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1Building PCRE2 without using autotools
2--------------------------------------
3
4This document contains the following sections:
5
6  General
7  Generic instructions for the PCRE2 C library
8  Stack size in Windows environments
9  Linking programs in Windows environments
10  Calling conventions in Windows environments
11  Comments about Win32 builds
12  Building PCRE2 on Windows with CMake
13  Building PCRE2 on Windows with Visual Studio
14  Testing with RunTest.bat
15  Building PCRE2 on native z/OS and z/VM
16
17
18GENERAL
19
20The basic PCRE2 library consists entirely of code written in Standard C, and so
21should compile successfully on any system that has a Standard C compiler and
22library.
23
24The PCRE2 distribution includes a "configure" file for use by the
25configure/make (autotools) build system, as found in many Unix-like
26environments. The README file contains information about the options for
27"configure".
28
29There is also support for CMake, which some users prefer, especially in Windows
30environments, though it can also be run in Unix-like environments. See the
31section entitled "Building PCRE2 on Windows with CMake" below.
32
33Versions of src/config.h and src/pcre2.h are distributed in the PCRE2 tarballs
34under the names src/config.h.generic and src/pcre2.h.generic. These are
35provided for those who build PCRE2 without using "configure" or CMake. If you
36use "configure" or CMake, the .generic versions are not used.
37
38
39GENERIC INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE PCRE2 C LIBRARY
40
41The following are generic instructions for building the PCRE2 C library "by
42hand". If you are going to use CMake, this section does not apply to you; you
43can skip ahead to the CMake section.
44
45 (1) Copy or rename the file src/config.h.generic as src/config.h, and edit the
46     macro settings that it contains to whatever is appropriate for your
47     environment. In particular, you can alter the definition of the NEWLINE
48     macro to specify what character(s) you want to be interpreted as line
49     terminators by default.
50
51     When you compile any of the PCRE2 modules, you must specify
52     -DHAVE_CONFIG_H to your compiler so that src/config.h is included in the
53     sources.
54
55     An alternative approach is not to edit src/config.h, but to use -D on the
56     compiler command line to make any changes that you need to the
57     configuration options. In this case -DHAVE_CONFIG_H must not be set.
58
59     NOTE: There have been occasions when the way in which certain parameters
60     in src/config.h are used has changed between releases. (In the
61     configure/make world, this is handled automatically.) When upgrading to a
62     new release, you are strongly advised to review src/config.h.generic
63     before re-using what you had previously.
64
65 (2) Copy or rename the file src/pcre2.h.generic as src/pcre2.h.
66
67 (3) EITHER:
68       Copy or rename file src/pcre2_chartables.c.dist as
69       src/pcre2_chartables.c.
70
71     OR:
72       Compile src/dftables.c as a stand-alone program (using -DHAVE_CONFIG_H
73       if you have set up src/config.h), and then run it with the single
74       argument "src/pcre2_chartables.c". This generates a set of standard
75       character tables and writes them to that file. The tables are generated
76       using the default C locale for your system. If you want to use a locale
77       that is specified by LC_xxx environment variables, add the -L option to
78       the dftables command. You must use this method if you are building on a
79       system that uses EBCDIC code.
80
81     The tables in src/pcre2_chartables.c are defaults. The caller of PCRE2 can
82     specify alternative tables at run time.
83
84 (4) For an 8-bit library, compile the following source files from the src
85     directory, setting -DPCRE2_CODE_UNIT_WIDTH=8 as a compiler option. Also
86     set -DHAVE_CONFIG_H if you have set up src/config.h with your
87     configuration, or else use other -D settings to change the configuration
88     as required.
89
90       pcre2_auto_possess.c
91       pcre2_chartables.c
92       pcre2_compile.c
93       pcre2_config.c
94       pcre2_context.c
95       pcre2_convert.c
96       pcre2_dfa_match.c
97       pcre2_error.c
98       pcre2_extuni.c
99       pcre2_find_bracket.c
100       pcre2_jit_compile.c
101       pcre2_maketables.c
102       pcre2_match.c
103       pcre2_match_data.c
104       pcre2_newline.c
105       pcre2_ord2utf.c
106       pcre2_pattern_info.c
107       pcre2_serialize.c
108       pcre2_string_utils.c
109       pcre2_study.c
110       pcre2_substitute.c
111       pcre2_substring.c
112       pcre2_tables.c
113       pcre2_ucd.c
114       pcre2_valid_utf.c
115       pcre2_xclass.c
116
117     Make sure that you include -I. in the compiler command (or equivalent for
118     an unusual compiler) so that all included PCRE2 header files are first
119     sought in the src directory under the current directory. Otherwise you run
120     the risk of picking up a previously-installed file from somewhere else.
