I've seen several tutorials on how to compile C++ applications for Windows on a linux system, however, I have failed to find a way to use Windows specific headers (i.e Windows.h) in my C++ program to compile for Windows (.exe/.dll). I was wondering if anyone knew how I can compile Visual C++ programs on Linux that use Windows OS Specific headers/functions (just compile). Thanks!
You can't. Windows system headers, e.g. windows.h reference OS specific APIs that are not known to Linux. Only Microsoft's compiler can create Windows format objects and executables and it doesn't run on Linux.
You can create cross-platform applications consisting of common code that will build and run on Windows and Linux. But the only way to use platform specific APIs in such an application, e.g. GUI, is to #define sections in/out according to the build environment.
Related
Out of private / experimental interest, I've been writing low-level cross-platform UI functionality with .NET Standard 2.0, and implemented creating a window
on Windows (via WinAPI P/Invoke) and
on Linux with an X11 server (via Xlib/libX11 P/Invoke).
So far I can run the X11 code nicely on Linux with MonoDevelop, but I thought it would be useful to develop for an X server running on Windows (like Cygwin/X or Xming X Server).
For that however, I require an Xlib Windows DLL which I can P/Invoke to, as .NET Core only supports Windows DLLs on Windows platforms (AFAIK).
Before I get myself into the trouble of "porting" the Xlib source to compile with MSVC++, I wonder if there is any project available which already creates an Xlib Windows DLL, or if any such compiled DLL is readily available somewhere?
I found a X11.dll as part of some commercial X server from the mid-1990s for Windows NT, except I don't remember which X server product however. I do know, however, that it'll do what you want.
It's 32-bit, but you can use this DLL: https://storage.googleapis.com/google-code-archive-downloads/v2/code.google.com/segin-utils/X11.dll
I used it to produce a 32-bit Windows build of a window manager I had worked on years ago: https://github.com/segin/matwm2
Build: https://storage.googleapis.com/google-code-archive-downloads/v2/code.google.com/segin-utils/matwm2.exe
If I can figure out how to upload release artifacts to GitHub, I'll probably archive these files there.
Background:
Im using QT and have visual studio 2012 as my IDE (used the QT plugin for visual studio).
And finally the whole project is done. However due to my .NET background I have no experience when it comes to deploying my project so it can be run on Linux.
Question:
Anyone knowing how to deploy a QT project made in visual studio to linux?
You should install Linux and prepare a Qt development environment on it.You can then copy your project there, compile it and see the results in the real environment. This way you can cope with the minor differences when porting from one OS to another easily.
So don't think of cross compiling your app for Linux on Windows. From a complexity point of view, I think setting up a Linux machine (VM or not) and the necessary environment for Qt is a whole lot simpler than cross compiling bug hunting afterwards. After all you will need a real target environment to finally test your application.
Before you can deploy something you have to compile it for that platform, and here you have two main choiches: either you cross-compile which means you compile it on windows using a set of tools so that your software is built to run on a linux, or you get a linux machine, you copy your entire project over and let Qt for linux do the magic.
Once you have your working binary compiled on linux or for linux then you start thnking about deployoment.
If you really want to be fully linux-compatible and "linux-ally correct" you should distribute your source-code precooked using some tools like "automake" that will make it possible to linux users to compile it on any linux version.
If you do not want to release your source code, you technically can distribute binaries without source code (not sure if you will be ok with licenses) but you have to be aware that there is no standard in linux for distributing binary packages, there are at least 2 main package building standards that are the ubuntu/debian style and red hat (and friends) style.
You are going to find plenty of documentation about all this stuff from cross-compile to automake and of course building debian packages and building red hat rpm packages.
I have source code for a linux application. It seems I can compile it on windows with CygWin. My question is, after compilation, can I run it on Windows?
Depends totally on what APIs you use. If you stick to C standard library things, like <stdio.h>, <stdlib.h>, etc. then yes, you can just compile and run on either OS. Or for C++ apps, there is the Standard C++ Library, which any OS / development environment should provide.
If you use any OS-specific APIs, then of course it will not be compatible with another OS. There are libraries however, like APR that try to abstract out the OS-specific bits.
