INSTALLpc.txt

INSTALLpc.txt - Installation of Vim on PC - Last Update: 2025 Aug 10

This file contains instructions for compiling Vim. If you already have an
executable version of Vim, you don't need this.

You can find the latest here: https://github.com/vim/vim-win32-installer
This page also has links to install support for interfaces such as Perl,
Python, Lua, etc.

The file "feature.h" can be edited to match your preferences. You can skip
this, then you will get the default behavior as is documented, which should
be fine for most people.

This document assumes that you are building Vim for Win32 or later (Windows
7/8/10/11).  There are also instructions for pre-Vista and pre-XP systems, but
they might no longer work.

The recommended way is to build a 32 bit Vim, also on 64 bit systems.  You can
build a 64 bit Vim if you like, the executable will be bigger and Vim won't be
any faster, but you can edit files larger than 2 Gbyte.


Contents:
1. Microsoft Visual C++
2. Using MSYS2 with MinGW
3. Using MinGW
4. Cygwin
5. Cross compiling for Win32 from a Linux machine
6. Building with Python support
7. Building with Python3 support
8. Building with Racket or MzScheme support
9. Building with Lua support
10. Building with Perl support
11. Building with Ruby support
12. Building with Tcl support
13. Building with DirectX (DirectWrite) support
14. Building with libsodium support
15. Windows 3.1
16. MS-DOS

17. Installing after building from sources


The currently recommended way (that means it has been verified to work) is
using the "Visual Studio 2022 Community Edition" installation.  This doesn't
include the SDK for older Windows versions (95 - XP), see "OLDER VERSIONS"
below for that.


1. Microsoft Visual C++
=======================

We do not provide download links, since Microsoft keeps changing them.  You
can search for "Visual Studio 2022 Community Edition", for example.  You will
need to create a Microsoft account (it's free).  You need to download the
"DVD", and execute the installer from it.

When installing "Visual Studio 2022 Community Edition" or "Build Tools for
Visual Studio 2022" make sure to select "custom" and check all checkboxes
under "Universal Windows App Development Tools".  Or whatever they are called
now.

Note: Vim source code no longer supports Windows XP since Patch 9.0.0496.
Also, Visual Studio 2017 was the last version to support a Windows XP target.
If you still want to target Windows XP, you can check out an older version of
vim source code and install Visual Studio 2017 or 2015 - making sure to check
the checkbox for "Windows XP Support for C++".  Additional build instructions
for Windows XP are provided below. |new-msvc-windows-xp|


Visual Studio
-------------

Building with Visual Studio (VS2015, VS2017, VS2019 and VS2022) is
straightforward.  Older versions probably don't work.

Vim versions built with VS2015 and VS2017 are systematically tested and known
to work well on Windows versions 7, 8 and 8.1.

Vim versions built with VS2015 and VS2017 are also known to work well on all
early versions of Windows 10.  However, Vim versions built with VS2015 and
VS2017 may run into a known issue on the latest versions of Windows 10 and 11.
Building Vim with VS2019 or VS2022 resolves the issue.

Vim versions built with VS2019 and VS2022 are systematically tested and
known to work on Windows versions 7, 8, 8.1, 10, 11 and all respective server
variants.

Visual Studio installed a batch file called vcvarsall.bat, which you must
run to set up paths for nmake and MSVC.  We provide a batch file
"msvc2015.bat" for this.  You may need to edit it if you didn't install Visual
Studio in the standard location.
If you use VS2017 or later, you can use "msvc-latest.bat" (or "msvc2017.bat"
and so on for the specific version).  You must specify the architecture (e.g.
"x86", "x64", etc.) as the first argument when you use this.  If you use VS2017
Express, you must use "x86_amd64" instead of "x64" for targeting the x64
platform.

To build Vim from the command line with MSVC, use Make_mvc.mak.

nmake -f Make_mvc.mak		console   Win32 SDK or Microsoft Visual C++
nmake -f Make_mvc.mak GUI=yes	GUI	  Microsoft Visual C++
nmake -f Make_mvc.mak OLE=yes	OLE	  Microsoft Visual C++
nmake -f Make_mvc.mak PERL=C:\Perl PYTHON=C:\Python etc.
				Perl, Python, etc.

Make_mvc.mak allows a Vim to be built with various different features and
debug support.

For compiling gVim with IME support on far-east Windows, add IME=yes
to the parameters you pass to Make_mvc.mak.

