Windows Build Requirements

Make sure that your system meets the following build requirements.

Hardware requirements

Windows XP or Windows Vista
C/C++ Compiler: Microsoft Visual C++ Compiler is the recommended compiler for building OpenOffice.org. It should be at least Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 Compiler Suite, either the commercial or the freely available Express Edition are reported to work.

Cygwin Toolkit from http://www.cygwin.com. Use at least Cygwin DLL version 1.5.10. The official information about using setup.exe and installing Cygwin are available at: http://cygwin.com/cygwin-ug-net/setup-net.html. More help and information on the Cygwin tools can be found at http://website.openoffice.org/support/en/howtos/1.html. When installing Cygwin make sure you set the "Default Text File Type" to "Unix". This is the default setting.
- Not all Cygwin packages are needed to build OpenOffice.org, but make sure that at least all the packages from the base category and the following packages are installed:
  - bison, flex, cvs, make, patch, perl, gcc, unzip, zip.
  - Important Note: Within the Cygwin Toolkit, three executables might be realised as symlinks, namely awk.exe, gunzip.exe and tar.exe. This might lead to a break of the build later, and the symlinks should be replaced with copies of the command they link to. Check, in a cygwin shell, with ls -l /bin/awk.exe whether awk.exe is a symlink. For instance, awk.exe could be a link to gawk.exe, in which case you should copy gawk.exe to awk.exe: cd /bin; cp gawk.exe awk.exe. Take similar action for unzip.exe and tar.exe.

The Microsoft Layer for Unicode (unicows.dll). Get it from the Microsoft site and put it into $SRC_ROOT/external/unicows. (Note: Microsoft seems to enjoy changing the exact location of this file. You may have to search Microsoft's website.) Last time it was seen here.

The dbghelp.dll from Microsoft. Get it from the Microsoft site and put it into $SRC_ROOT/external/dbghelp. (Note: You may have to search Microsoft's website.) Last time it was seen here.

Nullsoft Scriptable Install System (NSIS): This is optional, if available a self contained Windows installer is created in addition to the MSI installer files.

The gpc general polygon clipper library release 2.31, located at http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/aig/staff/alan/software/. Download and unpack the tarball. You should have the files gpc.c and gpc.h in $SRC_ROOT/external/gpc.

Content on this page is licensed under the Public Documentation License (PDL).