Compiling sources is usually the first thing you want to do. Source packages for different versions are available from SourceForge.net downloads or from Subversion repository. See readme-Subversion.html for more information about Subversion repository and using it.
Note that WinMerge uses MFC heavily. So free (Express) editions of Visual Studio cannot compile WinMerge, unless you have MFC installed separately.
WinMerge executable depends on Expat XML parser, SCEW and PCRE libraries.
All are in the source tree (in /Externals
-folder), and need to be
compiled before compiling WinMerge executable.
Visual Studio 2003.Net and later: You'll need to convert library workspace and project files to new format before compiling.
To convert workspace/project files, just open them into Visual Studio and let the Visual Studio to convert. Files are:
Externals\expat\expat.dsw
Externals\scew\win32\scew.dsp
Externals\pcre\pcre.dsw
With Feb 2003 Platform SDK (and VC6) following components are needed:
Basically same components are needed for Windows 2003 SP1 PSDK, but with a different name:
If you installed PSDK separately, don't forget to add the PSDK paths to Visual Studio's Include and Library directories. The easiest way is to use the "Visual Studio Registration\Register PSDK directories with Visual Studio" item from the "Platform SDK" start menu folder.
There is a buildall.bat
in the root folder of source tree. This batch file invokes
devenv.exe
to build (almost) all projects in WinMerge tree. However, it has
a couple
of restrictions:
To use buildall.bat
:
vcvars32.bat
from Command Prompt).Project file for WinMerge executable (in /Src
) and other projects like
ShellExtension (in /ShellExtension
) have their own project files. There is no one
single project/workspace file to compile all projects.
The Visual Studio project file for MSVC6 comes with the WinMerge sources. Newer versions of Visual Studio can open that file too, they just ask if one wants to convert to the new version. The reason we don't ship project files for all Visual Studio versions is we have no resources to keep all versions up to date. People can't test all versions themselves, and easily forget to update at least one file. So we easily end up in a situation where there is no properly working project file at all...
After opening the project file you need to add the HTML Help Workshop path as additional include- and library-path.
NOTE: There might be problems compiling/debugging with Visual Studio 2003 when using HTML Help WorkShop from the Platform SDK in Visual Studio directory. Download and install HTML Workshop as stand-alone and include headers and libraries from standalone directory. The probable cause is that including files from Platform SDK directories breaks things.
Visual Studio 2003.Net: WinMerge build uses couple of helper batch files
(Src/PreLink.bat
and Src/PostBuild.bat
) run from project file.
Visual Studio adds additional quotation marks to these rules when converting for new version,
which makes builds to fail. The error is something like The system cannot
find the batch label specified - ".\..\BuildTmp\MergeUnicodeDebug"
where
the path varies depending on compile target.
Check that rules to call those batch files are like:PreLink.bat $(IntDir) $(TargetPath)
without additional quotation marks, like:
PreLink.bat "$(IntDir)" "$(TargetPath)"
expat is in /Externals/expat
folder in source tree. To compile expat:
/Externals/expat/expat.dsw
. If you are
using Visual Studio 2003.Net or later you need to convert the file to the new format when
Visual Studio opens the file.After build finishes, selected (debug or release) lib and dll files are in
/Build/expat
. WinMerge executable's project file picks them from there.
scew is in /Externals/scew
folder in source tree. To compile scew:
/Externals/scew/win32/scew.dsp
If you are
using Visual Studio 2003.Net or later you need to convert the file to the new format when
Visual Studio opens the file.PCRE is in /Externals/pcre
folder in source tree. To compile PCRE:
/Externals/pcre/pcre.dsw
If you are
using Visual Studio 2003.Net or later you need to convert the file to the new format when
Visual Studio opens the file.config_pcre
and pcre
projects and build themconfig_pcre
and then pcre
project.
After build finishes, lib and dll files are in /Build/pcre
. WinMerge
executable's project file picks them from there.
There are several targets available for compiling different projects. Targets used
for compiling releases are:
WinMerge.exe
: ReleaseWinMergeU.exe
: UnicodeReleaseShellExtension.dll
: Release MinDependencyShellExtensionU.dll
: Unicode Release MinDependencyThis is a bit tricky, and needs some patience to setup.
We need to start Visual Studio from Platform SDK's 64-bit environment so that we get all needed environment variables and paths correctly set. So:
devenv /USEENV (uses open environment)
ShellExtensionX64.vcproj
from ShellExtension
project
folder.Make sure you have 64-bit target selected in Project Settings. Then check that paths are OK. You MUST build to separate directory than 32-bit targets so that files don't mix up.
Compiling should now succeed. If not, check that all needed PSDK components are installed and that paths are OK. If you are compiling in 32-bit Windows you get error about registering but that is expected to happen.
64-bit ShellExtension is registered to 64-bit Windows just like counterparts in 32-bit world:
regsvr ShellExtensionX64.dll
When the VC6 project file (.dsp) is converted to a Visual Studio 2005 or 2008 project, the visual styles do not get enabled. The problem is Visual Studio 2005 and 2008 automatically generates and embeds a manifest file for the executable, but that generated manifest does not include all needed properties to enable visual styles. The solution is to add WinMerge's manifest file as additional manifest.
From project properties, set
Manifest Tool / Input and Output / Additional Manifest Files
-property value to:
$(InputDir)\res\$(TargetFileName).manifest
See also Manifests in VS2005-- What are they? -thread in Microsoft forum.