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1---
2layout: default
3title: ICU4C Readme
4nav_order: 8
5parent: ICU
6---
7<!--
8© 2020 and later: Unicode, Inc. and others.
9License & terms of use: http://www.unicode.org/copyright.html
10-->
11
12# ICU4C Readme
13{: .no_toc }
14
15## Contents
16{: .no_toc .text-delta }
17
181. TOC
19{:toc}
20
21---
22
23
24## Introduction
25
26Today's software market is a global one in which it is desirable to develop and maintain one application (single source/single binary) that supports a wide variety of languages. The International Components for Unicode (ICU) libraries provide robust and full-featured Unicode services on a wide variety of platforms to help this design goal. The ICU libraries provide support for:
27
28* The latest version of the Unicode standard
29* Character set conversions with support for over 220 codepages
30* Locale data for more than 300 locales
31* Language sensitive text collation (sorting) and searching based on the Unicode Collation Algorithm (=ISO 14651)
32* Regular expression matching and Unicode sets
33* Transformations for normalization, upper/lowercase, script transliterations (50+ pairs)
34* Resource bundles for storing and accessing localized information
35* Date/Number/Message formatting and parsing of culture specific input/output formats
36* Calendar specific date and time manipulation
37* Text boundary analysis for finding characters, word and sentence boundaries
38
39ICU has a sister project ICU4J that extends the internationalization capabilities of Java to a level similar to ICU. The ICU C/C++ project is also called ICU4C when a distinction is necessary.
40
41## Getting started
42
43This document describes how to build and install ICU on your machine. For other information about ICU please see the following table of links.
44The ICU homepage also links to related information about writing internationalized software.
45
46**Here are some useful links regarding ICU and internationalization in general.**
47
48
49| ICU, ICU4C & ICU4J Homepage                | <http://icu-project.org/>                                      |
50| FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions about ICU | <https://unicode-org.github.io/icu/userguide/icufaq/>          |
51| ICU User's Guide                           | <https://unicode-org.github.io/icu/>                           |
52| How To Use ICU                             | <https://unicode-org.github.io/icu/userguide/howtouseicu.html> |
53| Download ICU Releases                      | <http://site.icu-project.org/download>                         |
54| ICU4C API Documentation Online             | <http://icu-project.org/apiref/icu4c/>                         |
55| Online ICU Demos                           | <http://demo.icu-project.org/icu-bin/icudemos>                 |
56| Contacts and Bug Reports/Feature Requests  | <http://site.icu-project.org/contacts>                         |
57
58**Important:** Please make sure you understand the [Copyright and License Information](http://source.icu-project.org/repos/icu/trunk/icu4c/LICENSE).
59
60## What Is New In The Current Release?
61
62See the [ICU download page](http://site.icu-project.org/download/) to find the subpage for the current release, including any other changes, bug fixes, known issues, changes to supported platforms and build environments, and migration issues for existing applications migrating from previous ICU releases.
63
64The subpage for the current release will also include an API Change Report, both for ICU4C and ICU4J, for a complete list of APIs added, removed, or changed in this release.
65
66The list of API changes since the previous ICU4C release is available [here](https://htmlpreview.github.io/?https://raw.githubusercontent.com/unicode-org/icu/master/icu4c/APIChangeReport.html).
67
68Changes in previous releases can also be found on the main [ICU download page](http://site.icu-project.org/download) in its version-specific subpages.
69
70## How To Download the Source Code
71
72There are two ways to download ICU releases:
73
74*   **Official Release Snapshot:**
75    If you want to use ICU (as opposed to developing it), you should download an official packaged version of the ICU source code. These versions are tested more thoroughly than day-to-day development builds of the system, and they are packaged in zip and tar files for convenient download. These packaged files can be found at [http://site.icu-project.org/download](http://site.icu-project.org/download).
76    The packaged snapshots are named `icu-nnnn.zip` or `icu-nnnn.tgz`, where `nnnn` is the version number. The .zip file is used for Windows platforms, while the .tgz file is preferred on most other platforms.
77    Please unzip this file.
78    > :point_right: **Note**: There may be additional commits on the `maint-*` branch for a particular version that are not included in the prepackaged download files.
79*   **GitHub Source Repository:**
80    If you are interested in developing features, patches, or bug fixes for ICU, you should probably be working with the latest version of the ICU source code. You will need to clone and checkout the code from our GitHub repository to ensure that you have the most recent version of all of the files. See our [source repository](http://site.icu-project.org/repository) for details.
81
82## ICU Source Code Organization
83
84In the descriptions below, `<ICU>` is the full path name of the ICU directory (the top level directory from the distribution archives) in your file system. You can also view the [ICU Architectural Design](design.md) section of the User's Guide to see which libraries you need for your software product. You need at least the data (`[lib]icudt`) and the common (`[lib]icuuc`) libraries in order to use ICU.
85
86**The following files describe the code drop.**
87
88| File        | Description                                                    |
89|-------------|----------------------------------------------------------------|
90| readme.html | Describes the International Components for Unicode (this file) |
91| LICENSE     | Contains the text of the ICU license                           |
92
93**The following directories contain source code and data files.**
94
95<table>
96
97      <tr>
98        <th scope="col">Directory</th>
99
100        <th scope="col">Description</th>
101      </tr>
102
103      <tr>
104        <td><i>&lt;ICU&gt;</i>/source/<b>common</b>/</td>
105
106        <td>The core Unicode and support functionality, such as resource bundles,
107        character properties, locales, codepage conversion, normalization,
108        Unicode properties, Locale, and UnicodeString.</td>
109      </tr>
110
111      <tr>
112        <td><i>&lt;ICU&gt;</i>/source/<b>i18n</b>/</td>
113
114        <td>Modules in i18n are generally the more data-driven, that is to say
115        resource bundle driven, components. These deal with higher-level
116        internationalization issues such as formatting, collation, text break
117        analysis, and transliteration.</td>
118      </tr>
119
120      <tr>
121        <td><i>&lt;ICU&gt;</i>/source/<b>layoutex</b>/</td>
122
123        <td>Contains the ICU paragraph layout engine.</td>
124      </tr>
125
126      <tr>
127        <td><i>&lt;ICU&gt;</i>/source/<b>io</b>/</td>
128
129        <td>Contains the ICU I/O library.</td>
130      </tr>
131
132      <tr>
133        <td><i>&lt;ICU&gt;</i>/source/<b>data</b>/</td>
134
135        <td>
136          <p>This directory contains the source data in text format, which is
137          compiled into binary form during the ICU build process. It contains
138          several subdirectories, in which the data files are grouped by
139          function. Note that the build process must be run again after any
140          changes are made to this directory.</p>
141
142          <p>If some of the following directories are missing, it's probably
143          because you got an official download. If you need the data source files
144          for customization, then please download the complete ICU source code from <a
145          href="http://site.icu-project.org/repository">the ICU repository</a>.</p>
146
147          <ul>
148            <li><b>in/</b> A directory that contains a pre-built data library for
149            ICU. A standard source code package will contain this file without
150            several of the following directories. This is to simplify the build
151            process for the majority of users and to reduce platform porting
152            issues.</li>
153
154            <li><b>brkitr/</b> Data files for character, word, sentence, title
155            casing and line boundary analysis.</li>
156
157            <li><b>coll/</b> Data for collation tailorings. The makefile
158            <b>colfiles.mk</b> contains the list of resource bundle files.</li>
159
160            <li><b>locales/</b> These .txt files contain ICU language and
161            culture-specific localization data. Two special bundles are
162            <b>root</b>, which is the fallback data and parent of other bundles,
163            and <b>index</b>, which contains a list of installed bundles. The
164            makefile <b>resfiles.mk</b> contains the list of resource bundle
165            files. Some of the locale data is split out into the type-specific
166            directories curr, lang, region, unit, and zone, described below.</li>
167
168            <li><b>curr/</b> Locale data for currency symbols and names (including
169            plural forms), with its own makefile <b>resfiles.mk</b>.</li>
170
171            <li><b>lang/</b> Locale data for names of languages, scripts, and locale
172            key names and values, with its own makefile <b>resfiles.mk</b>.</li>
173
174            <li><b>region/</b> Locale data for names of regions, with its own
175            makefile <b>resfiles.mk</b>.</li>
176
177            <li><b>unit/</b> Locale data for measurement unit patterns and names,
178            with its own makefile <b>resfiles.mk</b>.</li>
179
180            <li><b>zone/</b> Locale data for time zone names, with its own
181            makefile <b>resfiles.mk</b>.</li>
182
183            <li><b>mappings/</b> Here are the code page converter tables. These
184            .ucm files contain mappings to and from Unicode. These are compiled
185            into .cnv files. <b>convrtrs.txt</b> is the alias mapping table from
186            various converter name formats to ICU internal format and vice versa.
