Compiling KMess for Windows

This is a complete howto to compile KMess 2 for Windows.

Notes:

  • this is alpha software, and in the end we want to provide a simple installer you can double-click on. Until then, you'll have to run through these steps manually.
  • You'll also have to install additional software so KDE 4 software can be compiled at Windows. That's what makes this tutorial extra long.

Setting up the KDE runtime

You need to following tools:

Notes for the KDE installer:

  • The KDE installer should be kept in some program folder (e.g. C:\KDE4) can you can run it again to install more KDE software.
  • It's recommended to use paths without spaces for all install paths (e.g. C:\KDE4).
  • Follow the instructions
  • In the first setup, uncheck Skip basic settings, choose the developer version and MinGW compiler edition (unless you have Visual Studio installed too off course).

From the installer, you can select appliation, e.g. kate (an editor like Textpad). The minimal to install is:

  • KDE: kdelibs, kdebase-runtime.

When prompted for file locations, you can enter:

  • C:\KDE4 for KDE 4.

Using spaces in the paths, like C:\Program Files\KDE4 could cause problems compiling the handbook and icon resources. This is a bug in KDE 4.

Now try to run a KDE 4 application:

  • Start -> KDE 4.x release -> Utilities -> Kate

The first startup takes ~1 minute, and then a Kate dialog should appear!

The compiler setup

You need to install the following tools:

Tortoise Git has the advantage of integration with the Windows Explorer. Git Extensions on the other hand offers a clear overview of all commits, and displays helpful prompts. This makes it easier to understand and use Git.

For the MinGW install, consider using `C:\MinGW as this needs to be retyped with every MinGW installer...

Run the KDE installer, and enable the following software:

  • devel-tools: cmake, doxygen,
  • KDE: kdelibs (+devel option)
  • kdesupport: automoc,
  • qt: qt (+devel option)
  • tools: mingw-utils, perl.
  • win32libs: libxml2, libxslt2 (+devel options)

Also recommended to install:

  • KDE: kate (a code editor, works a bit like Text Pad)
  • debug-tools: all of these
  • tools: findutils, grep (to really search in all files).

To compile KDE applications, add the folders to the system PATH:

  • Go to: Start -> Control Panel -> System -> Advanced -> Environment Variables.
  • To the user variables, add KDEDIRS with the value C:\KDE4 and KDEDIR with the same value C:KDE4.
  • To the system variables, search for PATH, and append the following:

;C:\KDE4\bin;C:\KDE4\lib;C:\MinGW\bin

Now you should be able to run apps from the command line too.

Accessing KMess from Git

To download the KMess sourcecode, use:

  • For Tortoise Git:
    • Create a folder, e.g. C:\development.
    • Right click on it, choose Git Clone...
    • Enter as URL: git://gitorious.org/kmess/kmess.git
    • Press OK.
    • Now navigate to contrib\isf-qt, right click and select TortoiseGit -> Submodule update
  • For Git Extensions:
    • In the left sidebar, select Clone repository
    • Enter as URL: git://gitorious.org/kmess/kmess.git
    • Select the proper location, and press "Clone".
    • Press "Yes" again when prompted to update the submodules.

Note again spaces in the paths give problems with compiling software (KDE #163440). Since the Desktop folder is actually C:\Documents and Settings\you\Desktop it causes problems as well.

Now you have the code, and you can build it. To generate the build instructions, do:

  • Open a command prompt window.
  • Navigate to the kmess2 directory.
  • run the following commands: 
    mkdir build
cd build
cmake -D CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=C:\KDE4 -D CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=debugfull -D KMESS_DEBUG_OUTPUT=1 -G "MinGW Makefiles" ..
  • (If you don't want a full debug build, run this command instead of the above cmake command:) 
    cmake -G "MinGW Makefiles" ..
  • If everything went well, type: 
    mingw32-make
  • And then: 
    mingw32-make install

KMess should now be installed.

Appendices

Compiling qca2

Before compiling qca2, copy your ssleay32.dll file in KDE4/bin to libssl32.dll.

