This howto describes how to set up a working build environment on Windows to be able to compile, build and test Geany and Geany-Plugins.

Furthermore, this howto will cover how to create a full Geany release on Windows including generating the Windows installers.

The described setup is quite custom and might not be state-of-art and as clean as it could. However, it worked for the author(Enrico Tröger) for years :).

Be careful about paths: this howto assumes everything is installed on the C: drive of a Windows system (tested on Windows XP and 7). Furthermore, most additional dependent libraries and helper utilities are installed into c:\libs. It is recommended to keep these locations. If you need to change them, be careful and be sure to adjust all paths mentioned in the following sections before executing them.

Also note that in some of the linked helper scripts, the paths are hardcoded, so you need to adjust them as well.

Download and install the following tools

Download and install from http://git-scm.com/download/win

Python is required for the Waf build system and various helper scripts. Best to use the x86 (32bit) version of the latest Python 2 installer. Download the installer, execute it and follow the instructions (install to c:\python27).

https://www.python.org/downloads/windows/

Download and install the Strawberry Perl distribution from http://strawberryperl.com. This distribution also includes the mingw-gcc and related tools which will be used to compile Geany later. Choose the 32bit installer and install Perl into c:\perl.

http://strawberryperl.com/

To be able to Windows installers for Geany (most probably only interesting for Geany core devs), you need the Nullsoft Scriptable Install System (NSIS).

Download and install NSIS 2.46.

http://nsis.sourceforge.net/Download

UnxUtils contain lots of well known and useful tools from a Unix system, compiled for Windows (find, grep, etc.).

Download the ZIP archive and unpack it to C:\libs\utils

http://sourceforge.net/projects/unxutils/files/latest/download

And now to the exciting part: GTK+ on Windows.

The easiest way is to download the whole GTK+ bundle (GTK+2.0, http://www.gtk.org/download/win32.php) and extract it to c:\libs.

http://ftp.gnome.org/pub/gnome/binaries/win32/gtk+/2.24/gtk+-bundle_2.24.10-20120208_win32.zip

Download the following archives and extract them to c:\libs.

• http://ftp.gnome.org/pub/gnome/binaries/win32/dependencies/gettext-tools-dev_0.18.1.1-2_win32.zip
• http://ftp.gnome.org/pub/gnome/binaries/win32/dependencies/gettext-runtime_0.18.1.1-2_win32.zip
• http://ftp.acc.umu.se/pub/gnome/binaries/win32/intltool/0.40/intltool_0.40.4-1_win32.zip

Download the tarball from http://docutils.sourceforge.net and extract it to some folder. Enter the folder and execute the following commands:

cd docutils-0.12
python setup.py install
cp Tools\rst2html.py c:\python27

If you want to compile geany-plugins as well, you need the following dependencies. Download the archives and extract them into c:\libs.

• http://download.tuxfamily.org/ctpl/releases/ctpl-0.3.2-win32.zip
• http://ftp.acc.umu.se/pub/gnome/binaries/win32/libsoup/2.26/libsoup-dev_2.26.3-1_win32.zip
• http://ftp.acc.umu.se/pub/gnome/binaries/win32/libsoup/2.26/libsoup_2.26.3-1_win32.zip
• http://ftp.acc.umu.se/pub/gnome/binaries/win32/dependencies/libxml2_2.9.0-1_win32.zip
• http://ftp.acc.umu.se/pub/gnome/binaries/win32/dependencies/libxml2-dev_2.9.0-1_win32.zip
• http://ftp.acc.umu.se/pub/gnome/binaries/win32/dependencies/enchant-dev_1.5.0-2_win32.zip
• http://ftp.acc.umu.se/pub/gnome/binaries/win32/dependencies/enchant_1.5.0-2_win32.zip

Setting up Lua on Windows in our custom build environment requires a few additional steps.

• Download lua-5.1.4_Win32_dll12_lib.zip from http://sourceforge.net/projects/luabinaries/files/5.1.4/Windows%20Libraries/
• Extract to c:\libs
• Move liblua5.1.* to c:\libs\lib
• Create c:\libs\lib\pkgconfig\lua.pc with the following content:

lua.pc

prefix=c:\libs
exec_prefix=${prefix}
libdir=${exec_prefix}/lib
includedir=${prefix}/include
datarootdir=${prefix}/share
datadir=${datarootdir}
localedir=${datarootdir}/locale
 
Name: Lua
Description: A fast and lightweight IDE using GTK2
Requires: gtk+-2.0 >= 2.8.0
Version: 5.1
Libs: -L${libdir} -llua5.1
Cflags: -I${includedir}

For convenience and a working build system, you need to extend the %PATH% variable, so the newly installed tools will be available without typing the whole path every time.