187            It produces cnvalias.icu. The makefiles <b>ucmfiles.mk,
188            ucmcore.mk,</b> and <b>ucmebcdic.mk</b> contain the list of
189            converters to be built.</li>
190
191            <li><b>translit/</b> This directory contains transliterator rules as
192            resource bundles, a makefile <b>trnsfiles.mk</b> containing the list
193            of installed system translitaration files, and as well the special
194            bundle <b>translit_index</b> which lists the system transliterator
195            aliases.</li>
196
197            <li><b>unidata/</b> This directory contains the Unicode data files.
198            Please see <a href=
199            "http://www.unicode.org/">http://www.unicode.org/</a> for more
200            information.</li>
201
202            <li><b>misc/</b> The misc directory contains other data files which
203            did not fit into the above categories, including time zone
204            information, region-specific data, and other data derived from CLDR
205            supplemental data.</li>
206
207            <li><b>out/</b> This directory contains the assembled memory mapped
208            files.</li>
209
210            <li><b>out/build/</b> This directory contains intermediate (compiled)
211            files, such as .cnv, .res, etc.</li>
212          </ul>
213
214          <p>If you are creating a special ICU build, you can set the ICU_DATA
215          environment variable to the out/ or the out/build/ directories, but
216          this is generally discouraged because most people set it incorrectly.
217          You can view the <a href=
218          "https://unicode-org.github.io/icu/userguide/icudata">ICU Data
219          Management</a> section of the ICU User's Guide for details.</p>
220        </td>
221      </tr>
222
223      <tr>
224        <td><i>&lt;ICU&gt;</i>/source/test/<b>intltest</b>/</td>
225
226        <td>A test suite including all C++ APIs. For information about running
227        the test suite, see the build instructions specific to your platform
228        later in this document.</td>
229      </tr>
230
231      <tr>
232        <td><i>&lt;ICU&gt;</i>/source/test/<b>cintltst</b>/</td>
233
234        <td>A test suite written in C, including all C APIs. For information
235        about running the test suite, see the build instructions specific to your
236        platform later in this document.</td>
237      </tr>
238
239      <tr>
240        <td><i>&lt;ICU&gt;</i>/source/test/<b>iotest</b>/</td>
241
242        <td>A test suite written in C and C++ to test the icuio library. For
243        information about running the test suite, see the build instructions
244        specific to your platform later in this document.</td>
245      </tr>
246
247      <tr>
248        <td><i>&lt;ICU&gt;</i>/source/test/<b>testdata</b>/</td>
249
250        <td>Source text files for data, which are read by the tests. It contains
251        the subdirectories <b>out/build/</b> which is used for intermediate
252        files, and <b>out/</b> which contains <b>testdata.dat.</b></td>
253      </tr>
254
255      <tr>
256        <td><i>&lt;ICU&gt;</i>/source/<b>tools</b>/</td>
257
258        <td>Tools for generating the data files. Data files are generated by
259        invoking <i>&lt;ICU&gt;</i>/source/data/build/makedata.bat on Win32 or
260        <i>&lt;ICU&gt;</i>/source/make on UNIX.</td>
261      </tr>
262
263      <tr>
264        <td><i>&lt;ICU&gt;</i>/source/<b>samples</b>/</td>
265
266        <td>Various sample programs that use ICU</td>
267      </tr>
268
269      <tr>
270        <td><i>&lt;ICU&gt;</i>/source/<b>extra</b>/</td>
271
272        <td>Non-supported API additions. Currently, it contains the 'uconv' tool
273        to perform codepage conversion on files.</td>
274      </tr>
275
276      <tr>
277        <td><i>&lt;ICU&gt;</i>/<b>packaging</b>/</td>
278
279        <td>This directory contain scripts and tools for packaging the final
280        ICU build for various release platforms.</td>
281      </tr>
282
283      <tr>
284        <td><i>&lt;ICU&gt;</i>/source/<b>config</b>/</td>
285
286        <td>Contains helper makefiles for platform specific build commands. Used
287        by 'configure'.</td>
288      </tr>
289
290      <tr>
291        <td><i>&lt;ICU&gt;</i>/source/<b>allinone</b>/</td>
292
293        <td>Contains top-level ICU workspace and project files, for instance to
294        build all of ICU under one MSVC project.</td>
295      </tr>
296
297      <tr>
298        <td><i>&lt;ICU&gt;</i>/<b>include</b>/</td>
299
300        <td>Contains the headers needed for developing software that uses ICU on
301        Windows.</td>
302      </tr>
303
304      <tr>
305        <td><i>&lt;ICU&gt;</i>/<b>lib</b>/</td>
306
307        <td>Contains the import libraries for linking ICU into your Windows
308        application.</td>
309      </tr>
310
311      <tr>
312        <td><i>&lt;ICU&gt;</i>/<b>bin</b>/</td>
313
314        <td>Contains the libraries and executables for using ICU on Windows.</td>
315      </tr>
316    </table>
317
318
319
320## How To Build And Install ICU
321
322### Recommended Build Options
323
324Depending on the platform and the type of installation, we recommend a small number of modifications and build options. Note that C99 compatibility is now required.
325
326*   **Namespace (ICU 61 and later):** Since ICU 61, call sites need to qualify ICU types explicitly, for example `icu::UnicodeString`, or do `using icu::UnicodeString;` where appropriate. If your code relies on the "using namespace icu;" that used to be in `unicode/uversion.h`, then you need to update your code.
327    You could temporarily (until you have more time to update your code) revert to the default "using" via `-DU_USING_ICU_NAMESPACE=1` or by modifying `unicode/uversion.h`:
328
329```
330    Index: icu4c/source/common/unicode/uversion.h
331    ===================================================================
332    --- icu4c/source/common/unicode/uversion.h      (revision 40704)
333    +++ icu4c/source/common/unicode/uversion.h      (working copy)
334    @@ -127,7 +127,7 @@
335                     defined(U_LAYOUTEX_IMPLEMENTATION) || defined(U_TOOLUTIL_IMPLEMENTATION)
336     #           define U_USING_ICU_NAMESPACE 0
337     #       else
338    -#           define U_USING_ICU_NAMESPACE 0
339    +#           define U_USING_ICU_NAMESPACE 1
340     #       endif
341     #   endif
342     #   if U_USING_ICU_NAMESPACE
343```
344
345*   **Namespace (ICU 60 and earlier):** By default, unicode/uversion.h has "using namespace icu;" which defeats much of the purpose of the namespace. (This is for historical reasons: Originally, ICU4C did not use namespaces, and some compilers did not support them. The default "using" statement preserves source code compatibility.)
346    You should turn this off via `-DU_USING_ICU_NAMESPACE=0` or by modifying unicode/uversion.h:
347
348```
349    Index: source/common/unicode/uversion.h
350    ===================================================================
351    --- source/common/unicode/uversion.h    (revision 26606)
352    +++ source/common/unicode/uversion.h    (working copy)
353    @@ -180,7 +180,8 @@
354     #   define U_NAMESPACE_QUALIFIER U_ICU_NAMESPACE::
355
356     #   ifndef U_USING_ICU_NAMESPACE
357    -#       define U_USING_ICU_NAMESPACE 1
358    +        // Set to 0 to force namespace declarations in ICU usage.
359    +#       define U_USING_ICU_NAMESPACE 0
360     #   endif
361     #   if U_USING_ICU_NAMESPACE
362             U_NAMESPACE_USE
363```
364
365    ICU call sites then either qualify ICU types explicitly, for example `icu::UnicodeString`, or do `using icu::UnicodeString;` where appropriate.
