Installation notes to build Unison on Windows systems, with Cygwin GNU C
(unison-help@cis.upenn.edu)

[The following instructions were tested for Unison 2.9.1 on a Windows
2000 machine running OCaml 3.04.]

Contents

1.Setting up the Windows system
  1.1 General requirements
  1.2 A Unix-like layer: CygWin and GNU C compiler
  1.3 The OCaml compiler
2.Compiling Unison
  2.1 Text user interface
  2.2 Gtk user interface

Section 1 - Setting up the Windows system


1.1 General requirements

  We will assume your are logged in as a regular user. We will mention cases 
when you need to be granted administrator permissions.

  We will work in your home directory.

  For a complete installation from scratch, you will need about 300 Mb.

  A Unix-like layer such as CygWin is needed to be able to use a few
GNU tools like 'bash', 'make', 'sed', 'patch', etc, and in particular
the GNU C compiler.

  The CygWin port of OCaml distribution version 3.04 is required. 


.2 A Unix-like layer: CygWin

  Download CygWin from 'http://www.cygwin.com/': 
* click "install cygwin now" and follow the instruction to set up cygwin.
  install the essential packages such as "gcc", "make", "fileutil",
  "openssh", etc.
  set the root directory (e.g. 'd:\cygwin')


  Setup 'bash':
* click on 'bash'.
* enter 'export HOME=/home/<username>', make the directory, then 'cd'.
* create a '.bashrc' in CygWin's root directory to suit your
  needs (see Appendix B of file "INSTALL.win32-msvc" for an example).
* add 'export OSCOMP=cygwingnuc' to the '.bashrc' file.  This variable
  helps the unison Makefile (project file) to understand that we are
  compiling under Windows platform using Cygwin GNU C.

  Remember you can access the whole Windows filesystem with a Unix
path through '/cygdrive/<drive letter>/<path>' (e.g. '/cygdrive/c/winnt' 
stands for 'C:\WinNT')


1.3 The OCaml compiler (CygWin port)

  NB: Unison doesn't use Tcl/Tk support.  If you wish to use Tcl/Tk
  for your other Ocaml applications, download it separately before
  proceeding.

  Download the OCaml 3.04 source tarball from
'http://caml.inria.fr/ocaml/distrib.html'.  Unpack it into a
directory (using, e.g., winzip, or "tar xzvf ocaml-3.04.tar.gz"

  Enter the ocaml directory, and type:
  $ ./configure
                        # or "./configure -prefix <install-prefix>".  
                        # For other options, see INSTALL
  $ make world
  $ make opt
  $ make install

  To check your installation, use 'bash' and enter 'ocamlc -v'
  If something goes wrong :
* your path must contain the OCaml 'bin' directory;  you may have to enter 
  something like 'export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/ocaml/bin'.
* 'ocamlc -v' must report the OCaml 'lib' directory; you may have to enter
  something like 'export CAMLLIB=/usr/local/ocaml/lib/ocaml/' 


Section 2 - Compiling Unison
 

2.1 Text user interface

  Unpack the Unison sources.

  Using 'bash', enter 'make clean', then 'make UISTYLE=text' to compile.

  If something goes wrong :
* if 'make' reports 'missing separator', be sure the makefiles are in
  Unix text format (see Appendix A).
* if .depend is not provided, create one using 
  'ocamldep *.mli *.ml > .depend'; you will have to convert this file
  to Unix text format (see Appendix A).
* the minor 'etags' error is reported when 'emacs' is missing; you may
  want to install it.


2.2 Gtk user interface

2.2.1 Install LablGtk 1.2.3 (cygwin port)

  Download the patched LablGtk 1.2.3 (bundled with the Gtk libraries):
  get the 'lablgtk-1.2.3-cygwin.tar.gz' tar ball from the 'resources'
directory of the Unison web site and unpack it.  This will create a
'lablgtk-1.2.3-cygwin' directory.  Enter the directory
'lablgtk-1.2.3-cygwin/lablgtk', and type:

  $ make
  $ make opt
  $ make install
  
  Finally, add the result of running 
      echo `ocamlc -where`/lablgtk/dlls
  to the environment variable PATH.*

* Under Windows menu: Start -> Settings -> Control Panel -> System -> 
                      Advanced -> Environment Variables.

  OPTIONAL: At this stage, you can test the installation of lablgtk by 

            $ cd lablgtk-1.2.3-cygwin/lablgtk-1.2.3/examples
            $ lablgtk <a program>.ml

2.2.2 Compiling Unison

  To compile the gtk version of Unison, enter the Unison sources
directory, enter "make clean" and then "make UISTYLE=gtk".

  The resulting executable is dynamically linked against the CygWin
runtime and the Gtk DLLs.  If you would like to distribute this
executable, you should provide the following DLLs (found in /bin under
the cygwin root directory and the lablgtk/dlls directory obtained at
the end of the lablgtk installation (Section 2.2.1), and ask the users
to include them in the PATH.

      cygwin1.dll, gdk-1.3.dll, glib-1.3.dll, gtk-1.3.dll

* The way to find out which DLL are used under windows:
  objdump -p <executable name> | grep "DLL Name"

