CODEWITHSUNDEEP
gcc64-bitcross-compilingx86-64
Hannes de Jager
Hannes de Jager

Reputation: 2923

Cross compile windows 64 bit .exe from linux

I know that if I want to compile a 32 bit .exe for windows on Linux I can just install and use the mingw32 package (e.g. apt-get install mingw32) on linux. What if I want to compile a windows .exe that is 64 bit? Is there tools or a method to do this?

Upvotes: 11

Views: 15360

Answers (3)

HolyBlackCat
HolyBlackCat

Reputation: 96012

It's also possible to install MinGW from MSYS2. The main advantages are:

  • Usually up-to-date MinGW, regardless of what your Linux distribution ships.
  • A lot of prebuilt libraries.

Several MinGW flavors are provided: x32 and x64, with different C runtimes, etc.

You can't install MSYS2 on Linux directly, but it's possible with Quasi-MSYS2.

  1. Install Clang (and LLD):

    On Ubuntu:

    wget https://apt.llvm.org/llvm.sh
chmod +x llvm.sh
sudo ./llvm.sh
rm llvm.sh

    Clang can cross-compile to Windows using MSYS2 libraries. Alternatively, you can run MSYS2 MinGW in Wine, but it's slower.

  2. Install dependencies:

    sudo apt install make wget tar zstd gpg wine

    Wine is optional.

  3. Install Quasi-MSYS2 and any desired MSYS2 packages:

    git clone https://github.com/HolyBlackCat/quasi-msys2
cd quasi-msys2/
# Optionally, choose MSYS2 flavor, see full list at: https://www.msys2.org/docs/environments/
# echo MINGW64 >msystem.txt
make install _gcc _gdb

    Then:

  4. env/shell.sh opens a shell with the correct environment variables set up.

  5. win-clang++ hello.cpp invokes Clang with flags for cross-compilation.

  6. ./a.exe runs the resulting app in Wine, if it's installed.

Full disclosure: I'm the developer of quasi-msys2.

Upvotes: 0

m4l490n
m4l490n

Reputation: 1692

I know this question is very old and already has an accepted answer but I will post this answer the way I do it now. It is pretty simple and straightforward and I hope it helps anyone landing here:

To cross-compile windows applications from a Linux machine you just need to install mingw-w64 C and C++ compiler. On debian based system you just do this:

sudo apt install -y gcc-mingw-w64 g++-mingw-w64

That will install the gcc (the c compiler) and g++ (the c++ compiler) for both 64 and 32 bit cross-compilation

After that, if you need a 64-bit application just do:

x86_64-w64-mingw32-g++ hello.c -o hello.exe

And if you need a 32-bit application just do:

i686-w64-mingw32-g++ hello.c -o hello.exe

Simple as that!

Upvotes: 2

Hannes de Jager
Hannes de Jager

Reputation: 2923

It looks like my answer lies with the Mingw-w64 project which is available for host OSes Linux, Darwin & Windows

Upvotes: 6

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