1Building with Visual C++, prerequisites 2======================================= 3 4 This document describes how to compile, build and install curl and libcurl 5 from sources using the Visual C++ build tool. To build with VC++, you will 6 of course have to first install VC++. The minimum required version of 7 VC is 6 (part of Visual Studio 6). However using a more recent version is 8 strongly recommended. 9 10 VC++ is also part of the Windows Platform SDK. You do not have to install 11 the full Visual Studio or Visual C++ if all you want is to build curl. 12 13 The latest Platform SDK can be downloaded freely from: 14 15 https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/downloads/sdk-archive 16 17 If you are building with VC6 then you will also need the February 2003 18 Edition of the Platform SDK which can be downloaded from: 19 20 https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=12261 21 22 If you wish to support zlib, openssl, c-ares, ssh2, you will have to download 23 them separately and copy them to the deps directory as shown below: 24 25 somedirectory\ 26 |_curl-src 27 | |_winbuild 28 | 29 |_deps 30 |_ lib 31 |_ include 32 |_ bin 33 34 It is also possible to create the deps directory in some other random 35 places and tell the Makefile its location using the WITH_DEVEL option. 36 37Building straight from git 38========================== 39 40 When you check out code git and build it, as opposed from a released source 41 code archive, you need to first run the "buildconf.bat" batch file (present 42 in the source code root directory) to set things up. 43 44Building with Visual C++ 45======================== 46 47Open a Visual Studio Command prompt: 48 49 Using the 'Developer Command Prompt for VS <version>' menu entry: 50 where version is the Visual Studio version. The developer prompt at default 51 uses the x86 mode. It is required to call Vcvarsall.bat to setup the prompt 52 for the machine type you want, using Vcvarsall.bat. 53 This type of command prompt may not exist in all Visual Studio versions. 54 55 For more information, check: 56 https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/framework/tools/developer-command-prompt-for-vs 57 https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/cpp/build/how-to-enable-a-64-bit-visual-cpp-toolset-on-the-command-line 58 59 Using the 'VS <version> <platform> <type> Command Prompt' menu entry: 60 where version is the Visual Studio version, platform is e.g. x64 61 and type Native of Cross platform build. This type of command prompt 62 may not exist in all Visual Studio versions. 63 64 See also: 65 https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/f2ccy3wt.aspx 66 67Once you are in the console, go to the winbuild directory in the Curl 68sources: 69 cd curl-src\winbuild 70 71Then you can call nmake /f Makefile.vc with the desired options (see below). 72The builds will be in the top src directory, builds\ directory, in 73a directory named using the options given to the nmake call. 74 75nmake /f Makefile.vc mode=<static or dll> <options> 76 77where <options> is one or many of: 78 VC=<6,7,8,9,10,11,12,14,15> - VC versions 79 WITH_DEVEL=<path> - Paths for the development files (SSL, zlib, etc.) 80 Defaults to sibbling directory deps: ../deps 81 Libraries can be fetched at https://windows.php.net/downloads/php-sdk/deps/ 82 Uncompress them into the deps folder. 83 WITH_SSL=<dll or static> - Enable OpenSSL support, DLL or static 84 WITH_NGHTTP2=<dll or static> - Enable HTTP/2 support, DLL or static 85 WITH_MBEDTLS=<dll or static> - Enable mbedTLS support, DLL or static 86 WITH_CARES=<dll or static> - Enable c-ares support, DLL or static 87 WITH_ZLIB=<dll or static> - Enable zlib support, DLL or static 88 WITH_SSH2=<dll or static> - Enable libSSH2 support, DLL or static 89 WITH_PREFIX=<dir> - Where to install the build 90 ENABLE_SSPI=<yes or no> - Enable SSPI support, defaults to yes 91 ENABLE_IPV6=<yes or no> - Enable IPv6, defaults to yes 92 ENABLE_IDN=<yes or no> - Enable use of Windows IDN APIs, defaults to yes 93 Requires Windows Vista or later 94 ENABLE_WINSSL=<yes or no> - Enable native Windows SSL support, defaults to yes 95 GEN_PDB=<yes or no> - Generate Program Database (debug symbols for release build) 96 DEBUG=<yes or no> - Debug builds 97 MACHINE=<x86 or x64> - Target architecture (default is x86) 98 CARES_PATH=<path to cares> - Custom path for c-ares 99 MBEDTLS_PATH=<path to mbedTLS> - Custom path for mbedTLS 100 NGHTTP2_PATH=<path to HTTP/2> - Custom path for nghttp2 101 SSH2_PATH=<path to libSSH2> - Custom path for libSSH2 102 SSL_PATH=<path to OpenSSL> - Custom path for OpenSSL 103 ZLIB_PATH=<path to zlib> - Custom path for zlib 104 105 106Static linking of Microsoft's C RunTime (CRT): 107============================================== 108If you are using mode=static nmake will create and link to the static build of 109libcurl but *not* the static CRT. If you must you can force nmake to link in 110the static CRT by passing RTLIBCFG=static. Typically you shouldn't use that 111option, and nmake will default to the DLL CRT. RTLIBCFG is rarely used and 112therefore rarely tested. When passing RTLIBCFG for a configuration that was 113already built but not with that option, or if the option was specified 114differently, you must destroy the build directory containing the configuration 115so that nmake can build it from scratch. 116 117Legacy Windows and SSL 118====================== 119When you build curl using the build files in this directory the default SSL 120backend will be WinSSL (Windows SSPI, more specifically Schannel), the native 121SSL library that comes with the Windows OS. WinSSL in Windows <= XP is not able 122to connect to servers that no longer support the legacy handshakes and 123algorithms used by those versions. If you will be using curl in one of those 124earlier versions of Windows you should choose another SSL backend like OpenSSL. 125