MinGW ("Minimalistic GNU for Windows") is a collection of freely available and freely distributable Windows specific header files and import libraries combined with GNU toolsets that allow one to produce native Windows programs that do not rely on any 3rd-party C runtime DLLs.

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

In addition to sources maintained directly, and exclusively by ourselves, the MinGW Project makes use of a number of upstream sources, to deliver the package set commonly seen as defining a MinGW installation. This page explains where to find the most 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.

This page will teach you how to build MSYS and other packages from source.

First you will need to download many packages from sourceforge.

1. From the SourceForge MinGW/MSYS download page or using WINSCP (or your favourite FTP client) use one of the sourceforge mirrors to download and install the following files in the order given; note the additonal instructions for some of the steps. Note that some of these files do not appear on the MinGW/MSYS web page hence you might need to use an FTP client to get them.

Minimalist GNU for Win32 (updated for MinGW gcc 3.4.5)

NOTE:
Much of the information presented on this page is obsolete; updated information may be found here.

TODO: Convert to the MediaWiki formatting as discussed at Converting Old MinGWiki Pages

!How to use Mark J. Kilgard's OpenGL Utility Toolkit (GLUT) with MinGW

• Download the binary and unpack the binary distribution of [Nate Robins' Win32 port of GLUT|http://www.xmission.com/~nate/glut.html]. These instructions are based version 3.7.6 and may not work with earlier or newer versions.
• Create a subdirectory called =GL= in your project's include directory, and copy the file =glut.h= from the package there.
• Copy the library, =glut32.lib=, to your project's build directory.

Pthreads is part of POSIX and Windows isn't a POSIX system. However, there is a third party library on sourceware.org named pthreads-win32. Sourceware.org provides its own lists and MinGW does not support it but you are free to use it with MinGW at your own risk.

About Specs file

The "gcc" program invoked by users is a convenient front-end driver executable which will invoke other programs in the background such as cc1, as or ld to do its work according to the command line parameter given. A specs file is plain text used to control the default behavior for the "gcc" front-end. The specs file is usually built-in but for flexibility purposes, it can be overridden with an external version.

TODO: Convert to the MediaWiki formatting as discussed at Converting Old MinGWiki Pages

TODO: Revise untar instructions.

Using the (possibly "Proposed"/"Candidate") Installer