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. Note that the settings concerned with 448-bit, 16-bit, and 32-bit code units relate to the type of data string that 45PCRE2 processes. They are NOT referring to the underlying operating system bit 46width. You do not have to do anything special to compile in a 64-bit 47environment, for example. 48 49 (1) Copy or rename the file src/config.h.generic as src/config.h, and edit the 50 macro settings that it contains to whatever is appropriate for your 51 environment. In particular, you can alter the definition of the NEWLINE 52 macro to specify what character(s) you want to be interpreted as line 53 terminators by default. 54 55 When you subsequently compile any of the PCRE2 modules, you must specify 56 -DHAVE_CONFIG_H to your compiler so that src/config.h is included in the 57 sources. 58 59 An alternative approach is not to edit src/config.h, but to use -D on the 60 compiler command line to make any changes that you need to the 61 configuration options. In this case -DHAVE_CONFIG_H must not be set. 62 63 NOTE: There have been occasions when the way in which certain parameters 64 in src/config.h are used has changed between releases. (In the 65 configure/make world, this is handled automatically.) When upgrading to a 66 new release, you are strongly advised to review src/config.h.generic 67 before re-using what you had previously. 68 69 Note also that the src/config.h.generic file is created from a config.h 70 that was generated by Autotools, which automatically includes settings of 71 a number of macros that are not actually used by PCRE2 (for example, 72 HAVE_DLFCN_H). 73 74 (2) Copy or rename the file src/pcre2.h.generic as src/pcre2.h. 75 76 (3) EITHER: 77 Copy or rename file src/pcre2_chartables.c.dist as 78 src/pcre2_chartables.c. 79 80 OR: 81 Compile src/pcre2_dftables.c as a stand-alone program (using 82 -DHAVE_CONFIG_H if you have set up src/config.h), and then run it with 83 the single argument "src/pcre2_chartables.c". This generates a set of 84 standard character tables and writes them to that file. The tables are 85 generated using the default C locale for your system. If you want to use 86 a locale that is specified by LC_xxx environment variables, add the -L 87 option to the pcre2_dftables command. You must use this method if you 88 are building on a system that uses EBCDIC code. 89 90 The tables in src/pcre2_chartables.c are defaults. The caller of PCRE2 can 91 specify alternative tables at run time. 92 93 (4) For a library that supports 8-bit code units in the character strings that 94 it processes, compile the following source files from the src directory, 95 setting -DPCRE2_CODE_UNIT_WIDTH=8 as a compiler option. Also set 96 -DHAVE_CONFIG_H if you have set up src/config.h with your configuration, 97 or else use other -D settings to change the configuration as required. 98 99 pcre2_auto_possess.c 100 pcre2_chartables.c 101 pcre2_compile.c 102 pcre2_config.c 103 pcre2_context.c 104 pcre2_convert.c 105 pcre2_dfa_match.c 106 pcre2_error.c 107 pcre2_extuni.c 108 pcre2_find_bracket.c 109 pcre2_jit_compile.c 110 pcre2_maketables.c 111 pcre2_match.c 112 pcre2_match_data.c 113 pcre2_newline.c 114 pcre2_ord2utf.c 115 pcre2_pattern_info.c 116 pcre2_script_run.c 117 pcre2_serialize.c 118 pcre2_string_utils.c 119 pcre2_study.c 120 pcre2_substitute.c 121 pcre2_substring.c 122 pcre2_tables.c 123 pcre2_ucd.c 124 pcre2_ucptables.c 125 pcre2_valid_utf.c 126 pcre2_xclass.c 127 128 Make sure that you include -I. in the compiler command (or equivalent for 129 an unusual compiler) so that all included PCRE2 header files are first 130 sought in the src directory under the current directory. Otherwise you run 131 the risk of picking up a previously-installed file from somewhere else. 132 133 Note that you must compile pcre2_jit_compile.c, even if you have not 134 defined SUPPORT_JIT in src/config.h, because when JIT support is not 135 configured, dummy functions are compiled. When JIT support IS configured, 136 pcre2_jit_compile.c #includes other files from the sljit subdirectory, 137 all of whose names begin with "sljit". It also #includes 138 src/pcre2_jit_match.c and src/pcre2_jit_misc.c, so you should not compile 139 those yourself. 