From a casual glance at the code you've linked to, it appears to not use any OS-specific APIs. However:
Note that this code requires the Gnu Scientific Library, http://www.gnu.org/software/gsl/
you'll need to get that library installed as well.
The simple answer is yes; if you can compile a Linux application with Cygwin, then the compiled application will run on windows. Cygwin provides windows implementations of many unix system functions and libraries.
Cygwin/mingw(http://www.mingw.org/) should have most of the tools you need to build the binary. Once the build succeeds, you can run the binary (only) on windows.
Hi I am new to android NDK Devlopment.I downloaded Android NDK 4 for windows.I read through the docs.But i am not clear with it.
First thing is that,I want to develop the native file which may be c 0r c++.I think Using Cygwin will come to play.I dont have any idea or how to use cygwin .From the Docs i just read Cygwin is required for Windows platform.Apart from it ,i dont have any knowledge about it.
Not yet started with NDK Concepts.Help Required
Cygwin is a way to make Windows support some linux functionality. If you install cygwin on your windows machine you'd be able to run some linux software on windows (you'd have to recompile it especially for cygwin though). You can find it and more information about it here. There's also a good explanation at the wiki page here.
If the Android NDK needs it I suppose the Android NDK needs some linux functionality or tools to work properly. The other option might be to install Linux on a machine and run the Android NDK on there, it might be better since I assume Linux is the native environment for Android NDK development.
Since you're saying that you're a bit unclear about the NDK, you should probably be aware that as far as I understand you can not build a whole Android app using it, you can only develop bits of it, you will still need to develop at least part of the app to run on top of the Dalvik virtual machine, which, as far as I know, means that you'll have to write that bit in Java. In general I think that you should develop Android apps only in Java unless there is a specific reason to build certain parts of it using the NDK.
From wiki:
Cygwin (pronounced /ˈsɪɡwɪn/,[2] SIG-win) is a Unix-like environment and command-line interface for Microsoft Windows. Cygwin provides native integration of Windows-based applications, data, and other system resources with applications, software tools, and data of the Unix-like environment. Thus it is possible to launch Windows applications from the Cygwin environment, as well as to use Cygwin tools and applications within the Windows operating context.
Cygwin consists of two parts: a Dynamic-link library (DLL) as an API compatibility layer providing a substantial part of the POSIX API functionality, and an extensive collection of software tools and applications that provide a Unix-like look and feel.
So, Cygwin is a set of tools which allows you to emulate a unix-like (or linux) environment on your windows machines.
The NDK is the Android Native Development Kit. It allows you to write parts of your application in native code (C/C++) and integrate them into your application. Your application still runs under the Dalvik VM but it can load shared objects creating using a cross compiler. The NDK contains all the necessary tools and build scripts to generate native code binaries. It's an advanced concept and one you should probably wait on until you fully understand the architecture.
The reason why it requires Cygwin (or some flavor of linux) is because it uses GnuMake and other linux tools such as awk or Nawk. These tools are not available (or are really hard to use) on windows platforms, hence the need for at least Cygwin (though I would advise you do yourself a favor and just install linux).
Is there anyway to write dlls in linux?
Do I have to install windows to write dlls in linux? Right now one of my courses requires me to write a dll for this.
You should take a look into 'shared libraries'
http://www.linux.org/docs/ldp/howto/Program-Library-HOWTO/shared-libraries.html
Lots of folks are getting near the right answer but not providing it: gcc can generate win32 PE/COFF files without problem, and of course can always build as a cross compiler on any platform it can target. The binutils port targets windows .exe and .dll files natively, and there's a "dlltool" utility for handling the edge cases where Unix and Windows linkage metaphors are different.
Additionally, the "mingw32" project provides a set of link libraries and header files for building C applications against the win32 API. These likewise install just fine on any Unix.
Here's a site I turned up after a quick google with instructions for building the toolchain.
Not really. Building any kind of executable intended for OS "A" while using OS "B" is a process commonly known as cross-compilation. In this partciluar case, you would need a cross-compiler running on Linux, but targetting Windows. I don't know any vendor selling such a product.