View source for MinGW

{{Short description|Free and open-source software for developing applications in Microsoft Windows}}
{{Distinguish|Mingw-w64}}
{{primary sources|date=May 2012}}
{{Infobox software
| author                 = Colin Peters
| developer              = MinGW Project
| screenshot             = MinGW installation manager.webp
| caption                = MinGW installation manager
| released               = {{Start date and age|1998|07|01}}
| latest release version = GNU BinUtils—2.32-1, Installation Manager—0.6.3, WSL—5.4.2<ref name="paklist">{{cite web | url=https://osdn.net/projects/mingw/releases/ | title=Download Package list | website=osdn.net |access-date=2023-02-04}}</ref>
| latest release date    = {{Start date and age|2021|04|12}}
| latest preview version = 
| latest preview date    = 
| programming language   = [[C (programming language)|C]], [[C++]]
| operating system       = [[Microsoft Windows]], [[Unix-like]] (as a [[cross compiler]])
| genre                  = [[Compiler]]
| license                = [[Public domain]] (headers), [[GNU General Public License]] (compiler and toolchain)
| website                = {{URL|osdn.net/projects/mingw}}
| repo                   = {{URL|osdn.net/projects/mingw/scm/}}{{Dead link|date=May 2025}}
}}

'''MinGW''' ("Minimalist GNU for Windows"), formerly '''mingw32''', is a [[Free and open-source software|free and open source]] [[software development]] environment to create [[Microsoft Windows]] applications.

MinGW includes a [[porting|port]] of the [[GNU Compiler Collection]] (GCC), [[GNU Binutils]] for Windows ([[assembler (computing)|assembler]], [[linker (computing)|linker]], [[Archive file|archive manager]]), a set of freely distributable Windows specific [[header file]]s and [[Static library|static import libraries]] which enable the use of the [[Windows API]], a Windows native build of the [[GNU Project]]'s [[GNU Debugger]], and miscellaneous utilities.

MinGW does not rely on [[Third-party software component|third-party]] [[C (programming language)|C]] [[Runtime library|runtime]] [[dynamic-link library]] (DLL) files, and because the runtime libraries are not distributed using the [[GNU General Public License]] (GPL), it is not necessary to distribute the [[source code]] with the programs produced, unless a GPL library is used elsewhere in the program.<ref>{{cite web
| url=http://mingw.org/wiki/MinGW
| website=MinGW.org/wiki
| title=(MinGW on) MinGW
| date=2008-07-07
| access-date=2013-10-16
| archive-date=2013-10-06
| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131006143341/http://mingw.org/wiki/MinGW
| url-status=dead
}}</ref>

MinGW can be run either on the native Microsoft Windows platform, cross-hosted on [[Linux]] (or other Unix), or "cross-native" on [[Cygwin]]. Although programs produced under MinGW are 32-bit executables, they can be used both in 32 and 64-bit versions of Windows.

The development of the MinGW project has been [[software forking|forked]] with the creation in 2005–2008 of an alternative project called [[Mingw-w64]].

==History==
MinGW was originally called mingw32 ("Minimalist GNU for W32"), following the GNU convention whereby Windows is shortened as "W32".<ref>{{cite web
| url=https://www.gnu.org/prep/standards/html_node/System-Portability.html#System-Portability
| title=GNU Coding Standards
| date=April 27, 2013
| website=gnu.org
| publisher=Free Software Foundation
| at=5.5 Portability between System Types
| access-date=July 1, 2013
}}</ref><ref>{{cite mailing list
| url=https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/libtool/2000-09/msg00000.html
| title=Libtool Re: Naming a project gnu-win32?
| date=2000-09-18
| access-date=2013-05-21
| mailing-list=libtool
| last=Stallman | first=Richard |author-link=Richard Stallman
}}</ref> The numbers were dropped in order to avoid the implication that it would be limited to producing [[32-bit application|32-bit binaries]]. Colin Peters authored the initial release in 1998, consisting only of a Cygwin port of GCC.<ref name="history">{{cite web |title=History {{!}} MinGW |url=http://mingw.org/history |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120823025609/http://www.mingw.org:80/history |archive-date=2012-08-23 |access-date=2012-07-09 |publisher=MinGW.org}}</ref><ref name="potm"/> Jan-Jaap van der Heijden created a Windows-native port of GCC and added [[binutils]] and [[make (software)|make]].<ref name="history"/><ref name="potm"/> Mumit Khan later took over development, adding more Windows-specific features to the package, including the Windows system headers by Anders Norlander.<ref name="history"/><ref name="potm"/> In 2000, the project was moved to [[SourceForge]] in order to solicit more assistance from the community and centralize its development.<ref name="history"/><ref name="potm"/>

MinGW was selected as Project of the Month at SourceForge for September 2005.<ref name="potm">{{cite web
| url=https://sourceforge.net/blog/potm-2005-09/
| title=(sourceforge's) Project of the Month
| publisher=SourceForge.net
| date=2005-08-31
| access-date=2012-07-09
}}</ref>

MSYS (a contraction of "Minimal System") was introduced as a [[Bourne shell]] command line interpreter system<ref>{{cite web
| access-date = 2020-04-16
| publisher = MinGW.org
| title = (wiki:) MSYS
| quote = MSYS, a contraction of "Minimal SYStem", is a Bourne Shell command line interpreter system.
| url = http://www.mingw.org/
| archive-date = 2006-08-28
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20060828091046/http://www.mingw.org/MinGWiki/index.php/GettingStarted
| url-status = dead
}}</ref> with the aim of better interoperability with native Windows software.

