How to install GCC on Windows 7

I've downloaded GCC 4.5.1 and do not know what to do next. I've found instructions inside the Install directory for how to configure, build and install, but I still cannot do much with this. What are step-by-step instructions for how am I supposed to go through this process?

For example, they say something like this:

    % mkdir objdir
    % cd objdir
    % srcdir/configure [options] [target]

And I do understand that the first line creates a directory and the second goes into the directory. But what about third line, and how am I supposed to execute this? Am I supposed to go to source directory and type configure + options + target?

There is nothing we can do

Posted 2010-10-03T08:57:07.927

Reputation: 497

Answers

You don't install GCC like this. You use "Cygwin" or "MSYS" for this purpose (compiling). Cygwin is like a.... Linux-Windows combination? One should read the documentation. In a nutshell: You get a Bash, GCC and other stuff, but it is SLOW.

MSYS is much better on the other hand. It provides a win32 binary of GCC and all the development tools.

If you just want to develop, you should choose a package like this: http://www.codeblocks.org/downloads/26 codeblocks-10.05mingw-setup.exe << This one.

Apache

Posted 2010-10-03T08:57:07.927

Reputation: 14 755

+1 but I disagree about cygwin being SLOW. It's only slightly slower than native apps in my experience. – Nifle – 2010-10-03T09:10:12.403

Thanks it works. I wonder why is it that it is so difficult to create something in this day and age with would have user friendly interface and would be pleasure to install? Why in order to do something as trivial as installation of well known product I have to as for advice on forums? This is bad. Anyway thank you for your help. – There is nothing we can do – 2010-10-03T09:12:06.720

@A-ha: It's not like its difficult. It's more like... the people who make these applications are ... not really human. Okay, they are..but.. like.. "How comes people can't install this application from source? Even my grandma can fix compile errors.."... and ..this describes the most of them (respect for the exceptions) pretty well I guess. – Apache – 2010-10-03T10:40:11.837

@Nifle - I don't know.. I mean.. it was much slower at me. Maybe it varies from PC to PC.. then sorry. Basically all I saw on the internetz was "Its slow". On the other hand, MSYS been always good for me. That's why I wrote that..and sorry if its not entirely true. – Apache – 2010-10-03T10:41:31.443

2@everyone: seriously, someone asks "how to install something" and you answer with: hey, donwload the source code, set up a complete Unix environment on Windows, and just compile that beast! What on earth were you people smoking? There's enough binary GCC distribution channels to not have to go through that... – rubenvb – 2011-06-18T09:23:30.453

That's why I wrote "CodeBlocks". It includes a MinGW environment. So he can use the IDE, or just use the MinGW files. – Apache – 2012-01-19T16:17:52.593

GCC for Windows is provided by two projects currently. They both provide a very own implementation of the Windows SDK (headers and libraries) which is necessary because GCC does not work with Visual Studio files.

The older mingw.org, which @Mat already pointed you to. They provide only a 32-bit compiler, and the latest version is GCC 4.5 as of the time of this writing. See here for the downloads you need:
- Binutils is the linker and resource compiler etc.
- GCC is the compiler, and is split in core and language packages
- GDB is the debugger.
- runtime library is required only for mingw.org
- You might need to download mingw32-make seperately.
- For support, you can try (don't expect friendly replies) mingw-users@lists.sourceforge.net
The newer mingw-w64, which as the name predicts, also provides a 64-bit variant. It is superior in every way to #1 above. You can install with an installer, or find the toolchain files for 32-bit and 64-bit yourself. Alternatively, you can use MSYS2 which provides a huge amount of prebuilt binary packages installable through a package manager, pacman. Note that the MSYS2 toolchains work outside of the MSYS shell just fine; using it as a package manager only is possible. A third option is to use Qt's MinGW packages, which come bundled with a toolchain. For support, send an email to mingw-w64-public@lists.sourceforge.net or the forum via sourceforge.net.

There are a lot of "non-official" toolchain builders, one of the most popular is TDM-GCC. They may use patches that break binary compatibility with official/unpatched toolchains, so be careful using them. It's best to use the official releases (or in the case of mingw-w64, the Personal builds are easier to get started with).

Re the other answer: Cygwin/MSYS != GCC. Using GCC does not require the other. Plain users shouldn't be compiling GCC. That process is waaay to involved and time-consuming. Enough binary distributions floating around...

rubenvb

Posted 2010-10-03T08:57:07.927

Reputation: 384

What's the difference between the "v1.0", "trunk" and "ddk" snapshot packages? – Nate C-K – 2011-07-12T13:32:57.337

1v1.0 is the "release" branch, trunk is recommended by the developers (fastest fixes, some features/fixes aren't in the 1.0 branch). ddk is the MinGW-w64 Driver Development Kit. – rubenvb – 2011-07-12T13:42:48.620

Thanks! I just tried this distro (the 4.6 version under "Toolchains targeting Win32/64" that you recommended) and it worked great. – Nate C-K – 2011-07-12T15:12:44.910

@Nate C-K: glad to hear it! – rubenvb – 2011-07-12T15:15:52.877

GCC is available through Chocolatey:

choco install mingw -y

Restart the command prompt and you should be able to run gcc.

030

Posted 2010-10-03T08:57:07.927

Reputation: 1 924