121
122     Note that you must compile pcre2_jit_compile.c, even if you have not
123     defined SUPPORT_JIT in src/config.h, because when JIT support is not
124     configured, dummy functions are compiled. When JIT support IS configured,
125     pcre2_jit_compile.c #includes other files from the sljit subdirectory,
126     all of whose names begin with "sljit". It also #includes
127     src/pcre2_jit_match.c and src/pcre2_jit_misc.c, so you should not compile
128     these yourself.
129
130     Note also that the pcre2_fuzzsupport.c file contains special code that is
131     useful to those who want to run fuzzing tests on the PCRE2 library. Unless
132     you are doing that, you can ignore it.
133
134 (5) Now link all the compiled code into an object library in whichever form
135     your system keeps such libraries. This is the basic PCRE2 C 8-bit library.
136     If your system has static and shared libraries, you may have to do this
137     once for each type.
138
139 (6) If you want to build a 16-bit library or 32-bit library (as well as, or
140     instead of the 8-bit library) just supply 16 or 32 as the value of
141     -DPCRE2_CODE_UNIT_WIDTH when you are compiling.
142
143 (7) If you want to build the POSIX wrapper functions (which apply only to the
144     8-bit library), ensure that you have the src/pcre2posix.h file and then
145     compile src/pcre2posix.c. Link the result (on its own) as the pcre2posix
146     library.
147
148 (8) The pcre2test program can be linked with any combination of the 8-bit,
149     16-bit and 32-bit libraries (depending on what you selected in
150     src/config.h). Compile src/pcre2test.c; don't forget -DHAVE_CONFIG_H if
151     necessary, but do NOT define PCRE2_CODE_UNIT_WIDTH. Then link with the
152     appropriate library/ies. If you compiled an 8-bit library, pcre2test also
153     needs the pcre2posix wrapper library.
154
155 (9) Run pcre2test on the testinput files in the testdata directory, and check
156     that the output matches the corresponding testoutput files. There are
157     comments about what each test does in the section entitled "Testing PCRE2"
158     in the README file. If you compiled more than one of the 8-bit, 16-bit and
159     32-bit libraries, you need to run pcre2test with the -16 option to do
160     16-bit tests and with the -32 option to do 32-bit tests.
161
162     Some tests are relevant only when certain build-time options are selected.
163     For example, test 4 is for Unicode support, and will not run if you have
164     built PCRE2 without it. See the comments at the start of each testinput
165     file. If you have a suitable Unix-like shell, the RunTest script will run
166     the appropriate tests for you. The command "RunTest list" will output a
167     list of all the tests.
168
169     Note that the supplied files are in Unix format, with just LF characters
170     as line terminators. You may need to edit them to change this if your
171     system uses a different convention.
172
173(10) If you have built PCRE2 with SUPPORT_JIT, the JIT features can be tested
174     by running pcre2test with the -jit option. This is done automatically by
175     the RunTest script. You might also like to build and run the freestanding
176     JIT test program, src/pcre2_jit_test.c.
177
178(11) If you want to use the pcre2grep command, compile and link
179     src/pcre2grep.c; it uses only the basic 8-bit PCRE2 library (it does not
180     need the pcre2posix library). If you have built the PCRE2 library with JIT
181     support by defining SUPPORT_JIT in src/config.h, you can also define
182     SUPPORT_PCRE2GREP_JIT, which causes pcre2grep to make use of JIT (unless
183     it is run with --no-jit). If you define SUPPORT_PCRE2GREP_JIT without
184     defining SUPPORT_JIT, pcre2grep does not try to make use of JIT.
185
186
187STACK SIZE IN WINDOWS ENVIRONMENTS
188
189Prior to release 10.30 the default system stack size of 1MiB in some Windows
190environments caused issues with some tests. This should no longer be the case
191for 10.30 and later releases.
192
193
194LINKING PROGRAMS IN WINDOWS ENVIRONMENTS
195
196If you want to statically link a program against a PCRE2 library in the form of
197a non-dll .a file, you must define PCRE2_STATIC before including src/pcre2.h.
