Reason:

There is a circular dependency between GLIB and the pkg_config packages. In order to overcome the lack of the dependencies you must do a bootstrap method. This requires some basic knowledge of how to overcome the requirement of pkg_config within the GLIB configure process by telling the configure script where to find some things that pkg_config would have given it.

Set the HOME variable

The HOME variable is one of the essential variables required by *NIX systems. It is already set in an MSYS environment, but not in a cmd.exe environment. Some applications, e.g. vim.exe, may behave erroneously or even crash if this variable is missing. In order to use these application from cmd.exe, it is thus required to set the HOME variable in the cmd.exe environment as well.

In rare occasions ld.exe may hang during the linking stage of the compilation. This problem is confirmed under both 32 and 64 bit Windows 7. It is unknown if the problem is present under Windows Vista. Windows XP is immune.

New to MinGW? What you should first know

Are you new to Mingw? You know nothing about Unix? What is MSYS?
These are common questions for anyone starting out in the programming world. Reading this may help you.

Probably you reached here because you want a good and free compiler for Microsoft Windows.
And yes, here you have it. Don't get disturbed by so many technical subjects. By now, you don't need them.

HOWTO Understanding effects of build directory options on a relocatable MinGW GCC default's paths

1 Summury and purpose of this document

Although there are nor big TODO remaining for this document, some updates are still pending

I've noticed that the BinUtils package contains a mingw32/bin directory beside of the bin directory, and the binaraies in mingw32/bin directory are byte-for-byte the same as the ones in bin.

I was curious to understand what this duplication is standing for.

With thanks :)

Yannick - Hibou57

'THIS PAGE IS OUT OF DATE.' The code repository for mingwrt and w32api is now housed in the project repository at https://sourceforge.net/p/mingw/mingw-org-wsl/ci/21762bb4a1bd0c88c38eead03f59e8d994349e83/tree/

Where to Find Up-to-Date Source Code for MinGW Packages

You've identified a bug in a MinGW package, and you've developed a solution to correct the defect. So, how do you submit that solution, for inclusion in MinGW?

All user proposed modifications or enhancements to MinGW are subject to review and approval by the project administrators, and the project development team. By following the guidelines set out below, you will give your solution its best chance of being adopted, in a timely fashion.

For instructions on how to quickly download and install MinGW (including GCC compilers for C, C++, Fortran, Java, and Ada, binutils, Windows API, runtime, and make), please refer to the instructions for Getting Started with MinGW. For more detailed instructions, read HOWTO Install the MinGW GCC Compiler Suite.

Important Note: The build environment described here is used for development of the MSYS product itself; it is not applicable for users who simply wish to use MSYS, as a working environment for developing normal MS-Windows applications, (presumably using MinGW as the compiler suite). The overwhelming majority of MSYS users do not need to set up any such "MSYS Build Environment".