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| -rw-r--r-- | doc/build-windows.md | 39 |
1 files changed, 35 insertions, 4 deletions
diff --git a/doc/build-windows.md b/doc/build-windows.md index ec5f26c88b..044356830a 100644 --- a/doc/build-windows.md +++ b/doc/build-windows.md @@ -1,13 +1,45 @@ WINDOWS BUILD NOTES ==================== -Some notes on how to build Bitcoin Core for Windows. +Below are some notes on how to build Bitcoin Core for Windows. Most developers use cross-compilation from Ubuntu to build executables for Windows. This is also used to build the release binaries. -Building on Windows itself is possible (for example using msys / mingw-w64), -but no one documented the steps to do this. If you are doing this, please contribute them. +While there are potentially a number of ways to build on Windows (for example using msys / mingw-w64), +using the Windows Subsystem For Linux is the most straight forward. If you are building with +an alternative method, please contribute the instructions here for others who are running versions +of Windows that are not compatible with the Windows Subsystem for Linux. + +Compiling with the Windows Subsystem For Linux +------------------- + +With Windows 10, Microsoft has released a new feature named the +[Windows Subsystem for Linux](https://msdn.microsoft.com/commandline/wsl/about). This feature allows you to run a bash shell directly on Windows in an Ubuntu based +environment. Within this environment you can cross compile for Windows without the need for a separate Linux VM or Server. + +This feature is not supported in versions of Windows prior to Windows 10 or on Windows Server SKUs. + +To get the bash shell, you must first activate the feature in Windows. + +1. Turn on Developer Mode + * Open Settings -> Update and Security -> For developers + * Select the Developer Mode radio button + * Restart if necessary +2. Enable the Windows Subsystem for Linux feature + * From Start, search for "Turn Windows features on or off" (type 'turn') + * Select Windows Subsystem for Linux (beta) + * Click OK + * Restart if necessary +3. Complete Installation + * Open a cmd prompt and type "bash" + * Accept the license + * Create a new UNIX user account (this is a separate account from your Windows account) + +After the bash shell is active, you can follow the instructions below for Windows 64-bit Cross-compilation. +When building dependencies within the 'depends' folder, you may encounter an error building +the protobuf dependency. If this occurs, re-run the command with sudo. This is likely +a bug with the Windows Subsystem for Linux feature and may be fixed with a future update. Cross-compilation ------------------- @@ -41,4 +73,3 @@ To build executables for Windows 64-bit: make For further documentation on the depends system see [README.md](../depends/README.md) in the depends directory. - |