how to configure cURL lib in windows?

Question

I want to build libcurl on my windows system.

Currently I am using eclipse cdt with mingw compiler. I have also installed cygwin 1.7* recently on my system. I want to build/install cURL 7.26.0. But when I give

sh configure 

command in curl root folder I get following error.

$ sh configure
checking whether to enable maintainer-specific portions of Makefiles... no
checking whether to enable debug build options... no
checking whether to enable compiler optimizer... (assumed) yes
checking whether to enable strict compiler warnings... no
checking whether to enable compiler warnings as errors... no
checking whether to enable curl debug memory tracking... no
checking whether to enable hiding of library internal symbols... yes
checking whether to enable c-ares for DNS lookups... no
checking for sed... /usr/bin/sed
checking for grep... /usr/bin/grep
checking for egrep... /usr/bin/grep -E
checking for ar... no
configure: error: ar not found in PATH. Cannot continue without ar.

Can anyone tell where I have gone wrong. Or If need to install anything else.

Answer 1

If you want to use mingw toolkit (and I'll recommend it against cygwin), you can use msys for unix-tools support (sh etc).

Make sure you have mingw bin in your PATH (echo $PATH) and also make sure you use mingw's gcc, not cygwin one!

Cygwin requires as lot of heavy dependences, that's why I would not recommend it.

Answer 2

From this thread: Why not just install the pre-built cygwin version of curl using the cygwin installer?

When installing cygwin, is there an option to install curl? - It's not part of the minimal basic set of installed files. Neither is gcc. You need to select it in the installer. Rerun the cygwin installer, step through to the Select Packages section. Expand the "web" item. Curl is there along with other useful tools like cadaver, wget, etc. Click on where it says "Skip" under the "new" column to toggle the selection. There may be more than one version that it will cycle through. When you've selected what you want, click "next" to proceed. The installer will leave your existing installed packages alone unless you change their selection status (it will update to newer versions, though, if available).

Answer 3

Well, it tells you you need to install ar, so do that.

Launch the Cygwin installer, and find the appropriate package (it might be something like C development environment if you don't find a separate ar package).