See the specific files for comments and options.

These files have been supplied by George V. Reilly, Ben Singer, Ken Scott and
Ron Aaron; they have been tested.  But several things changed after that...


Targeting Windows XP with MSVC 2015 or 2017        *new-msvc-windows-xp*
-------------------------------------------

(The support for pre-Vista was removed in patch 9.0.0496.  If you want to
target Windows XP, use the source code before that.)

Beginning with Visual C++ 2012, Microsoft changed the behavior of LINK.EXE
so that it targets Windows 6.0 (Vista) by default.  In order to override
this, the target Windows version number needs to be passed to LINK like
follows:
    LINK ... /subsystem:console,5.01

Make_mvc.mak now supports a macro SUBSYSTEM_VER to pass the Windows version.
Use lines like follows to target Windows XP x86 (assuming using Visual C++
2012 under 64-bit Windows):
    set WinSdk71=%ProgramFiles(x86)%\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v7.1A
    set INCLUDE=%WinSdk71%\Include;%INCLUDE%
    set LIB=%WinSdk71%\Lib;%LIB%
    set CL=/D_USING_V110_SDK71_
    nmake -f Make_mvc.mak ... WINVER=0x0501 SUBSYSTEM_VER=5.01

To target Windows XP x64 instead of x86, you need to change the settings of
LIB and SUBSYSTEM_VER:
    ...
    set LIB=%WinSdk71%\Lib\x64;%LIB%
    ...
    nmake -f Make_mvc.mak ... WINVER=0x0501 SUBSYSTEM_VER=5.02

If you use Visual C++ 2015 (either Express or Community Edition), executing
msvc2015.bat will set them automatically.  For x86 builds run this without
options:
  msvc2015
For x64 builds run this with the "x86_amd64" option:
  msvc2015 x86_amd64
This enables x86_x64 cross compiler. This works on any editions including
Express edition.
If you use Community (or Professional) edition, you can enable the x64 native
compiler by using the "x64" option:
  msvc2015 x64

The following Visual C++ team blog can serve as a reference page:
    http://blogs.msdn.com/b/vcblog/archive/2012/10/08/windows-xp-targeting-with-c-in-visual-studio-2012.aspx


Cross compile support for Windows on ARM64
------------------------------------------

This depends on VS2017 with the optional ARM64 compiler and SDK
installed. Use "vcvarsall.bat x64_arm64" as the build environment.

The ARM64 support was provided by Leendert van Doorn.


OLDER VERSIONS

The minimal supported version is Windows 7. Building with compilers older than
2015 most likely doesn't work.  Since MSVC 2022 can be obtained for free there
is no point in supporting older versions.

If you need the executable to run on Windows 98 or ME, use the 2005 one
|msvc-2005-express|, and use the source code before 8.0.0029.  See the
src/INSTALLpc.txt file for instructions.


2. MSYS2 with MinGW
===================

2.1 Building an x86_64 (64-bit) version

2.1.1. Setup the basic msys2 environment

Go to the official page of MSYS2: https://www.msys2.org
Download an installer:

* msys2-x86_64-YYYYMMDD.exe for 64-bit Windows

Execute the installer and follow the instructions to update basic packages.
At the end keep the checkbox checked to run msys2 now.  If needed, you can
open the window from the start menu, MSYS2 64 bit / MSYS2 MSYS.

Execute:
    $ pacman -Syu

And restart MSYS2 console (select "MSYS2 MinGW 64-Bit" icon from the Start
Menu).  Then execute:
    $ pacman -Su

If pacman complains that `catgets` and `libcatgets` conflict with another
package, select `y` to remove them.


2.1.2. Install additional packages for building Vim

The following package groups are required for building Vim:

* base-devel
* mingw-w64-x86_64-toolchain (for building 64-bit Vim)
* git (optional, to clone the repository)
* pactoys (optional for the pacboy command)

(These groups also include some useful packages which are not used by Vim.)
Use the following command to install them:

    $ pacman -S base-devel mingw-w64-x86_64-toolchain pactoys git

Or you can use the `pacboy` command to avoid long package names:

    $ pacboy -S base-devel: toolchain:x

The suffix ":" means that it disables the package name translation.
The suffix ":x" means x86_64.  You can also use the ":i" suffix
to install only i686, and ":a" for "aarch64".
(See `pacboy help` for the help.)