In 2018, following a disagreement with SourceForge about the administration of its mailing lists, MinGW migrated to [[OSDN]].<ref>{{cite mailing list |url=https://sourceforge.net/p/mingw/mailman/message/36198954/ |title=Announcement of migration to OSDN.net |mailing-list=Mingw-users |date=January 21, 2018}}</ref>

=== Fork ===

In 2007, a fork of the original MinGW called [[Mingw-w64]] appeared in order to provide support for 64 bits and new APIs. It has since then gained widespread use and distribution. [[MSYS2]] ("minimal system 2") is a software distribution and a development platform for [[Microsoft Windows]], based on Mingw-w64 and [[Cygwin]], that helps to deploy code from the [[Unix]] world on Windows.<ref>MSYS2: [https://www.msys2.org/ official homepage], [https://github.com/msys2 code repository]</ref>

==Programming language support==
Most languages supported by GCC are supported on the MinGW port as well. These include [[C (programming language)|C]], [[C++]], [[Objective-C]], [[Objective-C++]], [[Fortran]], and [[Ada (programming language)|Ada]]. The GCC runtime libraries are used (libstdc++ for C++, libgfortran for Fortran, etc.).{{Citation needed|date=September 2020}}

MinGW links by default to the Windows OS component library [[Microsoft Windows library files#MSVCRT.DLL and MSVCPP.DLL|MSVCRT]], which is the C library that [[Visual C++]] version 6.0 linked to (the initial target was CRTDLL), which was released in 1998 and therefore does not include support for [[C99]] features, or even all of [[ANSI C|C89]]. While targeting MSVCRT yields programs that require no additional runtime redistributables to be installed, the lack of support for C99 has caused porting problems, particularly where [[printf]]-style conversion specifiers are concerned. These issues have been partially mitigated by the implementation of a C99 compatibility library, ''libmingwex'', but the extensive work required is far from complete and may never be fully realized.<ref>{{cite web
| url=http://mingw.org/wiki/C99
| title=(MinGW And) C99
| website=MinGW.org/wiki
| date=2010-06-21
| access-date=2011-03-29
| archive-date=2011-05-20
| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110520024432/http://www.mingw.org/wiki/C99
| url-status=dead
}}</ref> [[Mingw-w64]] has resolved these issues, and provides fully POSIX compliant printf functionality.

==Link compatibility==
Binaries (executables or DLLs) generated with different C++ compilers (like MinGW and Visual Studio) are in general not link compatible. However, compiled C code is link compatible.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://mingw.org/wiki/Interoperability_of_Libraries_Created_by_Different_Compiler_Brands |title=Interoperability of Libraries Created by Different Compiler Brands {{!}} MinGW |website=mingw.org |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100612213014/http://mingw.org/wiki/Interoperability_of_Libraries_Created_by_Different_Compiler_Brands |archive-date=2010-06-12}} </ref>

==Components==
The MinGW project maintains and distributes a number of different core components and supplementary packages, including various ports of the [[GNU toolchain]], such as [[GNU Compiler Collection|GCC]] and [[binutils]], translated into equivalent packages.<ref name="FAQ-What">{{cite web
| url=http://mingw.org/mingwfaq.shtml#faq-what
| title=(MinGW) FAQ
| publisher=MinGW.org
| access-date=2012-07-09
| archive-date=2008-11-21
| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081121131941/http://www.mingw.org./mingwfaq.shtml#faq-what
| url-status=dead
}}</ref><ref name="MinGWComponents">{{cite web
| url=https://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=2435
| title=MinGW - Minimalist GNU for Windows
| publisher=Sourceforge.net
| access-date=2012-07-09
}}</ref> These utilities can be used from the [[Windows command line]] or integrated into an [[integrated development environment|IDE]]. Packages may be installed using the command line via mingw-get.<ref>{{cite web
| title=MinGW Command Line Interface Installer
| url=http://www.mingw.org/wiki/Getting_Started#toc2
| access-date=14 June 2012
| archive-date=15 June 2012
| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120615150900/http://www.mingw.org/wiki/Getting_Started#toc2
| url-status=dead
}}</ref>

MinGW supports dynamic libraries named according to the <code><nowiki><name>.lib</nowiki></code> and <code><nowiki><name>.dll</nowiki></code> conventions, as well as static libraries following the <code><nowiki>lib<name>.a</nowiki></code> naming convention common on Unix and Unix-like systems.