366*   **Hardcode the default charset to UTF-8:** On platforms where the default charset is always UTF-8, like MacOS X and some Linux distributions, we recommend hardcoding ICU's default charset to UTF-8. This means that some implementation code becomes simpler and faster, and statically linked ICU libraries become smaller. (See the [U_CHARSET_IS_UTF8](http://icu-project.org/apiref/icu4c/platform_8h.html#a0a33e1edf3cd23d9e9c972b63c9f7943) API documentation for more details.)
367    You can `-DU_CHARSET_IS_UTF8=1` or modify `unicode/utypes.h` (in ICU 4.8 and below) or modify unicode/platform.h (in ICU 49 and higher):
368
369```
370    Index: source/common/unicode/utypes.h
371    ===================================================================
372    --- source/common/unicode/utypes.h      (revision 26606)
373    +++ source/common/unicode/utypes.h      (working copy)
374    @@ -160,7 +160,7 @@
375      * @see UCONFIG_NO_CONVERSION
376      */
377     #ifndef U_CHARSET_IS_UTF8
378    -#   define U_CHARSET_IS_UTF8 0
379    +#   define U_CHARSET_IS_UTF8 1
380     #endif
381
382     /*===========================================================================*/
383```
384
385*   **UnicodeString constructors:** The UnicodeString class has several single-argument constructors that are not marked "explicit" for historical reasons. This can lead to inadvertent construction of a `UnicodeString` with a single character by using an integer, and it can lead to inadvertent dependency on the conversion framework by using a C string literal.
386    Beginning with ICU 49, you should do the following:
387    *   Consider marking the from-`UChar` and from-`UChar32` constructors explicit via `-DUNISTR_FROM_CHAR_EXPLICIT=explicit` or similar.
388    *   Consider marking the from-`const char*` and from-`const UChar*` constructors explicit via `-DUNISTR_FROM_STRING_EXPLICIT=explicit` or similar.
389    > :point_right: **Note**:  The ICU test suites cannot be compiled with these settings.
390*   **utf.h, utf8.h, utf16.h, utf_old.h:** By default, utypes.h (and thus almost every public ICU header) includes all of these header files. Often, none of them are needed, or only one or two of them. All of utf_old.h is deprecated or obsolete.
391    Beginning with ICU 49, you should define `U_NO_DEFAULT_INCLUDE_UTF_HEADERS` to 1 (via -D or uconfig.h, as above) and include those header files explicitly that you actually need.
392    > :point_right: **Note**:  The ICU test suites cannot be compiled with this setting.
393*   **utf_old.h:** All of utf_old.h is deprecated or obsolete.
394    Beginning with ICU 60, you should define `U_HIDE_OBSOLETE_UTF_OLD_H` to 1 (via -D or uconfig.h, as above). Use of any of these macros should be replaced as noted in the comments for the obsolete macro.
395    > :point_right: **Note**:  The ICU test suites _can_ be compiled with this setting.
396*   **.dat file:** By default, the ICU data is built into a shared library (DLL). This is convenient because it requires no install-time or runtime configuration, but the library is platform-specific and cannot be modified. A .dat package file makes the opposite trade-off: Platform-portable (except for endianness and charset family, which can be changed with the icupkg tool) and modifiable (also with the icupkg tool). If a path is set, then single data files (e.g., .res files) can be copied to that location to provide new locale data or conversion tables etc.
397    The only drawback with a .dat package file is that the application needs to provide ICU with the file system path to the package file (e.g., by calling `u_setDataDirectory()`) or with a pointer to the data (`udata_setCommonData()`) before other ICU API calls. This is usually easy if ICU is used from an application where `main()` takes care of such initialization. It may be hard if ICU is shipped with another shared library (such as the Xerces-C++ XML parser) which does not control `main()`.
398    See the [User Guide ICU Data](https://unicode-org.github.io/icu/userguide/icudata) chapter for more details.
399    If possible, we recommend building the .dat package. Specify `--with-data-packaging=archive` on the configure command line, as in
400    `runConfigureICU Linux --with-data-packaging=archive`
401    (Read the configure script's output for further instructions. On Windows, the Visual Studio build generates both the .dat package and the data DLL.)
402    Be sure to install and use the tiny stubdata library rather than the large data DLL.
403*   **Static libraries:** It may make sense to build the ICU code into static libraries (.a) rather than shared libraries (.so/.dll). Static linking reduces the overall size of the binary by removing code that is never called.
404    Example configure command line:
405    `runConfigureICU Linux --enable-static --disable-shared`
406*   **Out-of-source build:** It is usually desirable to keep the ICU source file tree clean and have build output files written to a different location. This is called an "out-of-source build". Simply invoke the configure script from the target location:
407```
408    ~/icu$ git clone https://github.com/unicode-org/icu.git
409    ~/icu$ mkdir icu4c-build
410    ~/icu$ cd icu4c-build
411    ~/icu/icu4c-build$ ../icu/icu4c/source/runConfigureICU Linux
412    ~/icu/icu4c-build$ make check</pre>
413```
414    > :point_right: **Note**:  this example shows a relative path to `runConfigureICU`. If you experience difficulty, try using an absolute path to `runConfigureICU` instead.
415
416#### ICU as a System-Level Library
417
418If ICU is installed as a system-level library, there are further opportunities and restrictions to consider. For details, see the _Using ICU as an Operating System Level Library_ section of the [User Guide ICU Architectural Design](https://unicode-org.github.io/icu/userguide/design) chapter.
419
420*   **Data path:** For a system-level library, it is best to load ICU data from the .dat package file because the file system path to the .dat package file can be hardcoded. ICU will automatically set the path to the final install location using `U_ICU_DATA_DEFAULT_DIR`. Alternatively, you can set `-DICU_DATA_DIR=/path/to/icu/data` when building the ICU code. (Used by source/common/putil.c.)
421    Consider also setting `-DICU_NO_USER_DATA_OVERRIDE` if you do not want the `ICU_DATA` environment variable to be used. (An application can still override the data path via `u_setDataDirectory()` or `udata_setCommonData()`.
422*   **Hide draft API:** API marked with `@draft` is new and not yet stable. Applications must not rely on unstable APIs from a system-level library. Define `U_HIDE_DRAFT_API`, `U_HIDE_INTERNAL_API` and `U_HIDE_SYSTEM_API` by modifying `unicode/utypes.h` before installing it.
423*   **Only C APIs:** Applications must not rely on C++ APIs from a system-level library because binary C++ compatibility across library and compiler versions is very hard to achieve. Most ICU C++ APIs are in header files that contain a comment with `\brief C++ API`. Consider not installing these header files, or define `U_SHOW_CPLUSPLUS_API` to be `0` by modifying `unicode/utypes.h` before installing it.
424*   **Disable renaming:** By default, ICU library entry point names have an ICU version suffix. Turn this off for a system-level installation, to enable upgrading ICU without breaking applications. For example:
425    `runConfigureICU Linux --disable-renaming`
426    The public header files from this configuration must be installed for applications to include and get the correct entry point names.
427
428### User-Configurable Settings
429
430ICU4C can be customized via a number of user-configurable settings. Many of them are controlled by preprocessor macros which are defined in the `source/common/unicode/uconfig.h` header file. Some turn off parts of ICU, for example conversion or collation, trading off a smaller library for reduced functionality. Other settings are recommended (see previous section) but their default values are set for better source code compatibility.
431
432In order to change such user-configurable settings, you can either modify the `uconfig.h` header file by adding a specific `#define ...` for one or more of the macros before they are first tested, or set the compiler's preprocessor flags (`CPPFLAGS`) to include an equivalent `-D` macro definition.
433
434### How To Build And Install On Windows
435
436Building International Components for Unicode requires:
437
438*   Microsoft Windows
439*   Microsoft Visual C++ (part of [Visual Studio](https://www.visualstudio.com/)) (from either Visual Studio 2015 or Visual Studio 2017)
440*   _**Optional:**_ A version of the [Windows 10 SDK](https://developer.microsoft.com/windows/downloads) (if you want to build the UWP projects)
441
442> :point_right: **Note**: [Cygwin](#how-to-build-and-install-on-windows-with-cygwin) is required if using a version of MSVC other than the one compatible with the supplied project files or if other compilers are used to build ICU. (e.g. GCC)
443
444The steps are:
445
4461.  Unzip the `icu-XXXX.zip` file into any convenient location.
447    *   You can use the built-in zip functionality of Windows Explorer to do this. Right-click on the .zip file and choose the "Extract All" option from the context menu. This will open a new window where you can choose the output location to put the files.
