Cross compiling on Ubuntu 16+

[rpspringuel]

In preping the beta I've been trying to setup cross-compiling on my Ubuntu 16.04 VM and have discovered that the mingw32 port is not in the repositories for that version of Ubuntu. As a result, I can't build the Windows executable on that VM. There is a mingw-w64 port, which should be able to build both 32 and 64 bit executables, but it doesn't work with our build setup as currently structured, and I'm not in a position to figure out what changes are needed at the moment.

This doesn't present too big a problem for now, as I can simply switch to my Ubuntu 14.04 VM (where the mingw32 port is readily available) and build the executable there. However, in the long term we're probably going to have to look into switching the tool chain around for building the Windows executable.

[rpspringuel]

In a similar vein, there is now a mingw-w64 cross compiler port for MacPorts, so ideally this update should allow for compilation of the Windows executable on both Mac and Linux.

Also, I found a page which shows a simple compiler selection script for mingw-w64:
https://sourceforge.net/p/mingw-w64/wiki2/UsingLinuxBinaries/

[henryso]

Does this mean we would no longer support win32-only systems? If so, do we care?

[rpspringuel]

The mingw-w64 package contains both a 32 & 64 bit compiler.

[rpspringuel]

The priority on this is now greatly increased as I'm having trouble getting my Ubuntu 14.04 VM to keep going.

[eschwab]

On an up-to-date Linux installation I can cross-compile for Windows. However using mingw-w64 it seems that it only supports 64bit. It might support 32bit, but that would require some more digging and testing. I think it is fine to drop building 32bit, since I presume that most users would be on 64bit boxes.

Or we could say that building on Linux for Win is 64bit only, and building on Mac for Win can do both. If I am looking at #1630 correctly, it appears that the Mac build is only targeting 32bit. It that correct?

[rpspringuel]

To be honest, I wasn't trying for either, just to get it working. This was my first foray into getting cross-compiling working on my Mac and I'm working mostly by trial and error from examples found online, not any real understanding of what I'm doing.

Checking it now, it does seem that what I get is a 32bit executable. I suppose that I should be able to compile a 64bit executable too, but it would take some further fooling around to make it happen.