See also the pacman page in ArchWiki for the general usage of pacman:
    https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/pacman

MSYS2 has its own git package, and you can also install it via pacman:

    $ pacman -S git


2.1.3. Keep the build environment up-to-date

After you have installed the build environment, you may want to keep it
up-to-date (E.g. always use the latest GCC).
In that case, you just need to execute the command:
    $ pacman -Syu


2.1.4. Build Vim

Select the following icon from the Start Menu:

* MSYS2 MinGW 64-bit (To build 64-bit versions of Vim)

Before building look through notes for MinGW in part 3 below.

Go to the source directory of Vim, then execute the make command.  E.g.:

    make -f Make_ming.mak
    make -f Make_ming.mak GUI=no
    make -f Make_ming.mak GUI=no DEBUG=yes

NOTE: you can't execute vim.exe in the MSYS2 console, open a normal Windows
console for that.  You need to set $PATH to be able to build there, e.g.:

    set PATH=c:\msys64\mingw64\bin;c:\msys64\usr\bin;%PATH%

This command is in msys64.bat.

If you have msys64 in another location you will need to adjust the paths for
that.

2.1.5. Build Vim with Clang

The following package group is required for building Vim with Clang:

* mingw-w64-clang-x86_64-clang

Use the following command to install it:

    $ pacman -S mingw-w64-clang-x86_64-clang

Go to the source directory of Vim, then execute the make command.  E.g.:

    CC=clang
    CXX=clang++
    # To build Vim without the GUI support
    make -f Make_ming.mak GUI=no
    # To build Vim with the GUI support
    make -f Make_ming.mak GUI=yes XPM=no

To build Vim with the address sanitizer (ASAN), execute the following command:

    CC=clang
    CXX=clang++
    make -f Make_ming.mak DEBUG=yes ASAN=yes

2.2 Building an Arch64 version of Vim

2.2.1. Setup the basic msys2 environment

See also https://www.msys2.org/wiki/arm64/
Go to the official page of MSYS2: https://www.msys2.org

Download the self-extracting archive:

* msys2-base-x86_64-latest.sfx.exe

Execute the self-extracting archive into a folder of your choice.
In the extracted folder, run clangarm64.exe
This will open a MSYS2 terminal window for you.

Execute:
    $ pacman -Syu

And restart MSYS2 console. Then execute:
    $ pacman -Su


2.2.2. Install additional packages for building Vim

    $ pacman -S mingw-w64-clang-aarch64-clang mingw-w64-clang-aarch64-toolchain base-devel git

Or you can use the `pacboy` command to avoid long package names:

    $ pacboy -S base-devel: toolchain:a

The suffix ":" means that it disables the package name translation.
The suffix ":x" means x86_64.  You can also use the ":i" suffix
to install only i686, and ":a" for "aarch64".
(See `pacboy help` for the help.)

See also the pacman page in ArchWiki for the general usage of pacman:
    https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/pacman

2.2.3. Keep the build environment up-to-date

After you have installed the build environment, you may want to keep it
up-to-date (E.g. always use the latest GCC).
In that case, you just need to execute the command:
    $ pacman -Syu


2.2.4. Build Vim

Before building look through notes for MinGW in part 3 below.

Go to the source directory of Vim, then execute the make command.  E.g.:

    CC=clang
    CXX=clang++
    make -f Make_ming.mak
    make -f Make_ming.mak GUI=yes
    make -f Make_ming.mak GUI=no DEBUG=yes

NOTE: you can't execute vim.exe in the MSYS2 console, open a normal Windows
console for that.

To build Vim with the address sanitizer (ASAN), execute the following command:

    make -f Make_ming.mak DEBUG=yes ASAN=yes

3. MinGW
========

(written by Ron Aaron: <ronaharon@yahoo.com>, updated by Ken Takata, et al.)

This is about how to produce a Win32 binary of gvim with MinGW from the normal
Command Prompt window.  (To use MSYS2 console, see above.)

First, you need to get the 'MinGW-w64' compiler, which is free for the
download at:

    http://mingw-w64.sourceforge.net/

Or a compiler provided on msys2:

    https://www.msys2.org/

The original 'mingw32' compiler is outdated, and may no longer work:

    http://www.mingw.org/

Please note, newer versions of Windows (I believe starting with Win10)
offer support for UCRT C-library in addition to traditional MSVCRT. As result,
one may find 2 flavors of MinGW: one compiling against UCRT and another compiling
against MSVCRT. Currently VIM comes with libXpm.a compiled against MSVCRT,
so an attempt to build VIM against UCRT will fail with:

    undefined reference to __imp___iob_func

In which case, if one does not need support for XPM, then argument XPM=no can be
added to make-command. If support is needed, then another flavor of MinGW must
be used.