448    *   Alternatively, you can use a 3<sup>rd</sup> party GUI tool like 7-Zip or WinZip to do this as well.
4492.  Be sure that the ICU binary directory, (ex: `<ICU>\bin\`), is included in the **PATH** environment variable. The tests will not work without the location of the ICU DLL files in the path. Note that the binary directory name can depend on what architecture you select when you compile ICU. For x86 or 32-bit builds, the binary directory is `bin`. Whereas for x64 or 64-bit builds the binary directory is `bin64`.
4503.  Open the `<ICU>\source\allinone\allinone.sln` solution file in 'Visual Studio 2017'. (This solution includes all the International Components for Unicode libraries, necessary ICU building tools, and the test suite projects). Please see the [command line note below](#using-msbuild-at-the-command-line) if you want to build from the command line instead.
4514.  If you are building using 'Visual Studio 2015' instead, or if you are building the UWP projects and you have a different version of the Windows 10 SDK installed you will first need to modify the two `Build.Windows.*.props` files in the `allinone` directory before you can open the "allinone" solution file. Please see the notes below about [building with other versions of Visual Studio](#building-with-other-versions-of-visual-studio) and the notes on [re-targeting the Windows 10 SDK for the UWP projects](#re-targeting-the-windows-10-sdk-for-the-uwp-projects) for details. Alternatively, you can [skip building the UWP projects](#re-targeting-the-windows-10-sdk-for-the-uwp-projects) entirely as well.
4525.  Set the active platform to "Win32" or "x64" (See [Windows platform note](#setting-active-platform) below) and configuration to "Debug" or "Release" (See [Windows configuration note](#setting-active-configuration) below).
4536.  Choose the "Build" menu and select "Rebuild Solution". If you want to build the Debug and Release at the same time, see the [batch configuration note](#batch-configuration) below.
4547.  Run the tests. They can be run from the command line or from within Visual Studio.
455
456    #### Running the Tests from the Windows Command Line (cmd)
457
458    *   The general syntax is:
459
460        <pre>
461        &lt;ICU&gt;\source\allinone\icucheck.bat <i>Platform</i> <i>Configuration</i>
462        </pre>
463
464    *   So, for example for x86 (32-bit) and Debug, use the following:
465        ```
466        <ICU>\source\allinone\icucheck.bat x86 Debug
467        ```
468        For x86 (32-bit) and Release:
469        ```
470        <ICU>\source\allinone\icucheck.bat x86 Release
471        ```
472        For x64 (64-bit) and Debug:
473        ```
474        <ICU>\source\allinone\icucheck.bat x64 Debug
475        ```
476        For x64 (64-bit) and Release:
477        ```
478        <ICU>\source\allinone\icucheck.bat x64 Release
479        ```
480
481    #### Running the Tests from within Visual Studio
482
483    1.  Run the C++ test suite, `intltest`. To do this: set the active startup project to "intltest", and press Ctrl+F5 to run it. Make sure that it passes without any errors.
484    2.  Run the C test suite, `cintltst`. To do this: set the active startup project to "cintltst", and press Ctrl+F5 to run it. Make sure that it passes without any errors.
485    3.  Run the I/O test suite, `iotest`. To do this: set the active startup project to "iotest", and press Ctrl+F5 to run it. Make sure that it passes without any errors.
4868.  You are now able to develop applications with ICU by using the libraries and tools in `<ICU>\bin\`. The headers are in `<ICU>\include\` and the link libraries are in `<ICU>\lib\`. To install the ICU runtime on a machine, or ship it with your application, copy the needed components from `<ICU>\bin\` to a location on the system PATH or to your application directory.
487
488#### Building with other versions of Visual Studio
489
490The particular version of the MSVC compiler tool-set (and thus the corresponding version of Visual Studio) that is used to compile ICU is determined by the `PlatformToolset` property. This property is stored in two different shared files that are used to set common configuration settings amongst the various ICU `*.vcxproj` project files. For the non-UWP projects, this setting is in the shared file called `Build.Windows.ProjectConfiguration.props` located in the `allinone` directory. For the UWP projects, this setting is in the shared file called `Build.Windows.UWP.ProjectConfiguration.props`, also located in the `allinone` directory.
491
492The value of `v140` corresponds to the Visual Studio 2015 compiler tool set, whereas the value of `v141` corresponds to the Visual Studio 2017 compiler tool set.
493
494In order to build the non-UWP projects with Visual Studio 2015 you will need to modify the file called `Build.Windows.ProjectConfiguration.props` to change the value of the `PlatformToolset` property. Note however that Visual Studio 2017 is required for building the UWP projects.
495
496> :point_right: **Note**: Using older versions of the MSVC compiler is generally not recommended due to the improved support for the C++11 standard in newer versions of the compiler.
497
498#### Re-targeting the Windows 10 SDK for the UWP projects
499
500If the version of the Windows 10 SDK that you have installed does not match the version used by the UWP projects, then you will need to "retarget" them to use the version of the SDK that you have installed instead. There are two ways to do this:
501
502* In Visual Studio you can right-click on the UWP projects in the 'Solution Explorer' and select the option 'Retarget Projects' from the context menu. This will open up a window where you can select the SDK version to target from a drop-down list of the various SDKs that are installed on the machine.
503* Alternatively, you can manually edit the shared file called `Build.Windows.UWP.ProjectConfiguration.props` which is located in the `allinone` directory. You will need to change the of the `WindowsTargetPlatformVersion` property to the version of the SDK that you would like to use instead.
504
505#### Using MSBUILD At The Command Line
506
507You can build ICU from the command line instead of using the Visual Studio GUI. Assuming that you have properly installed Visual Studio to support command line building, you should have a shortcut for the "Developer Command Prompt" listed in the Start Menu. (For Visual Studio 2017 you will need to install the "Desktop development with C++" option).
508
509* Open the "Developer Command Prompt" shortcut from the Start Menu. (This will open up a new command line window).
510* From within the "Developer Command Prompt" change directory (`cd`) to the ICU source directory.
511* You can then use either `msbuild` directly, or you can use the `devenv.com` command to build ICU.
512* Using `MSBUILD`:
513  - To build the 32-bit Debug version, use the following command line:
514    ```
515    msbuild source\allinone\allinone.sln /p:Configuration=Debug /p:Platform=Win32
516    ```
517  - To build the 64-bit Release version, use the following command line:
518    ```
519    msbuild source\allinone\allinone.sln /p:Configuration=Release /p:Platform=x64
520    ```
521* Using `devenv.com`:
522  - To build the 32-bit Debug version, use the following command line:
523    ```
524    devenv.com source\allinone\allinone.sln /build "Debug|Win32"
525    ```
526  - To build the 64-bit Release version, use the following command line:
527    ```
528    devenv.com source\allinone\allinone.sln /build "Release|x64"
529    ```
530
531#### Skipping the UWP Projects on the Command Line
532
533You can skip (or omit) building the UWP projects on the command line by passing the argument '`SkipUWP=true`' to either MSBUILD or devenv.
534
535* For example, using `MSBUILD`:
536  - To skip building the UWP projects with a 32-bit Debug build, use the following command line:
537    ```
538    msbuild source\allinone\allinone.sln /p:Configuration=Debug /p:Platform=Win32 /p:SkipUWP=true
539    ```
540  - To skip building the UWP projects with a 64-bit Release version, use the following command line:
541    ```
542    msbuild source\allinone\allinone.sln /p:Configuration=Release /p:Platform=x64 /p:SkipUWP=true
543    ```
544
545You can also use Cygwin with the MSVC compiler to build ICU, and you can refer to the [How To Build And Install On Windows with Cygwin](#how-to-build-and-install-on-windows-with-cygwin) section for more details.
546
547#### Setting Active Platform
548
549Even though you are able to select "x64" as the active platform, if your operating system is not a 64 bit version of Windows, the build will fail. To set the active platform, two different possibilities are:
550
551* Choose "Build" menu, select "Configuration Manager...", and select "Win32" or "x64" for the Active Platform Solution.
552* Another way is to select the desired build configuration from "Solution Platforms" dropdown menu from the standard toolbar. It will say "Win32" or "x64" in the dropdown list.
