Building Gimp 2.0 on Windows XP?

Anonymouse asks: "Has anyone out there just had the urge to build Gimp 2.0 on Windows instead of using an installer made by a third party, hosted on a free web hosting service? It's probably fine but it makes me nervous, so I figure I should try building it on Windows instead...besides, it could be educational! Does anyone have any instructions/suggestions for building the source on Windows XP using MinGW and MinSYS? Keep in mind I have no experience with *nix, and my meek programing skillz only apply to Perl. Thanks!"

Comments

Not too sketchy.

[SenatorTreason]

"...an installer made by a third party, hosted on a free web hosting service?"

I found this site linked from the main Gimp site. It doesn't look too sketchy to me. Why don't you use that?
If you really want to compile from scratch, do it on Linux first with native Linux programs. When you get the hang of that, move to Windows. I'm all for sink-or-swim type trials, but, in this case, I think you'll sink. Very quickly.

Build is a discipline all to itself

[ObviousGuy]

Many software shops have dedicated build teams that do nothing more than make sure that the software is rebuilt from source every day. This entails tweaking build scripts, makefiles, and making sure that the proper libraries are available for the compiler and linker.

This is not an easy task, though once set up properly it becomes fairly self-managing.

Since you are coming from Perl where there is nothing to compile, it would probably be best to start by installing Cygwin and gcc and just try compiling a few simple programs first. READ the makefiles. Understanding the makefiles will make understanding the build process much easier.

Building GIMP

[Tukon]

The GIMP wiki has a full page on building GIMP using MinGW here.

Not something that is worthy of an Ask Slashdot in my opinion, but we're here to help I guess. Also, check out the #gimp channel on irc.gimp.org for some help.

-Tukon
Stating the obvious.

My experiences with GIMP 2.0 on Windows

[Xenkar]

It's pretty nice but unfortunately the GTK version it requires breaks tray menus in Gaim and breaks Sodipodi's PNG export function and produces many errors.

I downgraded to GTK 2.2.4.2 revision C and went back to GIMP 1.25. I'll give GIMP 2.0 another try when GTK+ 2.4.1 is released.

Maybe try CygWin

[robolemon]

Maybe you ought to try CygWin and therefore compile Gimp for Windows in a Linux-like environment without needing to install an entirely new operating system. I am assuming of course that the ability to build Gimp for Windows comes easily provided you're building in Linux.

CygWin?

[286]

People keep saying to start with installing Cygwin. But does Cygwin run everything as root? I am not a windows person but that is what my school claims is stopping them from installing it in the MS labs. If precompiled binaries make you nervous always running as root sounds worse. Is MinGW any better?

Re:CygWin?

[Anonymous Coward]

Your school's IT deparment is staffed with idiots.

Cygwin is a single dll that provides a posix emulation layer between via win32 api calls. The rest of cygwin is various source and binary packages available that are available for download via the setup tool. Certain packages (such as sshd for proper installation as a service) will require administrative privileges to properly install. Most packages don't require any special permissions.

Re:CygWin?

[batkid]

The answer is no, cygwin does not running EVERYTHING as root. You can sync the cygwin passwd file with the windows account on the local machine and you can have windows level security in a *nix like environment.

Cygwin is one of those really valuable tools that I use day in and day out. I installed cygwin on a windows server and now I have the best of both worlds. I can ssh into my windows machine and run windows commands as well as unix ones.

Re:CygWin?

[bccomm]

There is no `root' in Cygwin. On Windows NT, the NT names are simply translated to a simple uid scheme (don't know about 9x). The names aren't even necessarily POSIX-compliant (eg. spaces are allowed). When the setuid(2) function is called, the DLL returns ENOSYS (not implemented). In short, Cygwin is pretty advanced (I almost got NetBSD cross-built on it one time, and I've been working to maybe get pkgsrc working, but that's another matter) but when it comes to security, well, the abstraction can only be as good as the underlying implementation. If a Windows box has tightened security, *cough*cough*choke*, then some operations may need the Cygwin1.dll run as ``Administrator,'' but default Windows installs give enough privilages to regular users that this is rarely a concern. Basically, programs aren't usually designed to check for `root', but rather for enough permissions to do whatever they need. If a cygwin binary cannot do something, like chdir'ing into an NT-restricted directory, it will just fail. MinGW does the exact same thing, but with no POSIX-esque layers, instead directly calling on msvcX.dll.

As was already said by someone, your school's tech department is run by morons. If they truly wanted security, they wouldn't be running Windows in the first place.

In one sentance: yes, everything in both MinGW and Cygwin is run as a `root'-ish user, but native programs have the exact same set of permissions. Running either is no more a security risk than is running Windows itself.

-Bruce
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|\|3+85D: f0r +3h r3a1 133t h4x0r5!!!!!1 Those who know will attest! They will agree! They already use it! They will not use annoying hacker-esque stereotypes!

Experiences from Gaim

[samrolken]

I've built Gaim for Windows before, and I think it would be quite similar to building The Gimp 2.0 since they both use a lot of the same software...

The basic idea is to install cygwin, and use make and python and perl and all that other stuff the build process needs, but replace the compilers and libraries in your path with the ones from mingw.

See here for more info:

Windows Development - gaim

When installing or compiling UNIX apps that have been ported to Windows, especially ones using GTK+, all kinds of crazy things end up happening with confused DLLs. Sometimes Gaim tries to use ActiveState's Perl and that breaks something, or tries to use some of Cygwin's libraries. What we need is something like the LSB that governs how UNIX-compatible environments (Cygwin and MinGW mainly) should work on Windows. That would be a big help to folks like me who must use Windows (No, trolls. I can't use Linux. I have reasons. Go away.) but want to have appilcations and environments that are UNIXey.

Re:New low

[Anonymous Coward]

Maybe he's trying to draw attention to the fact that a compiled version of the gimp for windows costs $79.95, see here for more details.

How's that for *free* software?

No

[Dahan]

Can't say as I've had that urge. When I get the urge to install GIMP in Windows XP, I use an installer made by a third party, hosted on the Academic and Research Network of Slovenia, recommended by the main GTK+ and GIMP for Windows porter.

But if you feel like building it yourself, be my guest.

Broken tray menus in Gaim?

[jtheory]

If the only problem you saw in Gaim was the broken tray menus... then your version of GTK might not have been the problem.

From their win32 page:

What happened to the Gaim systray icon? - As of 0.65 systray functionality has moved into the docklet plugin, labeled "System Tray Icon" in Gaim's plugins section (under Preferences). You will need to load this plugin for the systray features to work.

On the other hand, I just downloaded Gaim 0.76 (because I broke the old version when I upgraded GTK for GIMP 2.0)... and the tray icon is working fine, no changes on my part at all.

Hmm. Either way, you should consider another shot.

Re:New low

[Cecil]

Good thing there's also a free-as-in-beer version. You can do that sort of thing with free-as-in-speech programs. You can also try to make a profit if you like.

You're *free* to do whatever you like. Isn't that great?