Apache 2.4 linker errors on windows using VS 2008

Question

Question: Is there any manual/steps on how to build Apache for windows? The official documentation isn't sufficient.

I've tried to compile Apache HTTP Server 2.4 on windows using Visual Studio 2008 Professional on Windows 7 Service Pack 3, but with no hope at all!! Already tested same steps with Apache HTTP Server 2.2 and had successful build process.

I don't know what's wrong, or what's missing. Here it is followed steps:

Visual Studio 2008 Command Prompt:

"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\VC\bin\vcvars32.bat"

cd C:\path\to\httpd-2.4.2

perl srclib\apr\build\lineends.pl

perl srclib\apr\build\cvtdsp.pl -2005

cd srclib\zlib
nmake -f win32/Makefile.msc LOC="-DASMV -DASMINF -I." OBJA="inffas32.obj match686.obj"
MT -manifest zlib1.dll.manifest -outputresource:zlib1.dll;2

cd ..\..\srclib\openssl
perl Configure VC-WIN32 enable-camellia disable-idea
ms\do_nasm
nmake /f ms\ntdll.mak

Open Apache.dsw with VS9 "Yes to All" to the "convert projects" question, Select relase win32
Now build InstallBin
Test your build

Required libraries already in place:

srclib\apr
srclib\apr-iconv
srclib\apr-util
srclib\openssl
srclib\pcre
srclib\zlib

As I said, all Apache HTTP Server 2.2 compilations are successful, while all Apache HTTP Server 2.4 is NOT.

This is the most occuring error, repeated over 100 times:

fatal error LNK1181: cannot open input file '..\..\release\libhttpd.lib'

Other errors:

fatal error LNK1181: cannot open input file '..\release\mod_proxy_balancer.lib'
fatal error LNK1181: cannot open input file '..\core\release\mod_watchdog.lib'
fatal error C1083: Cannot open include file: 'pcre.h': No such file or directory    
fatal error U1077: '"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\Common7\ide\devenv.COM"' : return code '0x1'
error PRJ0019: A tool returned an error code from "Performing Makefile project actions"

Note: I've noticed that there's multiple .mak file missing from the Apache 2.4 package, including the httpd.mak & others. I think that's big part of the problem.

Any suggestions?

Environment: Windows 7 | Visual Studio 2008 | Cygin | Apache HTTP Server 2.4 Source | APR/APR-UTIL/APR-ICONV/ZLIB/OPENSSL

Answer 1

Try compiling each dependency before you compile and the dependencies of each dependency before you try to compile Apache it self.