.nt world bootstrap opt opt.opt install
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After installing, you will need to ensure that `ocamlopt` (or `ocamlc -custom`)
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can access the C compiler. You can do this either by using OCaml from Cygwin's
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bash or by adding Cygwin's bin directory (e.g. `C:\cygwin\bin`) to your `PATH`.
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* Libraries available in this port: `bigarray`, `dynlink`, `graphics`, `num`,
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`str`, `threads`, and large parts of `unix`.
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* The replay debugger is partially supported (no reverse execution).
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* The default `config/Makefile.mingw` and `config/Makefile.mingw64` pass
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`-static-libgcc` to the linker. For more information on this topic:
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- http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc-4.9.1/gcc/Link-Options.html#Link-Options
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- http://caml.inria.fr/mantis/view.php?id=6411
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[[seflexdll]]
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== FlexDLL
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Although the core of FlexDLL is necessarily written in C, the `flexlink` program
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is, naturally, written in OCaml. This creates a circular dependency if you wish
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to build entirely from sources. Since OCaml 4.03 and FlexDLL 0.35, it is now
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possible to bootstrap the two programs simultaneously. The process is identical
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for both ports. If you choose to compile this way, it is not necessary to
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install FlexDLL separately -- indeed, if you do install FlexDLL separately, you
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may need to be careful to ensure that `ocamlopt` picks up the correct `flexlink`
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in your `PATH`.
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You must place the FlexDLL sources for Version 0.35 or later in the directory
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`flexdll/` at the top-level directory of the directory of the OCaml
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distribution. This can be done in one of three ways:
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* Extracting the sources from a tarball from
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http://alain.frisch.fr/flexdll.html#download
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* Cloning the git repository by running:
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+
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git clone https://github.com/alainfrisch/flexdll.git
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* If you are compiling from a git clone of the OCaml repository, instead of
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using a sources tarball, you can run:
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+
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git submodule update --init
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OCaml is then compiled as normal for the port you require, except that before
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compiling `world`, you must compile `flexdll`, i.e.:
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make -f Makefile.nt flexdll world [bootstrap] opt opt.opt install
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* `make -f Makefile.nt install` will install FlexDLL by placing `flexlink.exe`
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(and the default manifest file for the Microsoft port) in `bin/` and the
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FlexDLL object files in `lib/`.
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* If you don't include `make -f Makefile.nt opt.opt`, `flexlink.exe` will be a
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bytecode program. `make -f Makefile.nt install` always installs the "best"
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`flexlink.exe` (i.e. there is never a `flexlink.opt.exe` installed).
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* If you have populated `flexdll/`, you *must* run
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`make -f Makefile.nt flexdll`. If you wish to revert to using an externally
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installed FlexDLL, you must erase the contents of `flexdll/` before
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compiling.
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== Trademarks
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Microsoft, Visual C++, Visual Studio and Windows are registered trademarks of
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Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries.
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