140 141 Note also that the pcre2_fuzzsupport.c file contains special code that is 142 useful to those who want to run fuzzing tests on the PCRE2 library. Unless 143 you are doing that, you can ignore it. 144 145 (5) Now link all the compiled code into an object library in whichever form 146 your system keeps such libraries. This is the basic PCRE2 C 8-bit library. 147 If your system has static and shared libraries, you may have to do this 148 once for each type. 149 150 (6) If you want to build a library that supports 16-bit or 32-bit code units, 151 (as well as, or instead of the 8-bit library) just supply 16 or 32 as the 152 value of -DPCRE2_CODE_UNIT_WIDTH when you are compiling. 153 154 (7) If you want to build the POSIX wrapper functions (which apply only to the 155 8-bit library), ensure that you have the src/pcre2posix.h file and then 156 compile src/pcre2posix.c. Link the result (on its own) as the pcre2posix 157 library. 158 159 (8) The pcre2test program can be linked with any combination of the 8-bit, 160 16-bit and 32-bit libraries (depending on what you selected in 161 src/config.h). Compile src/pcre2test.c; don't forget -DHAVE_CONFIG_H if 162 necessary, but do NOT define PCRE2_CODE_UNIT_WIDTH. Then link with the 163 appropriate library/ies. If you compiled an 8-bit library, pcre2test also 164 needs the pcre2posix wrapper library. 165 166 (9) Run pcre2test on the testinput files in the testdata directory, and check 167 that the output matches the corresponding testoutput files. There are 168 comments about what each test does in the section entitled "Testing PCRE2" 169 in the README file. If you compiled more than one of the 8-bit, 16-bit and 170 32-bit libraries, you need to run pcre2test with the -16 option to do 171 16-bit tests and with the -32 option to do 32-bit tests. 172 173 Some tests are relevant only when certain build-time options are selected. 174 For example, test 4 is for Unicode support, and will not run if you have 175 built PCRE2 without it. See the comments at the start of each testinput 176 file. If you have a suitable Unix-like shell, the RunTest script will run 177 the appropriate tests for you. The command "RunTest list" will output a 178 list of all the tests. 179 180 Note that the supplied files are in Unix format, with just LF characters 181 as line terminators. You may need to edit them to change this if your 182 system uses a different convention. 183 184(10) If you have built PCRE2 with SUPPORT_JIT, the JIT features can be tested 185 by running pcre2test with the -jit option. This is done automatically by 186 the RunTest script. You might also like to build and run the freestanding 187 JIT test program, src/pcre2_jit_test.c. 188 189(11) The pcre2test program tests the POSIX wrapper library, but there is also a 190 freestanding test program in src/pcre2posix_test.c. It must be linked with 191 both the pcre2posix library and the 8-bit PCRE2 library. 192 193(12) If you want to use the pcre2grep command, compile and link 194 src/pcre2grep.c; it uses only the basic 8-bit PCRE2 library (it does not 195 need the pcre2posix library). If you have built the PCRE2 library with JIT 196 support by defining SUPPORT_JIT in src/config.h, you can also define 197 SUPPORT_PCRE2GREP_JIT, which causes pcre2grep to make use of JIT (unless 198 it is run with --no-jit). If you define SUPPORT_PCRE2GREP_JIT without 199 defining SUPPORT_JIT, pcre2grep does not try to make use of JIT. 200 201 202STACK SIZE IN WINDOWS ENVIRONMENTS 203 204Prior to release 10.30 the default system stack size of 1MiB in some Windows 205environments caused issues with some tests. This should no longer be the case 206for 10.30 and later releases. 207 208 209LINKING PROGRAMS IN WINDOWS ENVIRONMENTS 210 211If you want to statically link a program against a PCRE2 library in the form of 212a non-dll .a file, you must define PCRE2_STATIC before including src/pcre2.h. 213 214 215CALLING CONVENTIONS IN WINDOWS ENVIRONMENTS 216 217It is possible to compile programs to use different calling conventions using 218MSVC. Search the web for "calling conventions" for more information. To make it 219easier to change the calling convention for the exported functions in the 220PCRE2 library, the macro PCRE2_CALL_CONVENTION is present in all the external 221definitions. It can be set externally when compiling (e.g. in CFLAGS). If it is 222not set, it defaults to empty; the default calling convention is then used 223(which is what is wanted most of the time). 