Once you have downloaded the compiler binaries, unpack them on your hard disk
somewhere, and put them on your PATH.  Go to the Control Panel, (Performance
and Maintenance), System, Advanced, and edit the environment from there.  If
you use the standalone MinGW-w64 compiler, the path may depend on your
installation.  If you use msys2 compilers, set your installed path (normally):

    C:\msys64\mingw64\bin   (64-bit msys2, targeting 64-bit builds)

Test if gcc is on your path.  From a Command Prompt window:

    C:\> gcc --version
    gcc (GCC) 4.8.1

    C:\> mingw32-make --version
    GNU Make 3.82.90 (...etc...)

Now you are ready to rock 'n' roll.  Unpack the vim sources (look on
www.vim.org for exactly which version of the vim files you need).

Change directory to 'vim\src':

    C:\> cd vim\src
    C:\VIM\SRC>

and you type:

    mingw32-make -f Make_ming.mak ARCH=x86-64 gvim.exe

Note, ARCH is necessary if you don't have the sed command in your $PATH. Just
make sure that the correct value is used with ARCH.

After churning for a while, you will end up with 'gvim.exe' in the 'vim\src'
directory.

If you also want to get xxd.exe, install.exe etc. then just remove "gvim.exe"
from the make-command.

You should not need to do *any* editing of any files to get vim compiled this
way.  If, for some reason, you want the console-mode-only version of vim (this
is NOT recommended on Win32, especially on '95/'98!!!), you can use:

    mingw32-make -f Make_ming.mak GUI=no vim.exe

If you are dismayed by how big the EXE is, I strongly recommend you get 'UPX'
(also free!) and compress the file (typical compression is 50%). UPX can be
found at
    http://www.upx.org/

As of 2011, UPX still does not support compressing 64-bit EXE's; if you have
built a 64-bit vim then an alternative to UPX is 'MPRESS'. MPRESS can be found
at:
    matcode.com/mpress.htm (now a dead link)


ADDITION: NLS support with MinGW

(by Eduardo F. Amatria <eferna1@platea.pntic.mec.es>)

If you want National Language Support, read the file src/po/README_mingw.txt.
You need to uncomment lines in Make_ming.mak to have NLS defined.


4. Cygwin
=========

Use Make_cyg.mak with Cygwin's GCC. See
    (now dead) users.skynet.be/antoine.mechelynck/vim/compile.htm

With Cygnus gcc you should use the Unix Makefile instead (you need to get the
Unix archive then).  Then you get a Cygwin application (feels like Vim is
running on Unix), while with Make_cyg.mak you get a Windows application (like
with the other makefiles).


5. Cross compiling for Win32 from a Linux machine
=================================================

[Update of 1) needs to be verified]

If you like, you can compile the 'mingw' Win32 version from the comfort of
your Linux (or other unix) box.  To do this, you need to follow a few steps:
    1) Install the mingw32 cross-compiler. See
	http://www.mingw.org/wiki/LinuxCrossMinGW
	http://www.libsdl.org/extras/win32/cross/README.txt
    2) Get and unpack both the Unix sources and the extra archive
    3) in 'Make_cyg_ming.mak', set 'CROSS' to 'yes' instead of 'no'.
       Make further changes to 'Make_cyg_ming.mak' and 'Make_ming.mak' as you
       wish.  If your cross-compiler prefix differs from the predefined value,
       set 'CROSS_COMPILE' corresponding.
    4) make -f Make_ming.mak gvim.exe

Now you have created the Windows binary from your Linux box!  Have fun...


6. Building with Python support
===============================

For building with MSVC the "Windows Installer" from www.python.org works fine.

When building, you need to set the following variables at least:

    PYTHON:         Where Python is installed. E.g. C:\Python27
    DYNAMIC_PYTHON: Whether dynamic linking is used. Usually, set to yes.
    PYTHON_VER:     Python version. E.g. 27 for Python 2.7.X.