198
199
200CALLING CONVENTIONS IN WINDOWS ENVIRONMENTS
201
202It is possible to compile programs to use different calling conventions using
203MSVC. Search the web for "calling conventions" for more information. To make it
204easier to change the calling convention for the exported functions in the
205PCRE2 library, the macro PCRE2_CALL_CONVENTION is present in all the external
206definitions. It can be set externally when compiling (e.g. in CFLAGS). If it is
207not set, it defaults to empty; the default calling convention is then used
208(which is what is wanted most of the time).
209
210
211COMMENTS ABOUT WIN32 BUILDS (see also "BUILDING PCRE2 ON WINDOWS WITH CMAKE")
212
213There are two ways of building PCRE2 using the "configure, make, make install"
214paradigm on Windows systems: using MinGW or using Cygwin. These are not at all
215the same thing; they are completely different from each other. There is also
216support for building using CMake, which some users find a more straightforward
217way of building PCRE2 under Windows.
218
219The MinGW home page (http://www.mingw.org/) says this:
220
221  MinGW: A collection of freely available and freely distributable Windows
222  specific header files and import libraries combined with GNU toolsets that
223  allow one to produce native Windows programs that do not rely on any
224  3rd-party C runtime DLLs.
225
226The Cygwin home page (http://www.cygwin.com/) says this:
227
228  Cygwin is a Linux-like environment for Windows. It consists of two parts:
229
230  . A DLL (cygwin1.dll) which acts as a Linux API emulation layer providing
231    substantial Linux API functionality
232
233  . A collection of tools which provide Linux look and feel.
234
235On both MinGW and Cygwin, PCRE2 should build correctly using:
236
237  ./configure && make && make install
238
239This should create two libraries called libpcre2-8 and libpcre2-posix. These
240are independent libraries: when you link with libpcre2-posix you must also link
241with libpcre2-8, which contains the basic functions.
242
243Using Cygwin's compiler generates libraries and executables that depend on
244cygwin1.dll. If a library that is generated this way is distributed,
245cygwin1.dll has to be distributed as well. Since cygwin1.dll is under the GPL
246licence, this forces not only PCRE2 to be under the GPL, but also the entire
247application. A distributor who wants to keep their own code proprietary must
248purchase an appropriate Cygwin licence.
249
250MinGW has no such restrictions. The MinGW compiler generates a library or
251executable that can run standalone on Windows without any third party dll or
252licensing issues.
253
254But there is more complication:
255
256If a Cygwin user uses the -mno-cygwin Cygwin gcc flag, what that really does is
257to tell Cygwin's gcc to use the MinGW gcc. Cygwin's gcc is only acting as a
258front end to MinGW's gcc (if you install Cygwin's gcc, you get both Cygwin's
259gcc and MinGW's gcc). So, a user can:
260
261. Build native binaries by using MinGW or by getting Cygwin and using
262  -mno-cygwin.
263
264. Build binaries that depend on cygwin1.dll by using Cygwin with the normal
265  compiler flags.
266
267The test files that are supplied with PCRE2 are in UNIX format, with LF
268characters as line terminators. Unless your PCRE2 library uses a default
269newline option that includes LF as a valid newline, it may be necessary to
270change the line terminators in the test files to get some of the tests to work.
271
272
273BUILDING PCRE2 ON WINDOWS WITH CMAKE
274
275CMake is an alternative configuration facility that can be used instead of
276"configure". CMake creates project files (make files, solution files, etc.)
277tailored to numerous development environments, including Visual Studio,
278Borland, Msys, MinGW, NMake, and Unix. If possible, use short paths with no
279spaces in the names for your CMake installation and your PCRE2 source and build
280directories.
281
282The following instructions were contributed by a PCRE1 user, but they should
283also work for PCRE2. If they are not followed exactly, errors may occur. In the
284event that errors do occur, it is recommended that you delete the CMake cache
285before attempting to repeat the CMake build process. In the CMake GUI, the
286cache can be deleted by selecting "File > Delete Cache".
287
2881.  Install the latest CMake version available from http://www.cmake.org/, and
289    ensure that cmake\bin is on your path.
290
2912.  Unzip (retaining folder structure) the PCRE2 source tree into a source
292    directory such as C:\pcre2. You should ensure your local date and time
293    is not earlier than the file dates in your source dir if the release is
294    very new.
