New to MinGW? What you should first know

Are you new to Mingw? You know nothing about Unix? What is MSYS? These are common questions for anyone starting out in the programming world. Reading this may help you.

Probably you reached here because you want a good and free compiler for Microsoft Windows. And yes, here you have it. Don't get disturbed by so many technical subjects. By now, you don't need them.

HOWTO Understanding effects of build directory options on a relocatable MinGW GCC default's paths

1 Summury and purpose of this document

Although there are nor big TODO remaining for this document, some updates are still pending

I've noticed that the BinUtils package contains a mingw32/bin directory beside of the bin directory, and the binaraies in mingw32/bin directory are byte-for-byte the same as the ones in bin.

I was curious to understand what this duplication is standing for.

With thanks :)

Yannick - Hibou57

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.

Important Note: The build environment described here is used for development of the MSYS product itself; it is not applicable for users who simply wish to use MSYS, as a working environment for developing normal MS-Windows applications, (presumably using MinGW as the compiler suite). The overwhelming majority of MSYS users do not need to set up any such "MSYS Build Environment".

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.

• Download the binary and unpack the binary distribution of Nate Robins' Win32 port of GLUT. These instructions are based on 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.
• Copy the DLL, glut32.dll, to the same directory where your project's executable will be created.