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://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/bb980924 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 or the SDK CMD shell. 48 49 Using the CMD Shell: 50 choose the right environment via the setenv command (see setenv /?) 51 for the full list of options. setenv /xp /x86 /release for example. 52 53 Using the Visual Studio command prompt Shell: 54 Everything is already pre-configured by calling one of the command 55 prompt. 56 57Once you are in the console, go to the winbuild directory in the Curl 58sources: 59 cd curl-src\winbuild 60 61Then you can call nmake /f Makefile.vc with the desired options (see below). 62The builds will be in the top src directory, builds\ directory, in 63a directory named using the options given to the nmake call. 64 65nmake /f Makefile.vc mode=<static or dll> <options> 66 67where <options> is one or many of: 68 VC=<6,7,8,9,10,11,12,14,15> - VC versions 69 WITH_DEVEL=<path> - Paths for the development files (SSL, zlib, etc.) 70 Defaults to sibbling directory deps: ../deps 71 Libraries can be fetched at http://windows.php.net/downloads/php-sdk/deps/ 72 Uncompress them into the deps folder. 73 WITH_SSL=<dll or static> - Enable OpenSSL support, DLL or static 74 WITH_NGHTTP2=<dll or static> - Enable HTTP/2 support, DLL or static 75 WITH_MBEDTLS=<dll or static> - Enable mbedTLS support, DLL or static 76 WITH_CARES=<dll or static> - Enable c-ares support, DLL or static 77 WITH_ZLIB=<dll or static> - Enable zlib support, DLL or static 78 WITH_SSH2=<dll or static> - Enable libSSH2 support, DLL or static 79 ENABLE_SSPI=<yes or no> - Enable SSPI support, defaults to yes 80 ENABLE_IPV6=<yes or no> - Enable IPv6, defaults to yes 81 ENABLE_IDN=<yes or no> - Enable use of Windows IDN APIs, defaults to yes 82 Requires Windows Vista or later, or installation from: 83 https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=AD6158D7-DDBA-416A-9109-07607425A815 84 ENABLE_WINSSL=<yes or no> - Enable native Windows SSL support, defaults to yes 85 GEN_PDB=<yes or no> - Generate Program Database (debug symbols for release build) 86 DEBUG=<yes or no> - Debug builds 87 MACHINE=<x86 or x64> - Target architecture (default is x86) 88 89Static linking of Microsoft's C RunTime (CRT): 90============================================== 91If you are using mode=static nmake will create and link to the static build of 92libcurl but *not* the static CRT. If you must you can force nmake to link in 93the static CRT by passing RTLIBCFG=static. Typically you shouldn't use that 94option, and nmake will default to the DLL CRT. RTLIBCFG is rarely used and 95therefore rarely tested. When passing RTLIBCFG for a configuration that was 96already built but not with that option, or if the option was specified 97differently, you must destroy the build directory containing the configuration 98so that nmake can build it from scratch. 99 100Legacy Windows and SSL 101====================== 102When you build curl using the build files in this directory the default SSL 103backend will be WinSSL (Windows SSPI, more specifically Schannel), the native 104SSL library that comes with the Windows OS. WinSSL in Windows <= XP is not able 105to connect to servers that no longer support the legacy handshakes and 106algorithms used by those versions. If you will be using curl in one of those 107earlier versions of Windows you should choose another SSL backend like OpenSSL. 108