1 Building via IDE Project Files
2 ==============================
4 This document describes how to compile, build and install curl and libcurl
5 from sources using an IDE based development tool such as Visual Studio.
7 Project files are currently available for Visual C++ v6.0 to v12.0. The
8 following directory structure has been used to cater for this:
18 This structure allows for side-by-side compilation of curl on the same
19 machine using different versions of a given compiler (for example VC8, VC9
20 and VC10) and allows for your own application or product to be compiled
21 against those variants of libcurl for example.
23 Note: Typically this side-by-side compilation is generally only required
24 when a library is being compiled against dynamic runtime libraries.
29 The projects files also support build configurations that require third
30 party dependencies such as OpenSSL and SSH2. If you wish to support these,
31 you will also need to download and compile those libraries as well.
33 To support compilation of these libraries using different versions of
34 compilers, the following directory structure has been used for both the
35 output of curl and libcurl as well as these dependencies.
58 As OpenSSL doesn't support side-by-side compilation when using different
59 versions of Visual Studio a build helper batch file has been provided to
60 assist with this. Please run "build-openssl -help" for usage details.
62 Building with Visual C++
63 ========================
65 To build with VC++, you will of course have to first install VC++ which is
66 part of Visual Studio.
68 If you are building with VC6 then you will also need the February 2003
69 Edition of the Windows Platform SDK which can be downloaded from:
71 http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=12261
73 If you require support for Internationalized Domain Names via Windows IDN
74 then you will need either:
76 * Microsoft Internationalized Domain Name (IDN) Mitigation APIs:
77 http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=734
79 * Microsoft Windows SDK Update for Windows Vista:
80 http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=23719
82 * Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 or above
84 Once you have VC++ installed you should launch the application and open one
85 of the solution or workspace files.
87 Whilst files are provided for both libcurl and the curl command line tool as
88 well as a configuration that includes both, it is recommend that you use the
89 all-in-one configuration.
91 Running DLL based configurations
92 ================================
94 If you are a developer and plan to run the curl tool from Visual Studio (eg
95 you are debugging) with any third-party libraries (such as OpenSSL, wolfSSL
96 or LibSSH2) then you will need to add the search path of these DLLs to the
97 configuration's PATH environment. To do that:
99 * Open the 'curl-all.sln' or 'curl.sln' solutions
101 * Right-click on the 'curl' project and select Properties
103 * Navigate to 'Configuration Properties > Debugging > Environment'
105 * Add PATH='Path to DLL';C:\Windows\system32;C:\Windows;
106 C:\Windows\System32\Wbem
108 ... where 'Path to DLL` is the configuration specific path. For example the
109 following configurations in Visual Studio 2010 might be:
111 DLL Debug - DLL OpenSSL (Win32):
112 PATH=..\..\..\..\..\openssl\build\Win32\VC10\DLL Debug;C:\Windows\system32;
113 C:\Windows;C:\Windows\System32\Wbem
115 DLL Debug - DLL OpenSSL (x64):
116 PATH=..\..\..\..\..\openssl\build\Win64\VC10\DLL Debug;C:\Windows\system32;
117 C:\Windows;C:\Windows\System32\Wbem
119 DLL Debug - DLL wolfSSL (Win32):
120 PATH=..\..\..\..\..\wolfssl\build\Win32\VC10\DLL Debug;C:\Windows\system32;
121 C:\Windows;C:\Windows\System32\Wbem
123 DLL Debug - DLL wolfSSL (x64):
124 PATH=..\..\..\..\..\wolfssl\build\Win64\VC10\DLL Debug;C:\Windows\system32;
125 C:\Windows;C:\Windows\System32\Wbem
127 If you are using a configuration that uses multiple third-party library DLLs
128 (such as DLL Debug - DLL OpenSSL - DLL LibSSH2) then 'Path to DLL' will need
129 to contain the path to both of these.
134 The following keywords have been used in the directory hierarchy:
136 <platform> - The platform (For example: Windows)
137 <ide> - The IDE (For example: VC6, VC10, BCC5)
138 <architecture> - The platform architecture (For example: Win32, Win64)
139 <configuration> - The target configuration (For example: DLL Debug,
140 LIB Release - LIB OpenSSL)
142 If you are using the source code from the git repository, rather than a
143 release archive or nightly build, you will need to generate the project
144 files. Please run "generate -help" for usage details.
146 Should you wish to help out with some of the items on the TODO list, or
147 find bugs in the project files that need correcting, and would like to
148 submit updated files back then please note that, whilst the solution files
149 can be edited directly, the templates for the project files (which are
150 stored in the git repositoty) will need to be modified rather than the
151 generated project files that Visual Studio uses.
153 Legacy Windows and SSL
154 ======================
156 Some of the project configurations allow the use of WinSSL (specifically
157 SChannel from Windows SSPI), the native SSL library in Windows. However,
158 WinSSL in Windows <= XP is unable to connect to servers that no longer
159 support the legacy handshakes and algorithms used by those versions. If
160 you will be using curl in one of those earlier versions of Windows you
161 should choose another SSL backend such as OpenSSL.
166 These project files are a recent addition to the curl source code and as such
167 are not 100% complete. This is a list of things that are still todo:
170 * Use of static runtime libraries
171 * Generate *.vcxproj.filters files for VC10, VC11 and VC12
172 * Add the Test Suite components
173 * Support for other development IDEs
174 * Add PATH environment variables for third-party DLLs
176 Any additional help would be appreciated ;-)