To do so, open the Control Panel and choose System and Security\System, then click on the left on Advanced system settings. In the newly opened dialog, click on Environment Variables. In the list of System variables search for Path.

Edit it and add the following paths to the end of list (seperated with semicolon):

C:\python27;C:\Program Files (x86)\NSIS;c:\libs\bin;C:\libs\utils\usr\local\wbin;C:\Program Files (x86)\Git\cmd;C:\perl\perl\site\bin;C:\perl\perl\bin;C:\perl\c\bin

It might be some of the paths were already added by some installers. Adding them twice won't hurt but it is always better to check the whole list before saving.

Then save and close all dialogs.

To test the new setting, open a new command line window (Start → Run → “cmd.exe”) and test executing the following commands:

• python
• perl
• wget
• pkg-config
• makensis

Before starting with the rest, you need the Geany source code first (and the code of geany-plugins and the extra themes). In a command line window, execute the following commands:

mkdir \git
cd \git
git clone git://github.com/geany/geany
git clone git://github.com/geany/geany-plugins
git clone git://github.com/geany/geany-themes

Now you are ready to compile and build Geany already.

In a command line window, execute the following commands:

cd \git\geany
python waf configure
python waf build
python waf install

If all went fine, you should have a full Geany for Windows build in \git\geany\geany-1.25 (or whatever is the current version of GIT Master).

To be able to compile plugins against your current version of Geany, you need to copy the header files and the pkg-config file geany.pc to c:\libs so that pkg-config and the compiler will find those files.

To do so easily, you can use the following script to copy the header files and the geany.pc pkg-config file to c:\libs.

copy_headers.py

#!/usr/bin/env python
 
import glob, os, shutil
 
VERSION = '1.25nightly'
DEST = r'\libs'
 
# header files
shutil.rmtree(r'%s\include\geany' % DEST, ignore_errors=True)
shutil.copytree(r'geany-%s\include\geany' % VERSION, r'%s\include\geany' % DEST)
# geany-0.dll
dlls = glob.glob(r'geany-%s\bin\geany*.dll' % VERSION)
for filename in dlls:
    # copy it to lib\ instead bin\ so the lookup works
    # rename the file to geany.dll, as the linker uses '-lgeany'
    # this loop will overwrite previously copied files if there is more
    # one geany*.dll in the source directory, this should not happen
    shutil.copy(filename, r'%s\lib\geany.dll' % DEST)
# geany.pc
shutil.copy(r'geany-%s\lib\pkgconfig\geany.pc' % VERSION, r'%s\lib\pkgconfig' % DEST)

After Geany has been compiled and the headers copied into the target location, you should be able to compile Geany-Plugins as well. In a command line window, execute the following commands:

cd \git\geany
python waf configure
python waf build
python waf install

Carefully read the output of python waf configure and check whether the installed dependencies have been found. At the time of writing, it is expected that the following dependencies will not be found and/or are not really supported yet:

• GpgMe
• GtkSpell
• PyGTK (an update to this tutorial for building GeanyPy using PyGTK on Windows is planned)
• VTE
• Vala
• WebKit

If all went fine, you should have the plugins built in \git\geany-plugins\geany-plugins-1.25 (or whatever is the current version of GIT Master).

After you have built Geany and Geany-Plugins from source, you might want to run and test it. This is a bit tricky but possible.

