This document contains instructions on how to build the FreeType library
on non-Unix systems with the help of GNU Make. Note that if you're running
Cygwin or MSys in Windows, you should follow the instructions of INSTALL.UNX
instead.
FreeType 2 includes a powerful and flexible build system that allows
you to easily compile it on a great variety of platforms from the
command line. To do so, just follow these simple instructions:
a. Install GNU Make
Because GNU Make is the only Make tool supported to compile
FreeType 2, you should install it on your machine.
The FreeType 2 build system relies on many features special to GNU
Make -- trying to build the library with any other Make tool will
*fail*.
NEARLY ALL OTHER MAKE TOOLS WILL FAIL, INCLUDING "BSD MAKE", SO
REALLY INSTALL A RECENT VERSION OF GNU MAKE ON YOUR SYSTEM!
Make sure that you are invoking GNU Make from the command line, by
typing something like:
make -v
to display its version number.
VERSION 3.78.1 OR NEWER IS NEEDED!
b. Invoke 'make'
Go to the root directory of FreeType 2, then simply invoke GNU
Make from the command line. This will launch the FreeType 2 host
platform detection routines. A summary will be displayed, for
example, on Win32:
==============================================================
FreeType build system -- automatic system detection
The following settings are used:
platform win32
compiler gcc
configuration directory ./builds/win32
configuration rules ./builds/win32/w32-gcc.mk
If this does not correspond to your system or settings please
remove the file 'config.mk' from this directory then read the
INSTALL file for help.
Otherwise, simply type 'make' again to build the library.
=============================================================
If the detected settings correspond to your platform and compiler,
skip to step e. Note that if your platform is completely alien to
the build system, the detected platform will be 'ansi'.
c. Configure the build system for a different compiler
If the build system correctly detected your platform, but you want
to use a different compiler than the one specified in the summary
(for most platforms, gcc is the defaut compiler), invoke GNU Make
with
make setup <compiler>
For example:
to use Visual C++ on Win32, type: "make setup visualc"
to use Borland C++ on Win32, type "make setup bcc32"
to use Watcom C++ on Win32, type "make setup watcom"
to use Intel C++ on Win32, type "make setup intelc"
to use LCC-Win32 on Win32, type: "make setup lcc"
to use Watcom C++ on OS/2, type "make setup watcom"
to use VisualAge C++ on OS/2, type "make setup visualage"
The <compiler> name to use is platform-dependent. The list of
available compilers for your system is available in the file
`builds/<system>/detect.mk'
If you are satisfied by the new configuration summary, skip to
step e.
d. Configure the build system for an unknown platform/compiler
The auto-detection/setup phase of the build system copies a file
to the current directory under the name `config.mk'.
For example, on OS/2+gcc, it would simply copy
`builds/os2/os2-gcc.mk' to `./config.mk'.
If for some reason your platform isn't correctly detected, copy
manually the configuration sub-makefile to `./config.mk' and go to
step e.
Note that this file is a sub-Makefile used to specify Make
variables for compiler and linker invocation during the build.
You can easily create your own version from one of the existing
configuration files, then copy it to the current directory under
the name `./config.mk'.
e. Build the library
The auto-detection/setup phase should have copied a file in the
current directory, called `./config.mk'. This file contains
definitions of various Make variables used to invoke the compiler
and linker during the build.
To launch the build, simply invoke GNU Make again: The top
Makefile will detect the configuration file and run the build with
it.
Final note:
the build system builds a statically linked library of the font engine
in the "objs" directory. It does _not_ support the build of DLLs on
Windows and OS/2, if you need these, you'll have to either use
a IDE-specific project file, or follow the instructions in
"INSTALL.ANY" to create your own Makefiles.