Instructions how to build native sed.exe with Microsoft Visual Studio from CYGWIN shell.

While building, it is possible to save build log and create a patch - for compiling sed.exe using only Microsoft Visual Studio tools, without need for CYGWIN.

This is how sed-4.8-build-VS19-x64.patch was created.

(sed-4.8-build-VS9-x86.patch was created analogously in Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 environment)


From CYGWIN shell:

1) get archive:
  wget https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/sed/sed-4.8.tar.xz

2) unpack archive:
  tar xf sed-4.8.tar.xz

3) go to sed sources:
  cd sed-4.8

4) patch the sources:
  patch -Np1 -i sed-4.8-src.patch
  (patch location: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mbuilov/sed-windows/master/sed-4.8-src.patch)

5) to build with old non-c99 compiler (such as Microsoft Visual Studio 2008) apply one more patch:
  patch -Np1 -i sed-4.8-src-non-c99.patch
  (patch location: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mbuilov/sed-windows/master/sed-4.8-src-non-c99.patch)

6) now start dos prompt:
  cmd.exe /c "start cmd.exe"

7) setup compiler:
  "D:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\Community\VC\Auxiliary\Build\vcvarsall.bat" x86_amd64
  (if Microsoft Visual Studio 2019 is installed in "D:\Program Files (x86)")

  --tip: for Visual Studio 2008:
  "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\VC\vcvarsall.bat" x86

8) run bash from the dos prompt (with environment prepared for compiling with Microsoft Visual Studio):
  bash

9) check that Gnu Make is installed in CYGWIN and it is working:
  make --version

10) configure sed:
  CFLAGS= CC=cl CPP="cl -E" LD=lib ARFLAGS="/OUT:" ./configure --enable-threads=windows --disable-dependency-tracking --disable-silent-rules --disable-nls gl_cv_sys_struct_lconv_ok=yes

11) configure script is not fully functional to create correct Makefile - it needs to be fixed manually:
  sed -i '/^SUBDIRS/s/=.*/= ./'         Makefile
  sed -i '/^NEXT/s/=.*/=""/'            Makefile
  sed -i '/lib_libsed_a_AR/s/ lib/lib/' Makefile
  sed -i '/sed_libver_a_AR/s/ sed/sed/' Makefile
  sed -i 's@^AR = .*@AR = lib /nologo@' Makefile
  sed -i 's/-c -o /-c -nologo -Fo/'     Makefile
  sed -i '/$(RANLIB)/d'                 Makefile

12) fix sed target in Makefile, add support for wildcards in program arguments:
  echo 'sed_sed_LINK = link /nologo /DEFAULTLIB:LIBCPMT.lib /OUT:$@ wsetargv.obj' >> Makefile

13) add gen target:
  echo 'gen: $(BUILT_SOURCES)' >> Makefile

14) execute Makefile to generate sed headers:
  make gen

15) some references to system header files are missing in generated headers - they need to be fixed manually.

 a) set paths to locations of Visual Studio 2019 and WDK10 in sed-4.8-win-headers.patch (assume it was copied to current directory):
  for example, if Visual Studio 2019 is installed in "D:\Program Files (x86)" and WDK10 installed in "C:\Program Files (x86)"

  sed -i '/Visual Studio/s@.:.*include@D:\\Program Files (x86)\\Microsoft Visual Studio\\2019\\Community\\VC\\Tools\\MSVC\\14.24.28314\\include@' ./sed-4.8-win-headers.patch
  sed -i '/Windows Kits/s@.:.*ucrt@C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Windows Kits\\10\\Include\\10.0.18362.0\\ucrt@' ./sed-4.8-win-headers.patch

  (patch location: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mbuilov/sed-windows/master/sed-4.8-win-headers.patch)

  --tip: for Visual Studio 2008:
  sed -i '/Visual Studio/s@.:.*include@C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\\VC\\include@' ./sed-4.8-win-headers.patch
  sed -i '/Windows Kits/s@.:.*ucrt@C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\\VC\\include@' ./sed-4.8-win-headers.patch

 b) now patch generated headers with updated patch-file:
  patch -Np1 -i sed-4.8-win-headers.patch

16) do compile sed:
  make > make.bat

17) check build result:
  ./sed/sed.exe --version --locale=C

  (should print sed version, e.g.: (GNU sed) 4.8)

compilation should be ok, native (unoptimized) ./sed/sed.exe should be created.


Now it is possible to create a patch file - for compiling optimized sed.exe using only Microsoft Visual Studio tools, without need for CYGWIN.