553
554#### Setting Active Configuration
555
556To set the active configuration, two different possibilities are:
557
558*   Choose "Build" menu, select "Configuration Manager...", and select "Release" or "Debug" for the Active Configuration Solution.
559*   Another way is to select the desired build configuration from "Solution Configurations" dropdown menu from the standard toolbar. It will say "Release" or "Debug" in the dropdown list.
560
561#### Batch Configuration
562
563If you want to build the Win32 and x64 platforms and Debug and Release configurations at the same time, choose "Build" menu, and select "Batch Build...". Click the "Select All" button, and then click the "Rebuild" button.
564
565### How To Build And Install On Windows with Cygwin
566
567Building International Components for Unicode with this configuration requires:
568
569*   Microsoft Windows
570*   Microsoft Visual C++ (from Visual Studio 2015 or newer, when gcc isn't used).
571*   Cygwin with the following installed:
572    *   bash
573    *   GNU make
574    *   ar
575    *   ranlib
576    *   man (if you plan to look at the man pages)
577
578There are two ways you can build ICU with Cygwin. You can build with gcc or Microsoft Visual C++. If you use gcc, the resulting libraries and tools will depend on the Cygwin environment. If you use Microsoft Visual C++, the resulting libraries and tools do not depend on Cygwin and can be more easily distributed to other Windows computers (the generated man pages and shell scripts still need Cygwin). To build with gcc, please follow the "[How To Build And Install On UNIX](#how-to-build-and-install-on-unix)" instructions, while you are inside a Cygwin bash shell. To build with Microsoft Visual C++, please use the following instructions:
579
5801.  Start the Windows "Command Prompt" window. This is different from the gcc build, which requires the Cygwin Bash command prompt. The Microsoft Visual C++ compiler will not work with a bash command prompt.
5812.  If the computer isn't set up to use Visual C++ from the command line, you need to run vcvars32.bat.
582    For example:
583    `C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0\VC\bin\vcvars32.bat` can be used for 32-bit builds **or**
584    `C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 14\VC\bin\x86_amd64\vcvarsx86_amd64.bat` can be used for 64-bit builds on Windows x64.
5853.  Unzip the icu-XXXX.zip file into any convenient location. Using command line zip, type "unzip -a icu-XXXX.zip -d drive:\directory", or just use WinZip.
5864.  Change directory to "icu/source", which is where you unzipped ICU.
5875.  Run `bash ./runConfigureICU Cygwin/MSVC` (See [Windows configuration note](#setting-active-configuration) and non-functional configure options below; see source for [./runConfigureICU](https://github.com/unicode-org/icu/blob/master/icu4c/source/runConfigureICU)).
5886.  Type `make` to compile the libraries and all the data files. This make command should be GNU make.
5897.  Optionally, type `make check` to run the test suite, which checks for ICU's functionality integrity (See [testing note](#running-the-tests-from-the-command-line) below).
5908.  Type `make install` to install ICU. If you used the `--prefix=` option on `configure` or `runConfigureICU`, ICU will be installed to the directory you specified. (See [installation note](#installing-icu) below).
591
592#### Configuring ICU on Windows
593
594Ensure that the order of the PATH is MSVC, Cygwin, and then other PATHs. The configure script needs certain tools in Cygwin (e.g. grep).
595
596Also, you may need to run `dos2unix.exe` on all of the scripts (e.g. `configure`) in the top source directory of ICU. To avoid this issue, you can download the ICU source for Unix platforms (icu-xxx.tgz).
597
598In addition to the Unix [configuration note](#configuring-icu) the following configure options currently do not work on Windows with Microsoft's compiler. Some options can work by manually editing `icu/source/common/unicode/pwin32.h`, but manually editing the files is not recommended.
599
600*   `--disable-renaming`
601*   `--enable-tracing`
602*   `--enable-rpath`
603*   `--enable-static` (Requires that U_STATIC_IMPLEMENTATION be defined in user code that links against ICU's static libraries.)
604*   `--with-data-packaging=files` (The pkgdata tool currently does not work in this mode. Manual packaging is required to use this mode.)
605
606### How To Build And Install On UNIX
607
608Building International Components for Unicode on UNIX requires:
609
610*   A C++ compiler installed on the target machine (for example: gcc, CC, xlC_r, aCC, cxx, etc...).
611*   An ANSI C compiler installed on the target machine (for example: cc).
612*   A recent version of GNU make (3.80+).
613*   For a list of z/OS tools please view the [z/OS build section](#how-to-build-and-install-on-zos-os390) of this document for further details.
614
615Here are the steps to build ICU:
616
6171.  Decompress the icu-_X_._Y_.tgz (or icu-_X_._Y_.tar.gz) file. For example,
618    ```
619    gunzip -d < icu-_X_._Y_.tgz | tar xvf -
620    ```
6211.  Change directory to `icu/source`.
622    ```
623    cd icu/source
624    ```
6251.  Some files may have the wrong permissions.
626    ```
627    chmod +x runConfigureICU configure install-sh
628    ```
6291.  Run the [`runConfigureICU`](https://github.com/unicode-org/icu/blob/master/icu4c/source/runConfigureICU) script for your platform. (See [configuration note](#configuring-icu) below).
6301.  Now build:
631```
632gmake
633```
634     (or just `make` if GNU make is the default make on your platform) to compile the libraries and all the data files. The proper name of the GNU make command is printed at the end of the configuration run, as in `"You must use gmake to compile ICU"`.
635    Note that the compilation command output may be simplified on your platform. If this is the case, you will see just: `gcc ... stubdata.c` rather than `gcc -DU_NO_DEFAULT_INCLUDE_UTF_HEADERS=1 -D_REENTRANT -I../common -DU_ATTRIBUTE_DEPRECATED= -O2 -Wall -std=c99 -pedantic -Wshadow -Wpointer-arith -Wmissing-prototypes -Wwrite-strings -c -DPIC -fPIC -o stubdata.o stubdata.c`
636    If you need to see the whole compilation line, use `gmake VERBOSE=1`. The full compilation line will print if an error occurs.
6371.  Optionally,
638```
639gmake check
640```
641    will run the test suite, which checks for ICU's functionality integrity (See [testing note](#running-the-tests-from-the-command-line) below).
6421.  To install,
643```
644gmake install
645```
646    to install ICU. If you used the `--prefix=` option on `configure` or `runConfigureICU`, ICU will be installed to the directory you specified. (See [installation note](#installing-icu) below).
647
648#### Configuring ICU
649
650Type `"./runConfigureICU --help"` for help on how to run it and a list of supported platforms. You may also want to type `"./configure --help"` to print the available configure options that you may want to give `runConfigureICU`. If you are not using the `runConfigureICU` script, or your platform is not supported by the script, you may need to set your `CC`, `CXX`, `CFLAGS` and `CXXFLAGS` environment variables, and type `"./configure"`. HP-UX users, please see this [note regarding HP-UX multithreaded build issues](#using-icu-in-a-multithreaded-environment-on-hp-ux) with newer compilers. Solaris users, please see this [note regarding Solaris multithreaded build issues](#linking-on-solaris).
651
652ICU is built with strict compiler warnings enabled by default. If this causes excessive numbers of warnings on your platform, use the `--disable-strict` option to configure to reduce the warning level.
653
654#### Running The Tests From The Command Line
655
656You may have to set certain variables if you with to run test programs individually, that is apart from "gmake check". The environment variable **ICU_DATA** can be set to the full pathname of the data directory to indicate where the locale data files and conversion mapping tables are when you are not using the shared library (e.g. by using the .dat archive or the individual data files). The trailing "/" is required after the directory name (e.g. `$Root/source/data/out/` will work, but the value `$Root/source/data/out` is not acceptable). You do not need to set **ICU_DATA** if the complete shared data library is in your library path.
657
658#### Installing ICU
659
660Some platforms use package management tools to control the installation and uninstallation of files on the system, as well as the integrity of the system configuration. You may want to check if ICU can be packaged for your package management tools by looking into the `packaging` directory. (Please note that if you are using a snapshot of ICU from Git, it is probable that the packaging scripts or related files are not up to date with the contents of ICU at this time, so use them with caution).
