Update: I installed this on Windows 10, and updated the procedure based on experience since the original post.
I'm a Unix/Mac guy. I use Windows for gaming but I've never really developed on it before, because why.
When I did transition to windows relatively recently for development, I used cygwin, which worked pretty well and was Unix-like enough for me to be OK with it. However I can't make Windows apps in cygwin, and now needing to do some prototyping for cross-platform Windows tools, I need MSYS instead of Cygwin.
After a few attempts at doing this, reading various blogs that all say to do it different ways, and not really knowing which pre-compiled code I can trust versus not trust, here is a methodology I'm happy with and generally feel is relatively safe to install.
After following this procedure:
- MinGW (64-bit) will be installed to C:\MinGW-W64
- MSYS (32-bit) will be installed to C:\msys
- MSYS will use your Windows Home directory as its own.
- You'll have a "MinTTY" shortcut to start a mintty terminal running a bash shell
- (Windows will now feel very similar to Mac/Linux)
Download/install MinGW-W64
Go to http://sourceforge.net/projects/mingw-w64/Download the latest installer and run it. Choose these options:
Version: (choose the highest)
Architecture: x86_64
Threads: win32
Exceptions: seh
Build revision: (choose the highest)
Install path: C:\MinGW-W64
Note here we're using win32 threads, NOT posix threads. On Windows, win32 threads apparently run much faster than posix. This means that when you compile things from MinGW you must ensure that you choose the win32 thread options or you'll likely have problems compiling.
NOTE: If it fails to install (sometimes it cannot download the toolchain) then that's fine, just ignore it for now and move on to below, updating the toolchain.
Download/install MSYS
Go to http://sourceforge.net/projects/mingwbuilds/files/external-binary-packagesDownload the latest revision.
Unzip to C:\
This creates the location C:\msys
Create a directory for mingw
Using Windows Explorer, navigate to C:\msys and create a new folder named mingw.The full path of the new folder you created will be C:\msys\mingw
Don't put anything in this folder. Leave it intentionally empty.
Mount /mingw for MSYS
Edit C:\msys\etc\fstabIt should contain (at the very least) these lines:
#Win32_Path Mount_Point
C:/MinGW-W64/mingw64 /mingw
I also recommend that you mount your Windows homedir to /home/yourname, so that your total fstab will look like this:
Make sure there is an empty line at the end of the file.
#Win32_Path Mount_Point
C:/MinGW-W64/mingw64 /mingw
C:/MinGW-W64/mingw64 /mingw
C:/Users /home
* If you opened any msys consoles, close them now and reopen them.
Download/install YASM
Download the latest "Win64.exe" file, for example something like http://www.tortall.net/projects/yasm/releases/yasm-1.3.0-win64.exe
Move the downloaded yasm-1.3.0-win64.exe to C:\msys\bin\yasm.exe
Configure a decent Terminal
You now have a standard Windows cmd terminal (aka Shit). To get a nice Unix-like terminal we'll install Git for Windows which has a nice MinTTY terminal that acts similar to xterm.
Continue on in HowTo: Set up Win 10 as a Unix-like Dev Workstation until you get PuTTY/Pageant set up and Git.
Once you have Git installed you will have Git Bash, which uses MinTTY, and is a pretty nice terminal that works well with msys.
You need to set up your %HOMEPATH%\.bashrc and related dotfiles to really start customizing it to look and feel the way you want.
Check out my Github home dir to see an example of how I set mine up.
27.Jul.16 - Fixed /etc/fstab mount point. Added empty C:\msys\mingw folder so that /mingw is visible to filesystem search utilities.
06.May.16 - Updated based on new MinGW-W64 version. No longer need to manually create MSYS shortcut.
23.Jun.15 - Removed Win 8.1 specific stuff. Updated instructions per new MinGW-W64 v5.1.0. Confirmed that updating the toolchain is not necessary, at least for v5.1.0 and removed that part of the instructions. Moved msys to C:\msys
11.May-15 - Updated for Windows 10. Added Windows home directory mount. Moved MSYS directory inside MinGW-W64 as we no longer need easy access to it with the Windows home diretory mounted.
17.Sep.14 - Added some clarifications. Added mingw64 toolchain update. Added references.
Continue on in HowTo: Set up Win 10 as a Unix-like Dev Workstation until you get PuTTY/Pageant set up and Git.
Once you have Git installed you will have Git Bash, which uses MinTTY, and is a pretty nice terminal that works well with msys.
What next?
Now you have a bare-bones terminal.You need to set up your %HOMEPATH%\.bashrc and related dotfiles to really start customizing it to look and feel the way you want.
Check out my Github home dir to see an example of how I set mine up.
References
qt-project.org has nice info about MinGW and MinGW-W64, including info RE threading and exception models, pros/cons of each, etc.EDITS
14.Aug.16 - Removed instructions for installing old school mintty; I now suggest using Git for Windows since their mintty is much newer/nicer.27.Jul.16 - Fixed /etc/fstab mount point. Added empty C:\msys\mingw folder so that /mingw is visible to filesystem search utilities.
06.May.16 - Updated based on new MinGW-W64 version. No longer need to manually create MSYS shortcut.
23.Jun.15 - Removed Win 8.1 specific stuff. Updated instructions per new MinGW-W64 v5.1.0. Confirmed that updating the toolchain is not necessary, at least for v5.1.0 and removed that part of the instructions. Moved msys to C:\msys
11.May-15 - Updated for Windows 10. Added Windows home directory mount. Moved MSYS directory inside MinGW-W64 as we no longer need easy access to it with the Windows home diretory mounted.
17.Sep.14 - Added some clarifications. Added mingw64 toolchain update. Added references.
