Building Mono on Windows
by Kevin Shockey02/07/2005
Introduction
Mono, the open source implementation of the CLR, is not just for non-Microsoft platforms. In this article I will walk you through the three phases required to build Mono on Windows without using the .NET framework. There have already been several build processes available before, but they mostly required using the csc.exe C# compiler from the Microsoft .NET framework. This process is distinct in that you will use the mcs.exe Mono C# compiler.
As I mentioned above, there are three phases in this build process:
make steps. Finally, once Mono for Windows is installed, it is merely a matter completing the actual build process using the standard autogen.sh, make, and make install commands.This article finishes with a call to arms for the Mono community to improve the build and deployment process for Windows.
Requirements for this process:
![[image]](http://mowser.com/img?url=http%3A%2F%2Fcovers.oreilly.com%2Fimages%2F9780596007928%2Fcat.gif)
1. Getting Started
The first phase of the build process is to install the Cygwin environment. If previous attempts have failed, it is critical that you exorcise these demons from your machine. This is important, because if the Cygwin installer should find the remnants of a previous installation, it will follow the registry keys left and may corrupt the installation. It is always best to start with a clean system.
Note: You can skip this step and proceed to the environment setup if your system does not currently contain Cygwin.
The steps to remove a previous installation of Cygwin are as follows:
Shift and Delete simultaneously. Select Yes from the Confirm File Delete dialog. If there is a Cygwin shortcut on the Quick Launch Toolbar, repeat the process from the previous step and delete the shortcut. Right-click on the Windows Start button and select Explore All Users. This will open an Explorer session with the current directory as C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu. Click on the Programs directory. Click on the Cygwin directory in the right-hand side window of Explorer, and press Shift and Delete. Select Yes from the Confirm File Delete dialog. Repeat the previous step for the Cygwin-XFree86 directory, if it exists. Otherwise, proceed to the next step. Click on the Start button and select Run.... Enter "explorer c:\" and click OK. Windows should open a new Explorer session with the c:\ as the current directory. Click on the cygwin directory and press Shift and Delete. Select Yes from the Confirm File Delete dialog. Click on the Start button and select Run.... Enter "regedit" and click OK. Locate the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE key and expand the key. Locate the SOFTWARE key and expand it. Click on the "Cygnus Software" key and press the Delete key.These instructions should remove all traces of Cygwin, and you should be ready to begin the setup for the Mono build process.
1.1 Cygwin Environment Setup
The first phase of building Mono involves installing Cygwin. As mentioned in the requirements, I recommend the 1.5.7-1 version, built on 2004-01-30. You might be asking, "What is so special about this particular build of the Cygwin environment?" Well, at some point, Cygwin began including GNOME components as part of their X for Windows. The underlying glib2 that the bundled GNOME/GTK+ uses is incompatible with one of the REQUIRED compiler flags, -- CC="gcc -nno-cygwin". Therefore you can use the newer Cygwin, but you would have to go through great lengths to remove any of the GNOME/GTK+ components before you can compile Mono for Win32 in a way that results in an independent system (independent of Cygwin after its initial compilation). There is a PDF available that lists the contents of the "magic" 1.5.7-1 release. It includes all of the packages and their respective versions. If you have to use a Cygwin release after 1.5.7-1, then delete any package that does not appear in this list.
I will assume that you have the following pre-setup:
setup.exe and associated setup.ini. Finally, within the Cyg-install directory, you have a sub-directory C:\Cyg-install\releases, containing the 386 assorted package tarballs required for the installation.The following steps will lead you through the Cygwin installation process:
Figure 1. Setting up Cygwin
Note: This will take some time, so just keep an eye on the progress bars to verify progress.
Note: At this point, the Cygwin installation is complete; however, there are a few more steps to finish the environment setup.
From either the Quick Launch Toolbar or from the desktop, launch the Cygwin environment. This will create several hidden files in the Cygwin root directory. The files will all start with a "." (period). The exact files created are .bash_profile, .baschrc, and .inputrc. Exit the Cygwin environment by typing "exit" and pressingEnter. You need to edit the .bashrc file to add the necessary Mono environment variables, and the environment variables for Mono CVS access and .NET, if they are not already in your Windows PATH. To make these changes inside the Cygwin environment, use the following instructions. (Note: You may encounter difficulty if you attempt to use a Windows text editor to make these changes. It may introduce CR/LF characters into the file instead of the LF characters Cygwin is used to.)
vi ./.bashrc to edit the file. At this point, you should see the contents of the file and should be able to navigate using the arrow keys. Position the cursor at the end of the file by using the down arrow key until the cursor stops at the end of the file. Type "i" to insert text into the file.Note: It is possible to cut and paste between Windows and the Cygwin environment (even into a
vi session). Simply copy the text from Figure 2, and then click on the Cygwin icon in the title bar of the Cygwin window. Select Edit and then select Paste. That should fill in the text. You can also just type it all in; that is, if you like typing. Insert the text from Figure 2, and press Escape when you are finished. Press the ":" (colon) key and you will receive the vi line command prompt. Enter "wq" and press Enter. This will write the file to disk and quit the vi editor. Note: You need to exit and re-enter Cygwin for these environment variables to become active.
#Environment Variables for Mono
export PATH="/usr/local/bin:/usr/local/lib:$PATH:/usr/local/icu/bin"
export ACLOCAL_FLAGS="-I /usr/share/aclocal"
export CPPFLAGS="$CPPFLAGS -I/usr/local/include"
export LDFLAGS="$LDFLAGS -L/usr/local/lib"
export CC="gcc -mno-cygwin"
export PKG_CONFIG_PATH="/usr/local/lib/pkgconfig:/usr/lib/pkgconfig"
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH="/usr/local/lib:/usr/lib"
export MONO_PATH="/usr/local/lib:/usr/lib:$MONO_PATH"
export MONO_CFG_PATH="/usr/local/etc:/usr/etc:$MONO_CFG_PATH"
#Environment variables for .NET if not already in your Windows PATH
#These variables could be needed by older Mono build systems
#export PATH=$PATH:`GetNetSdkLocation -cs msnet_1.1`/v1.1.4322
#export PATH=$PATH:`GetNetSdkLocation -cs msnetsdk_1.1`/Bin
Figure 2: Setting up the environment
mkdir -p /download/tarball/. Also make a sub-directory for the build directory; enter mkdir -p /download/mono-x.x.x (where x.x.x represents the release number). If the Cygwin distribution used in this phase did not have the Perl XML parser, you need to add it to your Cygwin environment. To add the parser:cd / and pressing Enter. From the root, type tar -xjvf /download/tarball/perl-XML-Parser-2.34-1.tar.bz2 and press Enter. This will uncompress the necessary files and place them in the correct directory locations.2. Installing Mono
If you already have the latest development version of Mono installed, you can skip this section. If not, then in this second phase you will need to download the combined installer and complete the installation.
Figure 3. Installing Mono