661
662### How To Build And Install On z/OS (OS/390)
663
664You can install ICU on z/OS or OS/390 (the previous name of z/OS), but IBM tests only the z/OS installation. You install ICU in a z/OS UNIX system services file system such as HFS or zFS. On this platform, it is important that you understand a few details:
665
666*   The makedep and GNU make tools are required for building ICU. If it is not already installed on your system, it is available at the [z/OS UNIX - Tools and Toys](http://www-03.ibm.com/servers/eserver/zseries/zos/unix/bpxa1toy.html) site. The PATH environment variable should be updated to contain the location of this executable prior to build. Failure to add these tools to your PATH will cause ICU build failures or cause pkgdata to fail to run.
667*   Since USS does not support using the mmap() function over NFS, it is recommended that you build ICU on a local filesystem. Once ICU has been built, you should not have this problem while using ICU when the data library has been built as a shared library, which is this is the default setting.
668*   Encoding considerations: The source code assumes that it is compiled with codepage ibm-1047 (to be exact, the UNIX System Services variant of it). The pax command converts all of the source code files from ASCII to codepage ibm-1047 (USS) EBCDIC. However, some files are binary files and must not be converted, or must be converted back to their original state. You can use the [unpax-icu.sh](https://github.com/unicode-org/icu/blob/master/icu4c/as_is/os390/unpax-icu.sh) script to do this for you automatically. It will unpackage the tar file and convert all the necessary files for you automatically.
669*   z/OS supports both native S/390 hexadecimal floating point and (with OS/390 2.6 and later) IEEE 754 binary floating point. This is a compile time option. Applications built with IEEE should use ICU DLLs that are built with IEEE (and vice versa). The environment variable IEEE390=0 will cause the z/OS version of ICU to be built without IEEE floating point support and use the native hexadecimal floating point. By default ICU is built with IEEE 754 support. Native floating point support is sufficient for codepage conversion, resource bundle and UnicodeString operations, but the Format APIs require IEEE binary floating point.
670*   z/OS introduced the concept of Extra Performance Linkage (XPLINK) to bring performance improvement opportunities to call-intensive C and C++ applications such as ICU. XPLINK is enabled on a DLL-by-DLL basis, so if you are considering using XPLINK in your application that uses ICU, you should consider building the XPLINK-enabled version of ICU. You need to set ICU's environment variable `OS390_XPLINK=1` prior to invoking the make process to produce binaries that are enabled for XPLINK. The XPLINK option, which is available for z/OS 1.2 and later, requires the PTF PQ69418 to build XPLINK enabled binaries.
671*   ICU requires XPLINK for the icuio library. If you want to use the rest of ICU without XPLINK, then you must use the --disable-icuio configure option.
672*   The latest versions of z/OS use [XPLINK version (C128) of the C++ standard library](https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SSLTBW_2.2.0/com.ibm.zos.v2r2.cbcux01/oebind6.htm) by default. You may see [an error](https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SSLTBW_2.2.0/com.ibm.zos.v2r2.cbcux01/oebind5.htm) when running with XPLINK disabled. To avoid this error, set the following environment variable or similar:
673
674```
675export _CXX_PSYSIX="CEE.SCEELIB(C128N)":"CBC.SCLBSID(IOSTREAM,COMPLEX)"
676```
677
678*   When building ICU data, the heap size may need to be increased with the following environment variable:
679
680```
681export _CEE_RUNOPTS="HEAPPOOLS(ON),HEAP(4M,1M,ANY,FREE,0K,4080)"
682```
683
684*   The rest of the instructions for building and testing ICU on z/OS with UNIX System Services are the same as the [How To Build And Install On UNIX](#how-to-build-and-install-on-unix) section.
685
686#### z/OS (Batch/PDS) support outside the UNIX system services environment
687
688By default, ICU builds its libraries into the UNIX file system (HFS). In addition, there is a z/OS specific environment variable (OS390BATCH) to build some libraries into the z/OS native file system. This is useful, for example, when your application is externalized via Job Control Language (JCL).
689
690The OS390BATCH environment variable enables non-UNIX support including the batch environment. When OS390BATCH is set, the libicui18n_XX_.dll, libicuuc_XX_.dll, and libicudt_XX_e.dll binaries are built into data sets (the native file system). Turning on OS390BATCH does not turn off the normal z/OS UNIX build. This means that the z/OS UNIX (HFS) DLLs will always be created.
691
692Two additional environment variables indicate the names of the z/OS data sets to use. The LOADMOD environment variable identifies the name of the data set that contains the dynamic link libraries (DLLs) and the LOADEXP environment variable identifies the name of the data set that contains the side decks, which are normally the files with the .x suffix in the UNIX file system.
693
694A data set is roughly equivalent to a UNIX or Windows file. For most kinds of data sets the operating system maintains record boundaries. UNIX and Windows files are byte streams. Two kinds of data sets are PDS and PDSE. Each data set of these two types contains a directory. It is like a UNIX directory. Each "file" is called a "member". Each member name is limited to eight bytes, normally EBCDIC.
695
696Here is an example of some environment variables that you can set prior to building ICU:
697
698```
699OS390BATCH=1
700LOADMOD=_USER_.ICU.LOAD
701LOADEXP=_USER_.ICU.EXP
702```
703
704The PDS member names for the DLL file names are as follows:
705
706```
707IXMI_XX_IN --> libicui18n_XX_.dll
708IXMI_XX_UC --> libicuuc_XX_.dll
709IXMI_XX_DA --> libicudt_XX_e.dll
710```
711
712You should point the LOADMOD environment variable at a partitioned data set extended (PDSE) and point the LOADEXP environment variable at a partitioned data set (PDS). The PDSE can be allocated with the following attributes:
713
714```
715Data Set Name . . . : USER.ICU.LOAD
716Management class. . : **None**
717Storage class . . . : BASE
718Volume serial . . . : TSO007
719Device type . . . . : 3390
720Data class. . . . . : LOAD
721Organization  . . . : PO
722Record format . . . : U
723Record length . . . : 0
724Block size  . . . . : 32760
7251st extent cylinders: 1
726Secondary cylinders : 5
727Data set name type  : LIBRARY
728```
729
730The PDS can be allocated with the following attributes:
731
732```
733Data Set Name . . . : USER.ICU.EXP
734Management class. . : **None**
735Storage class . . . : BASE
736Volume serial . . . : TSO007
737Device type . . . . : 3390
738Data class. . . . . : **None**
739Organization  . . . : PO
740Record format . . . : FB
741Record length . . . : 80
742Block size  . . . . : 3200
7431st extent cylinders: 3
744Secondary cylinders : 3
745Data set name type  : PDS
746```
747
748### How To Build And Install On The IBM i Family (IBM i, i5/OS OS/400)
749
750Before you start building ICU, ICU requires the following:
751
752*   QSHELL interpreter installed (install base option 30, operating system)
753*   ILE C/C++ Compiler installed on the system
754*   The latest IBM tools for Developers for IBM i — [https://www-356.ibm.com/partnerworld/wps/servlet/ContentHandler/pw_com_porting_tools_index](https://www-356.ibm.com/partnerworld/wps/servlet/ContentHandler/pw_com_porting_tools_index)
755
756The following describes how to setup and build ICU. For background information, you should look at the [UNIX build instructions](#how-to-build-and-install-on-unix).
757
7581.  Copy the ICU source .tgz to the IBM i environment, as binary. Also, copy the [unpax-icu.sh](https://github.com/unicode-org/icu/blob/master/icu4c/as_is/os400/unpax-icu.sh) script into the same directory, as a text file.
7592.  Create target library. This library will be the target for the resulting modules, programs and service programs. You will specify this library on the OUTPUTDIR environment variable.
760```
761CRTLIB LIB(_libraryname_)
762ADDENVVAR ENVVAR(OUTPUTDIR) VALUE('_libraryname_') REPLACE(*YES)
763```
7643.  Set up the following environment variables and job characteristics in your build process
765```
766ADDENVVAR ENVVAR(MAKE) VALUE('gmake') REPLACE(*YES)
767CHGJOB CCSID(37)
768```
7694.  Fire up the QSH _(all subsequent commands are run inside the qsh session.)_
770```
771qsh
772```
7735.  Set up the PATH:
774```
775export PATH=/QIBM/ProdData/DeveloperTools/qsh/bin:$PATH:/QOpenSys/usr/bin
776```
7776.  Unpack the ICU source code archive:
778```
779gzip -d icu-_X_._Y_.tgz
780```
7817.  Run unpax-icu.sh on the tar file generated from the previous step.
782```
783unpax-icu.sh icu.tar
784```
7858.  Build the program ICULD which ICU will use for linkage.
786```
787cd icu/as_is/os400
788qsh bldiculd.sh
789cd ../../..
