vlc/INSTALL.win32

INSTALL file for the Windows9x/2k/XP version of vlc, the VideoLAN Client

Running VideoLAN Client
=======================

If you have already built vlc (see below) or are using a binary release,
just run 'vlc.exe'.

You can also run vlc from a dos command box, in which case you'll be able
to use the command line arguments. You can obtain a list of these command
line arguments by typing 'vlc --help'.
To store a debug log of the current vlc session, you can use
'vlc -vvvvv --intf=logger nameofyourvideofile', but this will unfortunatly
disable the GUI. You will end-up with a vlc.log file in your current directory.

If you want to play a DVD, run vlc and click on the Disc option in the
interface. You then have to type your drive letter in the 'Device name'
box (eg. 'D:' if your dvdrom drive is assigned the letter 'D').
( !WARNING: you have to be in administrator mode (for now) on Win2k/XP or the
  DVD won't play. )

Building VideoLAN Client from the source code
=============================================

If you want to do the tricky job of building vlc from sources, you can do it
in two ways:

- natively on Windows, using MSYS+MINGW (www.mingw.org)
  (MSYS is a minimal build environnement to compile unixish projects under
   windoze. It provides all the common unix tools like sh, gmake...)

- or on Linux, using the mingw32 cross-compiler

Getting the right tools
=======================

- cross-compiling with mingw32:
All the necessary tools you need can be found on the videolan web site:
http://www.videolan.org/vlc/windows.html

You first need to download a linux cross-compiler version of mingw32.
(for Debian GNU/Linux users, there is a mingw32 package)

You must also not forget to install the extra development packages if you want
to build the DirectX, GTK and SDL plugins.

- compiling natively on Windoze:
You first need to download and install MSYS-1.0.5 (version 1.0.6 doesn't seem
to work as well) and MINGW.
http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/mingw/msys-1.0.5-i686-bin.tar.gz
http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/mingw/MinGW-1.1.tar.gz

You must also not forget to install the extra development packages if you want
to build the DirectX, GTK and SDL plugins.
(http://www.videolan.org/vlc/windows.html)


NOTE: by default, the GTK package is configured to be installed in
/usr/local/gtk-win32, if you want to change this path, then you need to edit
the gtk-win32/bin/gtk-config file and change "gtk_dir=" accordingly.
The same is true for the SDL package, it is installed in
/usr/local/SDL-1.2.3-win32 by default and you need to change "prefix=" in 
SDL-1.2.3-win32/i386-mingw32msvc/bin/sdl-config if you plan to extract the
archive in a different directory.

Configuring the build
=====================

The best way to configure the build process of vlc is to use the
`./configure' script.

See `./configure --help' for more information.

If you are cross-compiling from Debian, you can use something
along those lines:

  make distclean ; \
  ./configure --host=i586-mingw32msvc --target=i586-mingw32msvc \
  --build=i386-linux \
  --with-gtk-config-path=/usr/local/gtk-win32/bin \
  --with-sdl-config-path=/usr/local/SDL-1.2.3-win32/i386-mingw32msvc/bin \
  --with-directx=/usr/local/dxheaders

If you are cross-compiling using the mingw32 package provided by
www.videolan.org, you have to use something along those lines:

  CC=/usr/local/cross-tools/bin/i586-mingw32msvc-gcc \
  PATH=/usr/local/cross-tools/bin:$PATH \
  ./configure --host=i586-mingw32msvc --target=i586-mingw32msvc \
  --build=i386-linux \
  --with-gtk-config-path=/usr/local/gtk-win32/bin \
  --with-sdl-config-path=/usr/local/SDL-1.2.3-win32/i386-mingw32msvc/bin \
  --with-directx=/usr/local/dxheaders

If you are compiling natively on Windoze, then you can use something
along those lines:
  MAKE=gmake ./configure \
  --with-gtk-config-path=/c/dev/gtk-win32/bin \
  --with-sdl-config-path=/c/dev/SDL-1.2.3-win32/i386-mingw32msvc/bin \
  --with-directx=/c/dev/dxheaders

Building VideoLAN Client
========================

Have a look at the generated Makefile.opts file, you may want to choose
which modules will be compiled as plugins, and which ones will remain in
the core application. The configure script tries to guess for you.

Once configured, to build vlc you have to:

If you are cross-compiling from Debian, then just run `make'.

If you are cross-compiling using the mingw32 package provided by
www.videolan.org, run `PATH=/usr/local/cross-tools/bin:$PATH make'.

If you are compiling natively on Windoze, run `MAKE=gmake gmake'.
(note that msys sometimes stops in the middle of the build process and
complains about not being able to create .dep files. If this happens, just
re-run the above command another time and it should work)

Building Win32 interface with bcc32 (Borland's compiler)
========================================================
(This stage is only necessary if you want to use the Win32 native interface.
 If you are happy with the GTK interface, then you can skip this section)

[Steps 2 and 3 are temporary]

1) Compile vlc as usual.
include\defs.h should be generated.

2) Edit include\defs.h, and add the following lines if necessary:
#define WIN32
#define MODULE_NAME win32
#define MODULE_NAME_IS win32
#define PLUGIN
#define HAVE_DYNAMIC_PLUGINS

3) Still in defs.h, comment the following line to avoid compilation warnings:
#define PACKAGE "vlc"

4) From the plugin\win32 directory, use Borland C++ command-line tools
as follows:
bpr2mak intfwin.bpr 	// Create a makefile from intfwin.bpr
make -fintfwin 		// It's Borland's make utility !

5) This should create a intfwin.so
You can remove any other generated file.


Well done, now you're ready to use vlc!
=======================================