E.g. When using MSVC (as one line):

    nmake -f Make_mvc.mak
        PYTHON=C:\Python27 DYNAMIC_PYTHON=yes PYTHON_VER=27

When using MinGW and link with the official Python (as one line):

    mingw32-make -f Make_ming.mak
        PYTHON=C:/Python27 DYNAMIC_PYTHON=yes PYTHON_VER=27

When using msys2 and link with Python2 bundled with msys2 (as one line):

    mingw32-make -f Make_ming.mak PYTHON=c:/msys64/mingw64
        PYTHON_HOME=c:/msys64/mingw64
        PYTHONINC=-Ic:/msys64/mingw64/include/python2.7
        DYNAMIC_PYTHON=yes
        PYTHON_VER=27
        DYNAMIC_PYTHON_DLL=libpython2.7.dll
        STATIC_STDCPLUS=yes

(This is for 64-bit builds.)
(STATIC_STDCPLUS is optional.  Set to yes if you don't want to require
libstdc++-6.dll.)


(rest written by Ron Aaron: <ronaharon@yahoo.com>)

Building with the mingw32 compiler, and the ActiveState ActivePython:
    http://www.ActiveState.com/Products/ActivePython/

After installing the ActivePython, you will have to create a 'mingw32'
'libpython20.a' to link with:
    cd $PYTHON/libs
    pexports python20.dll > python20.def
    dlltool -d python20.def -l libpython20.a

Once that is done, edit the 'Make_ming.mak' so the PYTHON variable points to
the root of the Python installation (C:\Python20, for example).  If you are
cross-compiling on Linux with the mingw32 setup, you need to also convert all
the 'Include' files to *unix* line-endings.  This bash command will do it
easily:
    for fil in *.h ; do vim -e -c 'set ff=unix|w|q' $fil

Now just do:
    make -f Make_ming.mak gvim.exe

You will end up with a Python-enabled, Win32 version. Enjoy!


7. Building with Python3 support
================================

For building with MSVC the "Windows Installer" from www.python.org works fine.
Python 3.6 is recommended.

When building, you need to set the following variables at least:

    PYTHON3:         Where Python3 is installed. E.g. C:\Python36
    DYNAMIC_PYTHON3: Whether dynamic linking is used. Usually, set to yes.
    PYTHON3_VER:     Python3 version. E.g. 36 for Python 3.6.X.

E.g. When using MSVC (as one line):

    nmake -f Make_mvc.mak
        PYTHON3=C:\Python36 DYNAMIC_PYTHON3=yes PYTHON3_VER=36

When using MinGW and link with the official Python3 (as one line):

    mingw32-make -f Make_ming.mak
        PYTHON3=C:/Python36 DYNAMIC_PYTHON3=yes PYTHON3_VER=36

When using msys2 and link with Python3 bundled with msys2 (as one line):

    mingw32-make -f Make_ming.mak PYTHON3=c:/msys64/mingw64
        PYTHON3_HOME=c:/msys64/mingw64
        PYTHON3INC=-Ic:/msys64/mingw64/include/python3.6m
        DYNAMIC_PYTHON3=yes
        PYTHON3_VER=36
        DYNAMIC_PYTHON3_DLL=libpython3.6m.dll
        STATIC_STDCPLUS=yes

(This is for 64-bit builds.)
(STATIC_STDCPLUS is optional.  Set to yes if you don't want to require
libstdc++-6.dll.)


8. Building with Racket or MzScheme support
===========================================

1) Building with Racket support (newest)

MzScheme and PLT Scheme names have been rebranded as Racket.  Vim with Racket
support can be built with either MSVC or MinGW (or Cygwin).
Get it from https://download.racket-lang.org/

Copy lib/libracket{version}.dll to your Windows system directory. The system
directory depends on your Windows bitness and Vim bitness:
  32-bit Vim on 32-bit Windows: C:\Windows\System32
  32-bit Vim on 64-bit Windows: C:\Windows\SysWOW64
  64-bit Vim on 64-bit Windows: C:\Windows\System32

For building you need to set the following variables:

    MZSCHEME:          Where Racket is installed.
                       E.g. C:\Program Files (x86)\Racket
    DYNAMIC_MZSCHEME:  Whether dynamic linking is used. Usually, set to yes.
    MZSCHEME_VER:      Racket DLL version which is used for the file name.
                       See below for a list of MZSCHEME_VER.
                       The DLL can be found under the lib directory. E.g.
                       C:\Program Files (x86)\Racket\lib\libracket3m_XXXXXX.dll
    MZSCHEME_COLLECTS: (Optional) Path of the collects directory used at
                       runtime. Default: $(MZSCHEME)\collects
                       User can override this with the PLTCOLLECTS environment
                       variable.