In addition, a component of MinGW known as ''MSYS'' (''minimal system'') provides Windows ports of a lightweight Unix-like [[shell (computer science)|shell]] environment including [[rxvt]] and a selection of [[POSIX]] tools sufficient to enable [[autoconf]] scripts to run,<ref>{{cite web
| url = http://www.mingw.org/wiki/MSYS
| title = (wiki:) MSYS
| publisher = MinGW.org
| access-date = 2016-02-18
| archive-date = 2016-02-18
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160218111823/http://www.mingw.org/wiki/msys
| url-status = dead
}}</ref> but it does not provide a C compiler or a [[Case sensitivity#In filesystems|case-sensitive file system]].<ref>{{cite web
| access-date = 2016-02-18
| publisher = MinGW.org
| title = (wiki:) MSYS
| quote = A common misunderstanding is MSYS is "UNIX on Windows", MSYS by itself does not contain a compiler or a C library, [...] nor does it provide any UNIX specific functionality like case-sensitive filenames.
| url = http://www.mingw.org/wiki/MSYS
| archive-date = 2016-02-18
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160218111823/http://www.mingw.org/wiki/msys
| url-status = dead
}}</ref>

''mingwPORTs'' are user contributed additions to the MinGW software collection. Rather than providing these "add-ons" as precompiled binary packages, they are supplied in the form of interactive [[Bourne shell]] scripts, which guide the end user through the process of automatically downloading and patching original source code, then building and installing it. Users who wish to build any application from a mingwPORT must first install both MinGW and MSYS.<ref>{{cite web
| url=http://www.mingw.org/wiki/mingwPORT
| title=(wiki:) mingwPORT
| publisher=MinGW.org
| access-date=2012-07-09
| archive-date=2012-07-23
| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120723162737/http://www.mingw.org/wiki/mingwPORT
| url-status=dead
}}</ref>

The implementation of Windows system headers and static import libraries are released under a [[permissive license]],<ref name="w32api">{{cite web
| url=http://www.mingw.org/license
| title=(MinGW) Licensing Terms
| publisher=MinGW.org
| access-date=2012-07-09
| archive-date=2009-08-04
| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090804133441/http://www.mingw.org/license
| url-status=dead
}}</ref> while the GNU ports are provided under the [[GNU General Public License]]. Binary downloads of both the complete MSYS package and individual MinGW GNU utilities are available from the MinGW site.

==Comparison with Cygwin==
Although both Cygwin and MinGW can be used to port Unix software to Windows, they have different approaches:<ref name="differencesCygwinMinGW">{{cite web
| url=http://www.mingw.org/node/21
| title=(MinGW:) About Cygwin
| publisher=MinGW.org
| access-date=2012-07-09
| archive-date=2009-08-28
| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090828110952/http://www.mingw.org/node/21
| url-status=dead
}}</ref> Cygwin aims to provide a complete [[POSIX]] layer comprising a full implementation of all major Unix system calls and libraries. Compatibility is considered a higher priority than performance. On the other hand, MinGW's priorities are simplicity and performance. As such, it does not provide certain [[POSIX]] APIs which cannot easily be implemented using the Windows API, such as <code>[[Fork (operating system)|fork()]]</code>, <code>[[mmap|mmap()]]</code> and <code>[[ioctl|ioctl()]]</code>.<ref name="differencesCygwinMinGW" /> Applications written using a [[cross-platform]] library that has itself been ported to MinGW, such as [[Simple DirectMedia Layer|SDL]], [[wxWidgets]], [[Qt (toolkit)|Qt]], or [[GTK]], will usually compile as easily in MinGW as they would in Cygwin.

Windows programs written with Cygwin run on top of a [[copyleft]]ed compatibility [[Microsoft Dynamic Link Library|DLL]] that must be distributed with the program, unless statically linked. If dynamically linked, the program must also provide information on where to obtain Cygwin source. MinGW does not require a [[compatibility layer]], since MinGW-based programs are compiled with direct calls to Windows APIs.

The combination of MinGW and MSYS provides a small, self-contained environment that can be loaded onto removable media without leaving entries in the [[Windows Registry|registry]] or files on the computer.

It is also possible to [[cross compiler|cross-compile]] Windows applications with MinGW-GCC under POSIX systems. This means that developers do not need a Windows installation with MSYS to compile software that will run on Windows with or without Cygwin.

== See also ==
*[[Cygwin]]
*[[Windows Subsystem for Linux]]
*[[Mingw-w64]]

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==External links==
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20230804222945/http://mingw.osdn.io/index.html Official MinGW website]
* [https://nuwen.net/mingw.html nuwen 64-bit MinGW distro] - maintained by a [https://nuwen.net/stl.html Microsoft employee]
* [https://mxe.cc/ MXE] - Makefiles to build MinGW on Unix and many common dependencies libraries, pre-built packages available

{{Software in the Public Interest}}
{{Unix-Windows interoperability}}

[[Category:1998 software]]
[[Category:C (programming language) compilers]]
[[Category:C++ compilers]]
[[Category:Cross-compilers]]
[[Category:Fortran compilers]]
[[Category:Free and open source compilers]]
[[Category:Public-domain software]]