Building CMake with MinGW-W64 8.1.0 compiler error

Development
1

I was trying to build CMake 3.20.3 on Windows 10 using MinGW-W64 8.1.0 and Ninja. It seems to me that the KWSys 2021-05-07 update causes compilation errors with this setup. I can post the errors if this is useful. Is there guidance on which gcc compiler on Windows I should use for building CMake?

2

Posting errors would be helpful. We are testing GCC 9.2.0 regularly at least. I also see a GCC 4.9.3 nightly runner.

Cc: @brad.king

3

Below is the error. For clarification v3.20.3 builds fine but building the latest is the problem.

[373/1055] Building CXX object Source/kwsys/CMakeFiles/cmsys.dir/SystemTools.cxx.obj
FAILED: Source/kwsys/CMakeFiles/cmsys.dir/SystemTools.cxx.obj
C:\Users\tbd\Tools\mingw64\bin\c++.exe -DKWSYS_NAMESPACE=cmsys -DUNICODE -D_UNICODE -DKWSYS_CXX_HAS_ENVIRON_IN_STDLIB_H=1 -DKWSYS_CXX_HAS_SETENV=0 -DKWSYS_CXX_HAS_UNSETENV=0 -DKWSYS_CXX_HAS_UTIMENSAT=0 -DKWSYS_CXX_HAS_UTIMES=0 -DKWSYS_CXX_STAT_HAS_ST_MTIM=0 -DKWSYS_CXX_STAT_HAS_ST_MTIMESPEC=0 -ISource -ISource/kwsys -std=gnu++17 -MD -MT Source/kwsys/CMakeFiles/cmsys.dir/SystemTools.cxx.obj -MF Source\kwsys\CMakeFiles\cmsys.dir\SystemTools.cxx.obj.d -o Source/kwsys/CMakeFiles/cmsys.dir/SystemTools.cxx.obj -c C:/Users/tbd/Desktop/cmake/cmake_ninja_gcc_old/Source/kwsys/SystemTools.cxx
C:/Users/tbd/Desktop/cmake/cmake_ninja_gcc_old/Source/kwsys/SystemTools.cxx: In static member function 'static cmsys::Status cmsys::SystemTools::CreateSymlink(const string&, const string&)':
C:/Users/tbd/Desktop/cmake/cmake_ninja_gcc_old/Source/kwsys/SystemTools.cxx:3091:13: error: 'SYMBOLIC_LINK_FLAG_DIRECTORY' was not declared in this scope
     flags = SYMBOLIC_LINK_FLAG_DIRECTORY;
             ^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
C:/Users/tbd/Desktop/cmake/cmake_ninja_gcc_old/Source/kwsys/SystemTools.cxx:3091:13: note: suggested alternative: 'SYMLINK_FLAG_RELATIVE'
     flags = SYMBOLIC_LINK_FLAG_DIRECTORY;
             ^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
             SYMLINK_FLAG_RELATIVE
C:/Users/tbd/Desktop/cmake/cmake_ninja_gcc_old/Source/kwsys/SystemTools.cxx:3100:8: error: 'CreateSymbolicLinkW' was not declared in this scope
   if (!CreateSymbolicLinkW(newPath.c_str(), origPath.c_str(),
        ^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
C:/Users/tbd/Desktop/cmake/cmake_ninja_gcc_old/Source/kwsys/SystemTools.cxx:3100:8: note: suggested alternative: 'CreateSymlink'
   if (!CreateSymbolicLinkW(newPath.c_str(), origPath.c_str(),
        ^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
        CreateSymlink
C:/Users/tbd/Desktop/cmake/cmake_ninja_gcc_old/Source/kwsys/SystemTools.cxx:3109:10: error: 'CreateSymbolicLinkW' was not declared in this scope
     if (!CreateSymbolicLinkW(newPath.c_str(), origPath.c_str(), flags)) {
          ^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
C:/Users/tbd/Desktop/cmake/cmake_ninja_gcc_old/Source/kwsys/SystemTools.cxx:3109:10: note: suggested alternative: 'CreateSymlink'
     if (!CreateSymbolicLinkW(newPath.c_str(), origPath.c_str(), flags)) {
          ^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
          CreateSymlink
4

We are testing GCC 9.2.0 regularly at least. I also see a GCC 4.9.3 nightly runner.

The GCC 9.2.0 testing does build CMake and works. The GCC 4.9.3 testing is only driving the CMake test suite, but uses a CMake built by another compiler.

the KWSys 2021-05-07 update causes compilation errors

In particular, that update included KWSys MR 216, which added use of CreateSymbolicLinkW and SYMBOLIC_LINK_FLAG_DIRECTORY. They are part of the Windows SDK, and work with MinGW’s GCC 9.2.0 package, but perhaps older MinGW toolchains do not have the declarations in their Windows headers.

5

It looks like GCC 9.2.0 is only available through MSYS2 packages. I had been using the GCC only package at MinGW-w64 - for 32 and 64 bit Windows - Browse /mingw-w64 at SourceForge.net, which shows GCC . Is using MSYS2 the preferred compiler environment?

6

There are msys2-runtime packages and MinGW packages. The latter is needed to build a CMake that targets Windows platforms. Our nightly build with GCC 9.2.0 uses MinGW packages. They are available through the MSYS2 package manager.

1 Like
7

I’m seeing the same build error while cross-compiling cmake with Mingw-w64 in Yocto builds.
Quick fix was to add compiler definitions to kwsys that enable the windows API to be available

add_definitions(-D_WIN32_LEAN_AND_MEAN -D_WIN32_WINNT=0x0600)