Compiling and running GTK+ application on Windows 7

Question

System: Windows7, 32 bit, GTK 2.24.10, mingw
I am trying to write basic helloworld.c type GTK based application. However, it doesn\'t run.
These are the steps which

Answer 1

You could try these manual steps to start with:

1) At your command prompt run the pkg-config command to get your include flags:

c:\dev\gtk224\bin\pkg-config.exe --cflags gtk+-2.0

This is my output:

-mms-bitfields -Ic:/dev/gtk224/include/gtk-2.0 -Ic:/dev/gtk224/lib/gtk-2.0/include -Ic:/dev/gtk224/include/atk-1.0 -Ic:/dev/gtk224/include/cairo -Ic:/dev/gtk224/include/gdk-pixbuf-2.0 -Ic:/dev/gtk224/include/pango-1.0 -Ic:/dev/gtk224/include/glib-2.0 -Ic:/dev/gtk224/lib/glib-2.0/include -Ic:/dev/gtk224/include -Ic:/dev/gtk224/include/freetype2 -Ic:/dev/gtk224/include/libpng14

2) set the output from (1) to a variable GTK_INCLUDES:

C:\dev\1_repo\gtk_scratch>set GTK_INCLUDES=-mms-bitfields -Ic:/dev/gtk224/include/gtk-2.0 -Ic:/dev/gtk224/lib/gtk-2.0/include -Ic:/dev/gtk224/include/atk-1.0 -Ic:/dev/gtk224/include/cairo -Ic:/dev/gtk224/include/gdk-pixbuf-2.0 -Ic:/dev/gtk224/include/pango-1.0 -Ic:/dev/gtk224/include/glib-2.0 -Ic:/dev/gtk224/lib/glib-2.0/include -Ic:/dev/gtk224/include -Ic:/dev/gtk224/include/freetype2 -Ic:/dev/gtk224/include/libpng14

(make sure you use YOUR output from step (1))

3) do the same as step 1 for the library flags:

c:\dev\gtk224\bin\pkg-config.exe --libs gtk+-2.0

This is my output:

-Lc:/dev/gtk224/lib -lgtk-win32-2.0 -lgdk-win32-2.0 -latk-1.0 -lgio-2.0 -lpangowin32-1.0 -lgdi32 -lpangocairo-1.0 -lgdk_pixbuf-2.0 -lpango-1.0 -lcairo -lgobject-2.0 -lgmodule-2.0 -lgthread-2.0 -lglib-2.0 -lintl

4) set output from (3) to a variable GTK_LIBS

C:\dev\1_repo\gtk_scratch>set GTK_LIBS=-Lc:/dev/gtk224/lib -lgtk-win32-2.0 -lgdk-win32-2.0 -latk-1.0 -lgio-2.0 -lpangowin32-1.0 -lgdi32 -lpangocairo-1.0 -lgdk_pixbuf-2.0 -lpango-1.0 -lcairo -lgobject-2.0 -lgmodule-2.0 -lgthread-2.0 -lglib-2.0 -lintl

(make sure you use YOUR output from step (3))

5) make sure gtk+ and MinGW are on your path:

set PATH=c:\dev\MinGW\bin\;c:\dev\gtk224\bin

(make sure you set your path to YOUR mingw and gtk directories)

6) compile:

c:\dev\MinGW\bin\gcc.exe -g helloworld.c -o helloworld %GTK_INCLUDES% %GTK_LIBS%

7) when you are able to compile OK, copy what you did in steps 2,4,5 and 6 to a batch file so can compile you app just by running the batch file.

Answer 2

Get same error when running hello, world program. Following solution work for me.

Instead of saving your helloworld.c at any arbitrary place, put it inside of

MinGW > msys > 1.0 > home > "Name of Your home folder" > helloworld.c

Now, open msys.bat and write the command to run program. In my case it was:

gcc hello.c -o hello `pkg-config --cflags --libs gtk+-3.0`

And it works for me!

Answer 3

The error is right here.

pkg-config is a utility which helps (and I strongly recommend) to determine link and lib flags. The issue you got is that gcc interprets it as a parameter if you pass them like you do - you need to exectue them in a subshell (but I have no clue how to do that under windows shell or cygwin) under bash it is either $(pkconfig --libs gtk-2.0) or with backticks around instead of $(...)

D:\gtk>gcc -Wall -g helloworld.c -o helloworld pkg-config --cflags gtk+-2.0 pkg-config --libs gtk+-2.0
gcc: pkg-config: No such file or directory
gcc: gtk+-2.0: No such file or directory
gcc: pkg-config: No such file or directory
gcc: gtk+-2.0: No such file or directory
cc1.exe: error: unrecognized command line option "-fcflags"
cc1.exe: error: unrecognized command line option "-flibs"