1) create a directory for unpatched sed:
  mkdir ../orig

2) unpack sed:
  tar xf ../sed-4.8.tar.xz -C ../orig/

3) diff current directory with original just unpacked sed-4.8.tar.xz in '../orig' directory
  diff -rql . ../orig/sed-4.8

4) remove unneeded built files in current directory (object files, libs, etc...)

  rm -rf \
    ./Makefile \
    ./stamp-h1 \
    ./sed-4.8-win-headers.patch \
    ./lib/*.obj \
    ./lib/.dirstamp \
    ./lib/.deps \
    ./lib/glthread/*.obj \
    ./lib/glthread/.dirstamp \
    ./lib/glthread/.deps \
    ./lib/libsed.a \
    ./sed/*.obj \
    ./sed/.dirstamp \
    ./sed/.deps \
    ./sed/sed.exe \
    ./sed/libver.a \
    ./po/Makefile \
    ./po/Makefile.in \
    ./po/POTFILES \
    ./config.log \
    ./config.status \
    ./gnulib-tests/Makefile \
    ./sed/sed.exp \
    ./sed/sed.lib

5) after this, diff should show something like:

  diff -rql . ../orig/sed-4.8
  Only in .: config.h
  Only in ./lib: alloca.h
  Only in ./lib: ctype.h
* Files ./lib/dfa.c and ../orig/sed-4.8/lib/dfa.c differ
  Only in ./lib: errno.h
  Only in ./lib: fcntl.h
  Only in ./lib: getopt.h
  Only in ./lib: getopt-cdefs.h
* Files ./lib/gettimeofday.c and ../orig/sed-4.8/lib/gettimeofday.c differ
  Only in ./lib: inttypes.h
  Only in ./lib: langinfo.h
  Only in ./lib: limits.h
  Files ./lib/localcharset.c and ../orig/sed-4.8/lib/localcharset.c differ
  Only in ./lib: locale.h
* Files ./lib/localeinfo.c and ../orig/sed-4.8/lib/localeinfo.c differ
  Files ./lib/mbtowc-lock.h and ../orig/sed-4.8/lib/mbtowc-lock.h differ
  Files ./lib/nl_langinfo.c and ../orig/sed-4.8/lib/nl_langinfo.c differ
* Files ./lib/regcomp.c and ../orig/sed-4.8/lib/regcomp.c differ
* Files ./lib/regexec.c and ../orig/sed-4.8/lib/regexec.c differ
  Only in ./lib: selinux
  Only in ./lib: stdalign.h
? Only in ./lib: stdbool.h
  Only in ./lib: stddef.h
  Only in ./lib: stdint.h
  Only in ./lib: stdio.h
  Only in ./lib: stdlib.h
  Only in ./lib: string.h
* Files ./lib/strverscmp.c and ../orig/sed-4.8/lib/strverscmp.c differ
  Only in ./lib: sys
  Only in ./lib: time.h
  Only in ./lib: unistd.h
  Only in ./lib: wchar.h
  Only in ./lib: wctype.h
  Only in .: make.bat
* Files ./sed/debug.c and ../orig/sed-4.8/sed/debug.c differ
  Files ./sed/execute.c and ../orig/sed-4.8/sed/execute.c differ
* Files ./sed/regexp.c and ../orig/sed-4.8/sed/regexp.c differ
  Files ./sed/sed.c and ../orig/sed-4.8/sed/sed.c differ
  Files ./sed/utils.c and ../orig/sed-4.8/sed/utils.c differ
  Only in ./sed: version.c
  Only in ./sed: version.h

* -- if sed-4.8-src-non-c99.patch was applied:
? -- if configured under Visual Studio 2008

6) edit make.bat

  cp make.bat make.bat.old
  sed -i -n '/^cl /p;/^lib /p;/^link /p' make.bat
  sed -i 's@-DLOCALEDIR=."/usr/local/share/locale.".*-c -nologo -F@/DLOCALEDIR="" /c /nologo /DGNULIB_WCHAR_SINGLE /F@' make.bat
  sed -i 's@   -c -nologo -F@/c /nologo /DGNULIB_WCHAR_SINGLE /F@' make.bat
  sed -i 's@lib/glthread/@lib\\glthread\\@g' make.bat
  sed -i 's@/Fosed/@/Fosed\\@;s@/Folib/@/Folib\\@' make.bat
  sed -i 's@`if test -f .@@;s@.; then.*@@' make.bat
  sed -i 's@`cygpath -w .@@;s@.`@@' make.bat
  sed -i 's@ lib/@ lib\\@g;s@ sed/@ sed\\@g' make.bat
  sed -i 's@-DHAVE_CONFIG_H -I.  -I. -I./lib -I./lib -I./sed@/Ox /GF /Gy /GS- /GL /EHsc /DHAVE_CONFIG_H /I. /I.\\lib /I.\\sed@' make.bat
  sed -i 's@lib /nologo@lib /LTCG /nologo@' make.bat
  sed -i 's@/OUT:lib/@/OUT:lib\\@;s@/OUT:sed/@/OUT:sed\\@' make.bat
  sed -i 's@link /nologo@& /LTCG@' make.bat
  sed -i 's@$@ || exit /b@' make.bat
  rm make.bat.old

7) finally, create a patch:
  diff -Naur ../orig/sed-4.8 . > ../sed-4.8-build-VS19-x64.patch

 or, for Visual Studio 2008:
  diff -Naur ../orig/sed-4.8 . > ../sed-4.8-build-VS9-x86.patch