Getting mingw-get to install correctly - mingw/msys path missing plus more!

c++ windows-xp g++ mingw msys
ptpaterson picture ptpaterson · May 10, 2011 · Viewed 20.8k times · Source

I'm running windows XP.

I have been following this tutorial and so downloading mingw-get-inst here.

I've done this a couple times and the last time I checked boes to install EVERYTHING including, but not limited to, gcc, g++, MSYS and the MinGW Compiling Suite. I told it to make a program menu shortcut, too.

I believe I have correctly added MinGW/bin to the Environment Settings' Path.

So I have the shortcut to the MSYS shell now. It goes to C:\MinGW\msys\1.0\msys.bat, but the whole msys directory does not exist!

There are tons of "packages" have been downloaded as far as I can tell ("mingw-get show" brings up a lot!), but it doesn't seem like any of it installed correctly.

Also, should I be able to use commands like "g++ foo.cpp -o foo.exe" from cmd.exe or only from the MSYS shell? Because I was unable to use cmd.exe.

Please help!

Answer

user2100815 picture user2100815 · May 10, 2011

The MSYS and MinGW installation procedure is a nightmare, and has got worse over the years. If you just want the compiler suite (no UNIX tools like sed, grep), then I suggest you go to Twilight Dragon Media and download GCC from there. If you also want all the tools, including the Bash shell, the easiest way I've found to get them is to install Git for Windows (which you may want anyway), which includes them all. And if you want a C++ IDE that works well with GCC, take a look at Code::Blocks.

Related questions

How to link winsock.lib?

In my C++ class, I use sockets. I have some errors when linking because, in my opinion, the library winsock.lib is missing. I included these: #ifdef WIN32 #include <winsock.h> typedef int socklen_t; typedef char raw_…

Read More
How do I compile for Windows XP with Visual Studio 2012?

Ok, so I'm using Visual Studio 2012 in Windows 7 x64 for programming and compiling. My application works fine there, but when I try to execute it from a Windows XP SP3 Virtual Machine, I get "xxxx.exe is not a valid …

Read More
Output Unicode to console Using C++, in Windows

I'm still learning C++, so bear with me and my sloppy code. The compiler I use is Dev C++. I want to be able to output Unicode characters to the Console using cout. Whenver i try things like: #include <…

Read More