Since QCA2 is broken in the latest release of KDE 4 as of 31-03-2009, you need to build qca2 yourself. Use the instructions from http://techbase.kde.org/Getting_Started/Build/KDE4/Windows/Building_KDESupport_Libraries#qca to checkout kdesupport (or qca only maybe), compile (use CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release instead of Debug!) and install it. This is non-ideal and has to be done because of a bug in the latest installer; which seems to ship with the debug version of qca2 and the release version of the KDE libs itself. Maybe this won't be needed for you; try running 'qcatool2 plugins'; if you see qca2-ossl listed under "Available providers", you're set.

After installing qca2, re-run qcatool2 plugins to see if it's correctly installed. After that, run KMess and you should be able to log in.

Manual things to fix (temporary)

If you get errors like: 

C:/MinGW/include/winbase.h:1663: error: declaration of C function `LONG InterlockedCompareExchange(volatile LONG*, LONG, LONG)' conflicts with
C:/KDE4/include/QtCore/qatomic_windows.h:387: error: previous declaration 'long int InterlockedCompareExchange(long int*, long int, long int)' here

You probably had MingW installed on your PC and the KDE installer updated it. In such cases, try to get this installation of MingW and install it over your current one... http://digikam3rdparty.free.fr/misc.tarballs/MinGW5.1.4ok This is, however, completely unsupported or anything - that may as well break your PC. Reference: http://mail.kde.org/pipermail/digikam-users/2008-November/006657.html

As of 2009-03-30, build.make still has references to D:/kde/kde-mingw. The .bat file supplied by Diederik still works, but you should edit it to replace the paths if needed. Also, after running it, re-run cmake or edit the Makefile and CMakeFileskmess.dirlink.txt. This is what Diederik wrote back in May 2008:

Unfortunately, some things are went wrong (2008-05-12). The following things had to be fixed:

  • building the handbook failed if there are spaces in the paths. Run mingw32-make VERBOSE=1 to see the actual command which fails. Copy this to a new Command Prompt window to run the proper command manually (with C:Progra~1..).
  • The file build/src/CMakeFiles/kmess.dir/build.make had references to D:/kde/kde-mingw, manually replaced those with C:/Program Files/KDE4 (KDE #163438).
  • If the PATH contains references to Gtk / Gimp it could cause DLL conflicts in libxml2 at KMess startup (KDE #164170). Update kmess.exe.bat, and remove those paths from there. Another option is putting the KDE4 directories at the start of the windows PATH variable. This way, the KDE4 DLL's are picked up first.

To fix the first two problems automatically, download the makefix.bat file attached at the bottom.

  • Save the file in your build directory.
  • Open the file in an editor, and change the paths to the KMess folders.
  • type makefix in your console window to run it.

Getting debugging to work

To view the debug output, you need to have Debug View (dbgview) open. This program can be installed from the "KDE Installer for Windows". To get good debug output in the Debug View program by Sysinternals, after making sure you correctly set debugfull and everything in the build options, you need to edit two files:

  • include/kdebug.h in your KDE directory: comment out line 38 to 48 (the lines about KDE_NO_DEBUG_OUTPUT and KDE_NO_WARNING_OUTPUT.
  • kmessapplication.cpp: comment out line 53, the debug handler.

This will make the kmess debugging messages appear correctly in the Debug View program.

Resizing the command line window

Right-click on the title bar of the command prompt, and look for the buffer size options. When the width is increased, the command line can become much bigger as well.

Comparing files

It's highly recommended to install WinMerge. This also integrates with TortoiseSVN, so you'll be able to compare files easily.

Win Merge converts end-of-line characters to Windows format by default. You'll have to disable this option in the settings at: Edit -> Options -> Editor -> Preserve orginal EOL chars.

Applying patch files

It's possible to merge two files using Tortoise Git. Right click on the root folder, and select Tortoise Git -> Apply patch....

In the editor, use the Save button to apply the changes to one file. When you hit Reload you'll see both files are identical now.

Command line users will find that the KDE Installer offers a package for the patch command.

Attachments