790```
7919.  Change into the 'source' directory, and configure ICU. (See [configuration note](#HowToConfigureICU) for details). Note that --with-data-packaging=archive and setting the --prefix are recommended, building in default (dll) mode is currently not supported.
792```
793cd icu/source
794./runConfigureICU IBMi --prefix=_/path/to/somewhere_ --with-data-packaging=archive
795```
79610.  Build ICU.
797> :point_right: **Note**: Do not use the -j option
798```
799gmake
800```
80111.  Test ICU.
802```
803gmake check
804```
805(The `QIBM_MULTI_THREADED=Y` flag will be automatically applied to intltest - you can look at the [iSeries Information Center](https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/ssw_ibm_i_73/rzahw/rzahwceeco.htm) for more details regarding the running of multiple threads on IBM i.)
806
807### How To Cross Compile ICU
808
809This section will explain how to build ICU on one platform, but to produce binaries intended to run on another. This is commonly known as a cross compile.
810
811Normally, in the course of a build, ICU needs to run the tools that it builds in order to generate and package data and test-data.  In a cross compilation setting, ICU is built on a different system from that which it eventually runs on. An example might be, if you are building for a small/headless system (such as an embedded device), or a system where you can't easily run the ICU command line tools (any non-UNIX-like system).
812
813To reduce confusion, we will here refer to the "A" and the "B" system. System "A" is the actual system we will be running on - the only requirements on it is are it is able to build ICU from the command line targetting itself (with `configure` or `runConfigureICU`), and secondly, that it also contain the correct toolchain for compiling and linking for the resultant platform, referred to as the "B" system.
814
815The autoconf docs use the term "build" for A, and "host" for B. More details at: [http://www.gnu.org/software/autoconf/manual/html_node/Specifying-Names.html](http://www.gnu.org/software/autoconf/manual/html_node/Specifying-Names.html#Specifying-Names)
816
817Three initially-empty directories will be used in this example:
818
819| **/icu**    | a copy of the ICU source                                                    |
820| **/buildA** | an empty directory, it will contain ICU built for A  (MacOSX in this case)  |
821| **/buildB** | an empty directory, it will contain ICU built for B  (HaikuOS in this case) |
822
8231.  Check out or unpack the ICU source code into the `/icu` directory.You will have the directories `/icu/source`, etc.
8242.  Build ICU in `/buildA` normally (using `runConfigureICU` or `configure`):
825```
826cd /buildA
827sh /icu/source/runConfigureICU MacOSX
828gnumake
829```
8303.  Set `PATH` or other variables as needed, such as `CPPFLAGS`.
8314.  Build ICU in `/buildB`
832```
833cd /buildB
834sh /icu/source/configure --host=i586-pc-haiku--with-cross-build=/buildA
835gnumake
836```
837> :point_right: **Note**: `--with-cross-build` takes an absolute path.
8385.  Tests and testdata can be built with `gnumake tests`.
839
840## How To Package ICU
841
842There are many ways that a person can package ICU with their software products. Usually only the libraries need to be considered for packaging.
843
844On UNIX, you should use `gmake install` to make it easier to develop and package ICU. The bin, lib and include directories are needed to develop applications that use ICU. These directories will be created relative to the `--prefix=`dir" configure option (See the [UNIX build instructions](#how-to-build-and-install-on-unix)). When ICU is built on Windows, a similar directory structure is built.
845
846When changes have been made to the standard ICU distribution, it is recommended that at least one of the following guidelines be followed for special packaging.
847
8481.  Add a suffix name to the library names. This can be done with the `--with-library-suffix` configure option.
8492.  The installation script should install the ICU libraries into the application's directory.
850
851Following these guidelines prevents other applications that use a standard ICU distribution from conflicting with any libraries that you need. On operating systems that do not have a standard C++ ABI (name mangling) for compilers, it is recommended to do this special packaging anyway. More details on customizing ICU are available in the [User's Guide](https://unicode-org.github.io/icu/userguide/). The [ICU Source Code Organization](#SourceCode) section of this readme.html gives a more complete description of the libraries.
852
853ICU has several libraries for you to use. Here is an example of libraries that are frequently packaged.
854
855| Library Name                        | Windows Filename | Linux Filename         | Comment                                                                                                                                                                                             |
856|-------------------------------------|------------------|------------------------|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
857| Data Library                        | icudtXYl.dll   | libicudata.so.XY.Z | Data required by the Common and I18n libraries. There are many ways to package and [customize this data](https://unicode-org.github.io/icu/userguide/icudata), but by default this is all you need. |
858| Common Library                      | icuucXY.dll    | libicuuc.so.XY.Z   | Base library required by all other ICU libraries.                                                                                                                                                   |
859| Internationalization (i18n) Library | icuinXY.dll    | libicui18n.so.XY.Z | A library that contains many locale based internationalization (i18n) functions.                                                                                                                    |
860| Layout Extensions Engine            | iculxXY.dll    | libiculx.so.XY.Z   | An optional engine for doing paragraph layout that uses parts of ICU. HarfBuzz is required.                                                                                                         |
861| ICU I/O (Unicode stdio) Library     | icuioXY.dll    | libicuio.so.XY.Z   | An optional library that provides a stdio like API with Unicode support.                                                                                                                            |
862| Tool Utility Library                | icutuXY.dll    | libicutu.so.XY.Z   | An internal library that contains internal APIs that are only used by ICU's tools. If you do not use ICU's tools, you do not need this library.                                                     |
863
864
865Normally only the above ICU libraries need to be considered for packaging. The versionless symbolic links to these libraries are only needed for easier development. The _X_, _Y_ and _Z_ parts of the name are the version numbers of ICU. For example, ICU 2.0.2 would have the name libicuuc.so.20.2 for the common library. The exact format of the library names can vary between platforms due to how each platform can handles library versioning.
866
867## Important Notes About Using ICU
868
869### Using ICU in a Multithreaded Environment
870
871Some versions of ICU require calling the `u_init()` function from `uclean.h` to ensure that ICU is initialized properly. In those ICU versions, `u_init()` must be called before ICU is used from multiple threads. There is no harm in calling `u_init()` in a single-threaded application, on a single-CPU machine, or in other cases where `u_init()` is not required.
872
873In addition to ensuring thread safety, `u_init()` also attempts to load at least one ICU data file. Assuming that all data files are packaged together (or are in the same folder in files mode), a failure code from `u_init()` usually means that the data cannot be found. In this case, the data may not be installed properly, or the application may have failed to call `udata_setCommonData()` or `u_setDataDirectory()` which specify to ICU where it can find its data.
874
875Since `u_init()` will load only one or two data files, it cannot guarantee that all of the data that an application needs is available. It cannot check for all data files because the set of files is customizable, and some ICU services work without loading any data at all. An application should always check for error codes when opening ICU service objects (using `ucnv_open()`, `ucol_open()`, C++ constructors, etc.).
876
877#### ICU 3.4 and later
878
879ICU 3.4 self-initializes properly for multi-threaded use. It achieves this without performance penalty by hardcoding the core Unicode properties data, at the cost of some flexibility. (For details see Jitterbug 4497.)
880
881`u_init()` can be used to check for data loading. It tries to load the converter alias table (`cnvalias.icu`).
882
883#### ICU 2.6..3.2
884
885These ICU versions require a call to `u_init()` before multi-threaded use. The services that are directly affected are those that don't have a service object and need to be fast: normalization and character properties.
886
887`u_init()` loads and initializes the data files for normalization and character properties (`unorm.icu` and `uprops.icu`) and can therefore also be used to check for data loading.
888
889#### ICU 2.4 and earlier
890
891ICU 2.4 and earlier versions were not prepared for multithreaded use on multi-CPU platforms where the CPUs implement weak memory coherency. These CPUs include: Power4, Power5, Alpha, Itanium. `u_init()` was not defined yet.
