Boost does not support MinGW, hence, bitcoin cannot be compiled with MinGW #4128

Hi all,

Question As I understand from boost.org, MinGW in not supported, that is, if Boost library (or program using Boost) is compiled with MinGW, then it is unstable. Is it correct? If it is, then what is going on with bitcoin (it is compiled on Windows with MinGW)?

Excerpt from www.boost.org (http://www.boost.org/doc/libs/1_55_0/more/getting_started/windows.html#pch):

"A note to Cygwin and MinGW users

If you plan to use your tools from the Windows command prompt, you're in the right place. If you plan to build from the Cygwin bash shell, you're actually running on a POSIX platform and should follow the instructions for getting started on Unix variants. Other command shells, such as MinGW's MSYS, are not supported—they may or may not work."

Does it mean that bitcoin can be compiled on Windows only using cygwin?

Thanks, --- Kosta

"Not supported" does not mean "does not work" or "is unstable". It just means that the Boost team doesn't do quality assurance for that platform.

We do build Windows releases using mingw/msys, but control which Boost version is used, and test versions specifically.

It's certainly possible to compile it in mingw. For the release builds, we use a mingw cross-compiler.

Boost is also compiled using mingw, we do need to apply this patch: https://svn.boost.org/trac/boost/raw-attachment/ticket/7262/boost-mingw.patch

No idea if that is also necessary if you're building from windows. No one except @diapolo is doing that AFAIK.

I'm building with mingw/msys on windows with the setup from the bitcointalk thread without problems (except for the unit tests not compiling) and without patches.

There are even precompiled dependencies here (but with Berkley DB 5.1 since Dogecoin switched to that with the switch to Bitcoin 0.9).

Works perfectly for me, I have to edit 2 of the files (bootstrap.bat and tools\build\v2\engine\build.bat) to make sure it's using gcc instead of msvc. Have been using this for ages!

Ok. Got it - MinGW is supported by Boost and, hence, by Bitcoin. But what about the boost's patch (https://svn.boost.org/trac/boost/raw-attachment/ticket/7262/boost-mingw.patch)? I though there are some formal agreed upon procedure... is there?

Well according to the people with actual experience building on Windows you don't need that patch. We just need it for cross compilation from Linux.

Ok. Thanks. Closing the issue.