DMD under 64-bit Windows 7 HOWTO

[Adam Wilson]

On Sat, 25 May 2013 18:24:41 -0700, Manu <turkeyman at gmail.com> wrote:

FYI. DMD did not work out-of-the-box on a vanilla VS2012/Win8 install. The  
Windows 8 SDK no longer includes the C++ compilers and VS2012 doesn't  
setup the Environment Variables used in sc.ini.

But the most annoying part is that using the Win8 SDK causes the linker to  
spit out dozens of external symbol resolution failures. It was at this  
point that I gave up.

> I  might just add, that if you have Visual Studio installed (which I
> presume many Windows dev's do), then you don't need to do ANYTHING.
> DMD64 just works if VS is present.
>
> I didn't do a single thing to get DMD-Win64 working. And it's working  
> great.
>
> You should make sure this is clear at the top of any wiki entry.
>
> Perhaps a future push to convince Walter to port DMD-Win32 to COFF/WinSDK
> aswell might be nice ;)
> Win32 is still an important platform for many (most?) users.
>
>
> On 18 December 2012 23:32, Gor Gyolchanyan  
> <gor.f.gyolchanyan at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>> Good day, fellow D developers.
>> After spending much time figuring out how to make DMD work fluently  
>> under
>> 64-bit Windows 7 I've realized that this is not a trivial task and lots  
>> of
>> people might have trouble with this, so I've decided to post my  
>> solution,
>> that might save people a lot of time.
>> As we know, there are compatibility problems with 32-bit DMD binaries,
>> because they are compiled using DMC back-end, which can only produce OMF
>> binaries, so in order to avoid problems with linking against externally
>> compiled libraries, it's much easier to stick to 64-bit binaries, so  
>> that
>> DMD will use the Visual Studio linker to produce compatible COFF  
>> binaries.
>> Another problem is that 32-bit DMD binaries are linked against obsolete
>> 32-bit WinAPI libraries, which lack some very important functions, while
>> the 64-bit binaries are required to link with the 64-bit libraries,
>> supplied by the the Windows SDK.
>>
>> And here's how this could be arranged:
>>
>> 1. Prepare your development folder.
>> 1.1. Create a folder with no spaces in its full path.
>>  1.2. Store its full path in the '%DEV_DIR_ROOT%' environment variable.
>> 2. Get the Windows SDK.
>> 2.1. Download the Windows SDK.
>>  2.1.1. Navigate to '
>> http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-US/windows//bb980924.aspx' in a web  
>> browser.
>>  2.1.2. Under section 2 (number '2' in a green circle) click on the bold
>> blue 'Install Now' link.
>> 2.1.3. In the opened window click in the blue 'Download' button at the
>> bottom of the page.
>>  2.1.4. Make sure, that the Windows SDK installer ('winsdk_web.exe') is
>> downloaded.
>> 2.2. Install the downloaded Windows SDK.
>>  2.2.1. Navigate to the folder, where the Windows SDK installer was
>> downloaded in a file browser.
>> 2.2.2. Double-click on the installer and agree to security warnings to
>> launch it.
>>  2.2.3. Click next, read and agree to the license until you reach the
>> 'Install Locations' screen.
>> 2.2.4. Store the path under 'Destination Folder for Tools' in the
>> '%DEV_DIR_MSWINSDK%' (e.g. 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft
>> SDKs\Windows\v7.0A') and click 'Next >'.
>>  2.3.3. On the 'Installation Options' uncheck everything except 'x64
>> Libraries' and 'Visual C++ Compilers' and click 'Next >'.
>>  2.3.4. Confirm that everything is correct and click 'Next >' to start
>> installing.
>> 2.3.5. Make sure, tata the installation is completed succesfully.
>>  2.3.6. Store the path to the installed Visual Studio C++ compiler into
>> the '%DEV_DIR_MSVC%' environment variable (e.g. 'C:\Program Files
>> (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\VC').
>> 3. Get the DMD.
>> 3.1. Navigate to 'http://ftp.digitalmars.com/dmd2beta.zip' in a web
>> browser.
>>  3.2. Make sure, that the DMD compiler archive ('dmd2beta.zip') is
>> downloaded.
>> 3.3. Unzip the archive into '%DEV_DIR_ROOT%\Tools', so that the 'dmd2'
>> folder in the archive will end up in '%DEV_DIR_ROOT%\Tools\dmd2'.
>>  3.4. Adapt the compiler configuration to the development environment.
>> 3.4.1. Open the file '%DEV_DIR_ROOT%\Tools\dmd2\windows\bin\sc.ini' in a
>> text editor.
>>  3.4.2. Replace the line with 'LIB=' with the line
>> 'LIB="%DEV_DIR_WINSDK%\Lib\x64";"%DEV_DIR_MSVC%\lib\amd64";"%@P%\..\lib"'.
>>  3.4.3. Add '-m64 -L/NOLOGO' to  the 'DFLAGS' variable.
>> 3.4.4. Remove the lines with 'VCINSTALLDIR=' and 'WindowsSdkDir='.
>>  3.4.5. Replace the like with 'LINKCMD64=' with the line
>> 'LINKCMD64="%DEV_DIR_MSVC%\bin\amd64\link.exe"'
>>  Now "%DEV_DIR_ROOT%\Tools\dmd2\windows\bin\dmd.exe" will always use the
>> Windows SDK libraries and Visual C++ compiler to produce 64-bit COFF
>> binaries.
>>
>> I hope I was helpful, because when I started to set up a development
>> environment under 64-bit Windows 7, I went through a lot of problems to  
>> get
>> here and I'd love to have this HOWTO at that time.
>>
>> --
>> Bye,
>> Gor Gyolchanyan.
>>


-- 
Adam Wilson
IRC: LightBender
Project Coordinator
The Horizon Project
http://www.thehorizonproject.org/