List of MZSCHEME_VER (incomplete):

    Racket ver. | MZSCHEME_VER
    ==========================
    6.3         | 3m_9z0ds0
    6.6         | 3m_a0solc
    6.8         | 3m_a1zjsw
    6.10        | 3m_a36fs8


E.g. When using MSVC (as one line):

    nmake -f Make_mvc.mak
        MZSCHEME="C:\Program Files (x86)\Racket" DYNAMIC_MZSCHEME=yes
        MZSCHEME_VER=3m_9z0ds0

Or when using MinGW (as one line):

    mingw32-make -f Make_ming.mak
        MZSCHEME='C:/Program\ Files\ (x86)/Racket' DYNAMIC_MZSCHEME=yes
        MZSCHEME_VER=3m_9z0ds0

    Spaces should be escaped with '\'.


2) Building with MzScheme support (older)

(written by Sergey Khorev <sergey.khorev@gmail.com>)

Vim with MzScheme (http://www.plt-scheme.org/software/mzscheme) support can
be built with either MSVC, or MinGW, or Cygwin. Supported versions are 205 and
above (including 299 and 30x series).

The MSVC build is quite straightforward. Simply invoke (in one line)
nmake -fMake_mvc.mak MZSCHEME=<Path-to-MzScheme>
    [MZSCHEME_VER=<MzScheme-version>] [DYNAMIC_MZSCHEME=<yes or no>]
where <MzScheme-version> is the last seven characters from MzScheme dll name
(libmzschXXXXXXX.dll).
If DYNAMIC_MZSCHEME=yes, resulting executable will not depend on MzScheme
DLL's, but will load them in runtime on demand.

Building dynamic MzScheme support on MinGW and Cygwin is similar. Take into
account that <Path-to-MzScheme> should contain slashes rather than backslashes
(e.g. d:/Develop/MzScheme)

"Static" MzScheme support (Vim executable will depend on MzScheme DLLs
explicitly) on MinGW and Cygwin requires additional step.

libmzschXXXXXXX.dll and libmzgcXXXXXXX.dll should be copied from
%WINDOWS%\System32 to other location (either build directory, some temporary
dir or even MzScheme home).

Pass that path as MZSCHEME_DLLS parameter for Make. E.g.,
make -f Make_cyg.mak MZSCHEME=d:/Develop/MzScheme MZSCHEME_VER=209_000
    MZSCHEME_DLLS=c:/Temp DYNAMIC_MZSCHEME=no

After a successful build, these dlls can be freely removed, leaving them in
%WINDOWS%\System32 only.



9. Building with Lua support
============================

Vim with Lua support can be built with either MSVC or MinGW (or maybe Cygwin).
You can use binaries from LuaBinaries: http://luabinaries.sourceforge.net/
This also applies to when you get a Vim executable and don't build yourself,
do the part up to "Build".

1) Download and install LuaBinaries

Go to the Download page of LuaBinaries:
  http://luabinaries.sourceforge.net/download.html

Download lua-X.Y.Z_Win64_dllw4_lib.zip for x64.  You can use it both for MSVC
and MinGW.

Unpack it to a working directory. E.g. C:\projects\lua53.
Lua's header files will be installed under the include directory.

Copy luaXY.dll to your Windows system directory. The system directory depends
on your Windows bitness and Vim bitness:
  32-bit Vim on 64-bit Windows: C:\Windows\SysWOW64
  64-bit Vim on 64-bit Windows: C:\Windows\System32

Or another option is copying luaXY.dll to the directory where gvim.exe
(or vim.exe) is.


2) Build

You need to set LUA, DYNAMIC_LUA and LUA_VER.

  LUA: Where Lua's header files are installed. E.g. C:\projects\lua53.
  DYNAMIC_LUA: Whether dynamic linking is used. Set to yes.
  LUA_VER: Lua version. E.g. 53 for Lua 5.3.X.