295
2963.  Create a new, empty build directory, preferably a subdirectory of the
297    source dir. For example, C:\pcre2\pcre2-xx\build.
298
2994.  Run cmake-gui from the Shell envirornment of your build tool, for example,
300    Msys for Msys/MinGW or Visual Studio Command Prompt for VC/VC++. Do not try
301    to start Cmake from the Windows Start menu, as this can lead to errors.
302
3035.  Enter C:\pcre2\pcre2-xx and C:\pcre2\pcre2-xx\build for the source and
304    build directories, respectively.
305
3066.  Hit the "Configure" button.
307
3087.  Select the particular IDE / build tool that you are using (Visual
309    Studio, MSYS makefiles, MinGW makefiles, etc.)
310
3118.  The GUI will then list several configuration options. This is where
312    you can disable Unicode support or select other PCRE2 optional features.
313
3149.  Hit "Configure" again. The adjacent "Generate" button should now be
315    active.
316
31710. Hit "Generate".
318
31911. The build directory should now contain a usable build system, be it a
320    solution file for Visual Studio, makefiles for MinGW, etc. Exit from
321    cmake-gui and use the generated build system with your compiler or IDE.
322    E.g., for MinGW you can run "make", or for Visual Studio, open the PCRE2
323    solution, select the desired configuration (Debug, or Release, etc.) and
324    build the ALL_BUILD project.
325
32612. If during configuration with cmake-gui you've elected to build the test
327    programs, you can execute them by building the test project. E.g., for
328    MinGW: "make test"; for Visual Studio build the RUN_TESTS project. The
329    most recent build configuration is targeted by the tests. A summary of
330    test results is presented. Complete test output is subsequently
331    available for review in Testing\Temporary under your build dir.
332
333
334BUILDING PCRE2 ON WINDOWS WITH VISUAL STUDIO
335
336The code currently cannot be compiled without a stdint.h header, which is
337available only in relatively recent versions of Visual Studio. However, this
338portable and permissively-licensed implementation of the header worked without
339issue:
340
341  http://www.azillionmonkeys.com/qed/pstdint.h
342
343Just rename it and drop it into the top level of the build tree.
344
345
346TESTING WITH RUNTEST.BAT
347
348If configured with CMake, building the test project ("make test" or building
349ALL_TESTS in Visual Studio) creates (and runs) pcre2_test.bat (and depending
350on your configuration options, possibly other test programs) in the build
351directory. The pcre2_test.bat script runs RunTest.bat with correct source and
352exe paths.
353
354For manual testing with RunTest.bat, provided the build dir is a subdirectory
355of the source directory: Open command shell window. Chdir to the location
356of your pcre2test.exe and pcre2grep.exe programs. Call RunTest.bat with
357"..\RunTest.Bat" or "..\..\RunTest.bat" as appropriate.
358
359To run only a particular test with RunTest.Bat provide a test number argument.
360
361Otherwise:
362
3631. Copy RunTest.bat into the directory where pcre2test.exe and pcre2grep.exe
364   have been created.
365
3662. Edit RunTest.bat to indentify the full or relative location of
367   the pcre2 source (wherein which the testdata folder resides), e.g.:
368
369   set srcdir=C:\pcre2\pcre2-10.00
370
3713. In a Windows command environment, chdir to the location of your bat and
372   exe programs.
373
3744. Run RunTest.bat. Test outputs will automatically be compared to expected
375   results, and discrepancies will be identified in the console output.
376
377To independently test the just-in-time compiler, run pcre2_jit_test.exe.
378
379
380BUILDING PCRE2 ON NATIVE Z/OS AND Z/VM
381
382z/OS and z/VM are operating systems for mainframe computers, produced by IBM.
383The character code used is EBCDIC, not ASCII or Unicode. In z/OS, UNIX APIs and
384applications can be supported through UNIX System Services, and in such an
385environment it should be possible to build PCRE2 in the same way as in other
386systems, with the EBCDIC related configuration settings, but it is not known if
387anybody has tried this.
388
389In native z/OS (without UNIX System Services) and in z/VM, special ports are
390required. For details, please see file 939 on this web site:
391
392  http://www.cbttape.org
393
394Everything in that location, source and executable, is in EBCDIC and native
395z/OS file formats. The port provides an API for LE languages such as COBOL and
396for the z/OS and z/VM versions of the Rexx languages.
397
398===========================
399Last Updated: 19 April 2018
400===========================
401