892
893#### Using ICU in a Multithreaded Environment on HP-UX
894
895When ICU is built with aCC on HP-UX, the [`-AA`](http://h21007.www2.hp.com/portal/site/dspp/menuitem.863c3e4cbcdc3f3515b49c108973a801?ciid=eb08b3f1eee02110b3f1eee02110275d6e10RCRD) compiler flag is used. It is required in order to use the latest `<iostream>` API in a thread safe manner. This compiler flag affects the version of the C++ library being used. Your applications will also need to be compiled with `-AA` in order to use ICU.
896
897#### Using ICU in a Multithreaded Environment on Solaris
898
899##### Linking on Solaris
900
901In order to avoid synchronization and threading issues, developers are **suggested** to strictly follow the compiling and linking guidelines for multithreaded applications, specified in the following SUn Solaris document available from Oracle. Most notably, pay strict attention to the following statements from Sun:
902
903> To use libthread, specify `-lthread` before `-lc` on the ld command line, or last on the cc command line.
904>
905> To use libpthread, specify `-lpthread` before `-lc` on the ld command line, or last on the cc command line.
906
907Failure to do this may cause spurious lock conflicts, recursive mutex failure, and deadlock.
908
909Source: "_Multithreaded Programming Guide, Compiling and Debugging_", Sun Microsystems, 2002
910[https://docs.oracle.com/cd/E19683-01/806-6867/compile-74765/index.html](https://docs.oracle.com/cd/E19683-01/806-6867/compile-74765/index.html)
911
912Note, a version of that chapter from a 2008 document update covering both Solaris 9 and Solaris 10 is available here:
913[http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E19253-01/816-5137/compile-94179/index.html](http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E19253-01/816-5137/compile-94179/index.html)
914
915### Windows Platform
916
917If you are building on the Windows platform, it is important that you understand a few of the following build details.
918
919#### DLL directories and the PATH setting
920
921As delivered, the International Components for Unicode build as several DLLs, which are placed in the `<ICU>\bin64` directory. You must add this directory to the PATH environment variable in your system, or any executables you build will not be able to access International Components for Unicode libraries. Alternatively, you can copy the DLL files into a directory already in your PATH, but we do not recommend this. You can wind up with multiple copies of the DLL and wind up using the wrong one.
922
923#### Changing your PATH
924
925##### Windows 2000/XP and above
926
927Use the System Icon in the Control Panel. Pick the "Advanced" tab. Select the "Environment Variables..." button. Select the variable `PATH` in the lower box, and select the lower "Edit..." button. In the "Variable Value" box, append the string `;<ICU>\bin64` to the end of the path string. If there is nothing there, just type in `<ICU>\bin64`. Click the Set button, then the OK button.
928
929> :point_right: **Note**:  When packaging a Windows application for distribution and installation on user systems, copies of the ICU DLLs should be included with the application, and installed for exclusive use by the application. This is the only way to insure that your application is running with the same version of ICU, built with exactly the same options, that you developed and tested with. Refer to Microsoft's guidelines on the usage of DLLs, or search for the phrase "DLL hell" on [msdn.microsoft.com](http://msdn.microsoft.com/).
930
931### UNIX Type Platform
932
933If you are building on a UNIX platform, and if you are installing ICU in a non-standard location, you may need to add the location of your ICU libraries to your `LD_LIBRARY_PATH` or `LIBPATH` environment variable (or the equivalent runtime library path environment variable for your system). The ICU libraries may not link or load properly without doing this.
934
935> :point_right: **Note**:  If you do not want to have to set this variable, you may instead use the `--enable-rpath` option at configuration time. This option will instruct the linker to always look for the libraries where they are installed. You will need to use the appropriate linker options when linking your own applications and libraries against ICU, too. Please refer to your system's linker manual for information about runtime paths. The use of rpath also means that when building a new version of ICU you should not have an older version installed in the same place as the new version's installation directory, as the older libraries will used during the build, instead of the new ones, likely leading to an incorrectly build ICU. This is the proper behavior of rpath.
936
937## Platform Dependencies
938
939### Porting To A New Platform
940
941If you are using ICU's Makefiles to build ICU on a new platform, there are a few places where you will need to add or modify some files. If you need more help, you can always ask the [icu-support mailing list](http://site.icu-project.org/contacts). Once you have finished porting ICU to a new platform, it is recommended that you contribute your changes back to ICU via the icu-support mailing list. This will make it easier for everyone to benefit from your work.
942
943#### Data For a New Platform
944
945For some people, it may not be necessary for completely build ICU. Most of the makefiles and build targets are for tools that are used for building ICU's data, and an application's data (when an application uses ICU resource bundles for its data).
946
947Data files can be built on a different platform when both platforms share the same endianness and the same charset family. This assertion does not include platform dependent DLLs/shared/static libraries. For details see the User Guide [ICU Data](https://unicode-org.github.io/icu/userguide/icudata) chapter.
948
949ICU 3.6 removes the requirement that ICU be completely built in the native operating environment. It adds the icupkg tool which can be run on any platform to turn binary ICU data files from any one of the three formats into any one of the other data formats. This allows a application to use ICU data built anywhere to be used for any other target platform.
950
951**WARNING!** Building ICU without running the tests is not recommended. The tests verify that ICU is safe to use. It is recommended that you try to completely port and test ICU before using the libraries for your own application.
952
953#### Adapting Makefiles For a New Platform
954
955Try to follow the build steps from the [UNIX](#how-to-build-and-install-on-unix) build instructions. If the configure script fails, then you will need to modify some files. Here are the usual steps for porting to a new platform:
956
9571.  Create an mh file in `<ICU>/source/config/`. You can use mh-linux or a similar mh file as your base configuration.
9582.  Modify `<ICU>/source/aclocal.m4` to recognize your platform's mh file.
9593.  Modify `<ICU>/source/configure.in` to properly set your **platform** C Macro define.
9604.  Run [autoconf](http://www.gnu.org/software/autoconf/) in `<ICU>/source/` without any options. The autoconf tool is standard on most Linux systems.
9615.  If you have any optimization options that you want to normally use, you can modify `<ICU>/source/runConfigureICU` to specify those options for your platform.
9626.  Build and test ICU on your platform. It is very important that you run the tests. If you don't run the tests, there is no guarentee that you have properly ported ICU.
963
964### Platform Dependent Implementations
965
966The platform dependencies have been mostly isolated into the following files in the common library. This information can be useful if you are porting ICU to a new platform.
967
968*   **unicode/platform.h.in** (autoconf'ed platforms)
969    **unicode/p_XXXX_.h** (others: pwin32.h, ppalmos.h, ..): Platform-dependent typedefs and defines:
970    *   Generic types like `UBool`, `int8_t`, `int16_t`, `int32_t`, `int64_t`, `uint64_t` etc.
971    *   `U_EXPORT` and `U_IMPORT` for specifying dynamic library import and export
972    *   String handling support for the `char16_t` and `wchar_t` types.
973*   **unicode/putil.h, putil.c**: platform-dependent implementations of various functions that are platform dependent:
974    *   `uprv_isNaN`, `uprv_isInfinite`, `uprv_getNaN` and `uprv_getInfinity` for handling special floating point values.
975    *   `uprv_tzset`, `uprv_timezone`, `uprv_tzname` and `time` for getting platform specific time and time zone information.
976    *   `u_getDataDirectory` for getting the default data directory.
977    *   `uprv_getDefaultLocaleID` for getting the default locale setting.
978    *   `uprv_getDefaultCodepage` for getting the default codepage encoding.
979*   **umutex.h, umutex.c**: Code for doing synchronization in multithreaded applications. If you wish to use International Components for Unicode in a multithreaded application, you must provide a synchronization primitive that the classes can use to protect their global data against simultaneous modifications. We already supply working implementations for many platforms that ICU builds on.
980*   **umapfile.h, umapfile.c**: functions for mapping or otherwise reading or loading files into memory. All access by ICU to data from files makes use of these functions.
981*   Using platform specific `#ifdef` macros are highly discouraged outside of the scope of these files. When the source code gets updated in the future, these `#ifdef`'s can cause testing problems for your platform.
982
983* * *
984
985Copyright © 2016 and later: Unicode, Inc. and others. License & terms of use: [http://www.unicode.org/copyright.html](http://www.unicode.org/copyright.html)
986Copyright © 1997-2016 International Business Machines Corporation and others. All Rights Reserved.
987