Execute the following commands only once:

• create directory: c:\git\geany_test
• copy everything from c:\git\geany\geany-1.25 to c:\git\geany_test
• copy bundled GTK runtine environment to c:\git\geany_test
• copy everything from c:\git\geany-plugins\geany-plugins-1.25 to c:\git\geany_test
• copy plugins dependencies from c:\git\geany-plugins\contrib to c:\git\geany_test

Save the following script to \git\geany\

_geany_test.bat

cd c:\git\geany\
 
copy _build_\geany.exe c:\git\geany_test\bin\
xcopy /Y _build_\*.dll c:\git\geany_test\lib\
 
cd c:\git\geany-plugins\
for /F "usebackq" %%i in (`dir /s /b _build_\*.dll`) do copy %%i c:\git\geany_test\lib
# cleanup
rm c:\git\geany_test\lib\libgeanylua.dll
 
cd c:\git\geany_test\bin\
 
geany.exe -v --socket-file ..\_geany_config\mysocket -c ..\_geany_config

Then whenever you want to test a Geany build, run _geany_test.bat from \git\geany.

To create a stripped down GTK runtime environment used to embed into the Windows installer, we first download the latest GTK (currently GTK2) bundle from www.gtk.org.

For this example the bundle gtk+-bundle_2.24.10-20120208_win32.zip was used. Extract the bundle into a new folder.

Then execute the following commands to remove any not necessary files:

rm -rf bin\envsubst.exe
rm -rf bin\fc-cache.exe
rm -rf bin\fc-cat.exe
rm -rf bin\fc-list.exe
rm -rf bin\freetype-config
rm -rf bin\gdbus.exe
rm -rf bin\gdk-pixbuf-csource.exe
rm -rf bin\gdk-pixbuf-query-loaders.exe
rm -rf bin\gettext.exe
rm -rf bin\gettext.sh
rm -rf bin\gio-querymodules.exe
rm -rf bin\glib-compile-schemas.exe
rm -rf bin\glib-genmarshal.exe
rm -rf bin\glib-gettextize
rm -rf bin\glib-mkenums
rm -rf bin\gobject-query.exe
rm -rf bin\gspawn-win32-helper.exe
rm -rf bin\gspawn-win32-helper-console.exe
rm -rf bin\gtk-builder-convert
rm -rf bin\gtk-demo.exe
rm -rf bin\gtk-query-immodules-2.0.exe
rm -rf bin\gtk-update-icon-cache.exe
rm -rf bin\gtk-update-icon-cache.exe.manifest
rm -rf bin\libasprintf-0.dll
rm -rf bin\libcairo-script-interpreter-2.dll
rm -rf bin\libgcc_s_dw2-1.dll
rm -rf bin\ngettext.exe
rm -rf bin\pango-querymodules.exe
rm -rf bin\pango-view.exe
rm -rf bin\pkg-config.exe
rm -rf bin\xmlwf.exe
rm -rf etc\bash_completion.d
rm -rf gtk+-bundle_2.*README.txt
rm -rf include
rm -rf lib\*.a
rm -rf lib\*.def
rm -rf lib\*.dll
rm -rf lib\*.lib
rm -rf lib\gdk-pixbuf-2.0
rm -rf lib\glib-2.0
rm -rf lib\pkgconfig
rm -rf man
rm -rf manifest
rm -rf share\aclocal
rm -rf share\doc
rm -rf share\glib-2.0
rm -rf share\gtk-2.0
rm -rf share\gtk-doc
rm -rf share\man
rm -rf src

Then create a subdirectory “gtk” in your Geany git clone and copy the remaining bundle contents into the “gtk” directory so that it contains the bin-etc-lib-share directory structure:

Et voila: you got a stripped down GTK runtime environment ready to use for Geany on Windows.

Since Geany 1.25 we include a grep binary in the installer to easily make Find in Files work on Windows without further user interaction. So we need to copy grep.exe from UnxUtils to the GTK runtime directory:

cp c:\libs\utils\usr\local\wbin\grep.exe c:\git\geany\gtk\bin

As usual, edit paths as necessary.

Download release.py.txt (and remove the .txt extension)

• edit release.py and update VERSION constant
• check for a clean working copy (e.g. no uncommitted changes)
• clean and build (adjust versions as necessary):

rmdir /S geany-1.24
python waf clean
git pull
python waf configure --no-scm
python waf build
python waf install
python release.py

• Party!

Download release.plugins.py.txt (and remove the .txt extension)

• edit: release.py and update VERSION constant
• check for a clean working copy (e.g. no uncommitted changes)
• clean and build (adjust versions as necessary):

rmdir /S geany-plugins-1.24
python waf clean
git pull
python waf configure --no-scm
python waf build
python waf install
python release.py

• Party!

• document and provide plugins contrib
• document release process in detail
• document PyGTK installation