224 225 226COMMENTS ABOUT WIN32 BUILDS (see also "BUILDING PCRE2 ON WINDOWS WITH CMAKE") 227 228There are two ways of building PCRE2 using the "configure, make, make install" 229paradigm on Windows systems: using MinGW or using Cygwin. These are not at all 230the same thing; they are completely different from each other. There is also 231support for building using CMake, which some users find a more straightforward 232way of building PCRE2 under Windows. 233 234The MinGW home page (http://www.mingw.org/) says this: 235 236 MinGW: A collection of freely available and freely distributable Windows 237 specific header files and import libraries combined with GNU toolsets that 238 allow one to produce native Windows programs that do not rely on any 239 3rd-party C runtime DLLs. 240 241The Cygwin home page (http://www.cygwin.com/) says this: 242 243 Cygwin is a Linux-like environment for Windows. It consists of two parts: 244 245 . A DLL (cygwin1.dll) which acts as a Linux API emulation layer providing 246 substantial Linux API functionality 247 248 . A collection of tools which provide Linux look and feel. 249 250On both MinGW and Cygwin, PCRE2 should build correctly using: 251 252 ./configure && make && make install 253 254This should create two libraries called libpcre2-8 and libpcre2-posix. These 255are independent libraries: when you link with libpcre2-posix you must also link 256with libpcre2-8, which contains the basic functions. 257 258Using Cygwin's compiler generates libraries and executables that depend on 259cygwin1.dll. If a library that is generated this way is distributed, 260cygwin1.dll has to be distributed as well. Since cygwin1.dll is under the GPL 261licence, this forces not only PCRE2 to be under the GPL, but also the entire 262application. A distributor who wants to keep their own code proprietary must 263purchase an appropriate Cygwin licence. 264 265MinGW has no such restrictions. The MinGW compiler generates a library or 266executable that can run standalone on Windows without any third party dll or 267licensing issues. 268 269But there is more complication: 270 271If a Cygwin user uses the -mno-cygwin Cygwin gcc flag, what that really does is 272to tell Cygwin's gcc to use the MinGW gcc. Cygwin's gcc is only acting as a 273front end to MinGW's gcc (if you install Cygwin's gcc, you get both Cygwin's 274gcc and MinGW's gcc). So, a user can: 275 276. Build native binaries by using MinGW or by getting Cygwin and using 277 -mno-cygwin. 278 279. Build binaries that depend on cygwin1.dll by using Cygwin with the normal 280 compiler flags. 281 282The test files that are supplied with PCRE2 are in UNIX format, with LF 283characters as line terminators. Unless your PCRE2 library uses a default 284newline option that includes LF as a valid newline, it may be necessary to 285change the line terminators in the test files to get some of the tests to work. 286 287 288BUILDING PCRE2 ON WINDOWS WITH CMAKE 289 290CMake is an alternative configuration facility that can be used instead of 291"configure". CMake creates project files (make files, solution files, etc.) 292tailored to numerous development environments, including Visual Studio, 293Borland, Msys, MinGW, NMake, and Unix. If possible, use short paths with no 294spaces in the names for your CMake installation and your PCRE2 source and build 295directories. 296 297The following instructions were contributed by a PCRE1 user, but they should 298also work for PCRE2. If they are not followed exactly, errors may occur. In the 299event that errors do occur, it is recommended that you delete the CMake cache 300before attempting to repeat the CMake build process. In the CMake GUI, the 301cache can be deleted by selecting "File > Delete Cache". 302 3031. Install the latest CMake version available from http://www.cmake.org/, and 304 ensure that cmake\bin is on your path. 305 3062. Unzip (retaining folder structure) the PCRE2 source tree into a source 307 directory such as C:\pcre2. You should ensure your local date and time 308 is not earlier than the file dates in your source dir if the release is 309 very new. 310 3113. Create a new, empty build directory, preferably a subdirectory of the 312 source dir. For example, C:\pcre2\pcre2-xx\build. 313 3144. Run cmake-gui from the Shell environment of your build tool, for example, 315 Msys for Msys/MinGW or Visual Studio Command Prompt for VC/VC++. Do not try 316 to start Cmake from the Windows Start menu, as this can lead to errors. 317 3185. Enter C:\pcre2\pcre2-xx and C:\pcre2\pcre2-xx\build for the source and 319 build directories, respectively. 320 3216. Hit the "Configure" button. 322 3237. Select the particular IDE / build tool that you are using (Visual 324 Studio, MSYS makefiles, MinGW makefiles, etc.) 325 3268. The GUI will then list several configuration options. This is where 327 you can disable Unicode support or select other PCRE2 optional features. 328 3299. Hit "Configure" again. The adjacent "Generate" button should now be 330 active. 331 33210. Hit "Generate". 333 33411. The build directory should now contain a usable build system, be it a 335 solution file for Visual Studio, makefiles for MinGW, etc. Exit from 336 cmake-gui and use the generated build system with your compiler or IDE. 337 E.g., for MinGW you can run "make", or for Visual Studio, open the PCRE2 338 solution, select the desired configuration (Debug, or Release, etc.) and 339 build the ALL_BUILD project. 340 34112. If during configuration with cmake-gui you've elected to build the test 342 programs, you can execute them by building the test project. E.g., for 343 MinGW: "make test"; for Visual Studio build the RUN_TESTS project. The 344 most recent build configuration is targeted by the tests. A summary of 345 test results is presented. Complete test output is subsequently 346 available for review in Testing\Temporary under your build dir. 347 348 349BUILDING PCRE2 ON WINDOWS WITH VISUAL STUDIO 350 351The code currently cannot be compiled without an inttypes.h header, which is 352available only with Visual Studio 2013 or newer. However, this portable and 353permissively-licensed implementation of the stdint.h header could be used as an 354alternative: 355 356 http://www.azillionmonkeys.com/qed/pstdint.h 357 358Just rename it and drop it into the top level of the build tree. 359 360 361TESTING WITH RUNTEST.BAT 362 363If configured with CMake, building the test project ("make test" or building 364ALL_TESTS in Visual Studio) creates (and runs) pcre2_test.bat (and depending 365on your configuration options, possibly other test programs) in the build 366directory. The pcre2_test.bat script runs RunTest.bat with correct source and 367exe paths. 368 369For manual testing with RunTest.bat, provided the build dir is a subdirectory 370of the source directory: Open command shell window. Chdir to the location 371of your pcre2test.exe and pcre2grep.exe programs. Call RunTest.bat with 372"..\RunTest.Bat" or "..\..\RunTest.bat" as appropriate. 373 374To run only a particular test with RunTest.Bat provide a test number argument. 375 376Otherwise: 377 3781. Copy RunTest.bat into the directory where pcre2test.exe and pcre2grep.exe 379 have been created. 380 3812. Edit RunTest.bat to identify the full or relative location of 382 the pcre2 source (wherein which the testdata folder resides), e.g.: 383 384 set srcdir=C:\pcre2\pcre2-10.00 385 3863. In a Windows command environment, chdir to the location of your bat and 387 exe programs. 388 3894. Run RunTest.bat. Test outputs will automatically be compared to expected 390 results, and discrepancies will be identified in the console output. 391 392To independently test the just-in-time compiler, run pcre2_jit_test.exe. 393 394 395BUILDING PCRE2 ON NATIVE Z/OS AND Z/VM 396 397z/OS and z/VM are operating systems for mainframe computers, produced by IBM. 398The character code used is EBCDIC, not ASCII or Unicode. In z/OS, UNIX APIs and 399applications can be supported through UNIX System Services, and in such an 400environment it should be possible to build PCRE2 in the same way as in other 401systems, with the EBCDIC related configuration settings, but it is not known if 402anybody has tried this. 403 404In native z/OS (without UNIX System Services) and in z/VM, special ports are 405required. For details, please see file 939 on this web site: 406 407 http://www.cbttape.org 408 409Everything in that location, source and executable, is in EBCDIC and native 410z/OS file formats. The port provides an API for LE languages such as COBOL and 411for the z/OS and z/VM versions of the Rexx languages. 412 413============================== 414Last Updated: 10 December 2022 415============================== 416