E.g. When using MSVC (as one line):

    nmake -f Make_mvc.mak
        LUA=C:\projects\lua53 DYNAMIC_LUA=yes LUA_VER=53

Or when using MinGW (as one line):

    mingw32-make -f Make_ming.mak
        LUA=C:/projects/lua53 DYNAMIC_LUA=yes LUA_VER=53


Or when using Cygwin (as one line) (untested):

    make -f Make_cyg.mak
        LUA=/cygdrive/c/projects/lua53 DYNAMIC_LUA=yes LUA_VER=53


10. Building with Perl support
==============================

Vim with Perl support can be built with either MSVC or MinGW (or Cygwin).
You can use binaries from ActiveState (ActivePerl) or Strawberry Perl.

    http://www.activestate.com/activeperl
    http://strawberryperl.com/

When building, you need to set the following variables:

    PERL:         Where perl is installed. E.g. C:\Perl, C:\Strawberry\perl
    DYNAMIC_PERL: Whether dynamic linking is used. Usually, set to yes.
    PERL_VER:     Perl version. E.g. 522 for Perl 5.22.X.

E.g. When using MSVC (as one line):

    nmake -f Make_mvc.mak
        PERL=C:\StrawberryPerl\perl DYNAMIC_PERL=yes PERL_VER=522

Or when using MinGW (as one line):

    mingw32-make -f Make_ming.mak
        PERL=C:/StrawberryPerl/perl DYNAMIC_PERL=yes PERL_VER=522


11. Building with Ruby support
==============================

Vim with Ruby support can be built with either MSVC or MinGW (or Cygwin).
Ruby doesn't provide the official Windows binaries.  The most widely used
Windows binaries might be RubyInstaller.  Currently Ruby 2.4 is recommended.

    http://rubyinstaller.org/

If you use MinGW you can easily build with RubyInstaller, but if you use MSVC
you need some tricks described below.
(Another binary distribution is ActiveScriptRuby:
    http://www.artonx.org/data/asr/)

When building, you need to set the following variables at least:

    RUBY:              Where ruby is installed. E.g. C:\Ruby24-x64
    DYNAMIC_RUBY:      Whether dynamic linking is used. Usually, set to yes.
    RUBY_VER:          Ruby version. E.g. 24 for Ruby 2.4.X.
    RUBY_API_VER_LONG: Ruby API version in a long format.
                       E.g. 2.4.0 for Ruby 2.4.X.

Ruby version vs. Ruby API version:

    Ruby ver. | Ruby API ver.
    =========================
    1.9.[1-3] | 1.9.1
    2.0.0     | 2.0.0
    2.X.Y     | 2.X.0

(Ruby 1.9.0 is excluded from the table because it is an unstable version.)


A) Using MSVC

If you want to link with ruby, normally you must use the same compiler as
which was used to build the ruby binary.  RubyInstaller is built with MinGW,
so normally you cannot use MSVC for building Vim if you want to link with
RubyInstaller.  If you use a different compiler, there are mainly two problems:
config.h and Ruby's DLL name. Here are the steps for working around them:

  1) Download and Install RubyInstaller.
    You can install RubyInstaller with the default options and directory.
    E.g.:
      C:\Ruby24-x64

    Ruby 2.4.X is used in this example.

  2) Download Ruby 2.4.X's source code and generate config.h:

      cd C:\projects
      git clone https://github.com/ruby/ruby.git -b ruby_2_4
      cd ruby
      win32\configure.bat
      nmake .config.h.time

    Note that ruby_2_4 is the branch name for Ruby 2.4.X's source code.
    There is no need to build whole Ruby, just config.h is needed.
    If you use 64-bit MSVC 2015, the config.h is generated in the
    .ext\include\x64-mswin64_140 directory.

  3) Install the generated config.h.

      xcopy /s .ext\include C:\Ruby24-x64\include\ruby-2.4.0

    Note that 2.4.0 is Ruby API version of Ruby 2.4.X.
    You may need to close the console and reopen it to pick up the new $PATH.

  4) Build Vim. Note that you need to adjust some variables (as one line):

      nmake -f Make_mvc.mak
          RUBY=C:\Ruby24-x64 DYNAMIC_RUBY=yes RUBY_VER=24 RUBY_API_VER_LONG=2.4.0
          RUBY_MSVCRT_NAME=msvcrt
          WINVER=0x601

    If you set WINVER explicitly, it must be set to >=0x500, when building
    with Ruby 2.1 or later.  (Default is 0x601.)
    When using this trick, you also need to set RUBY_MSVCRT_NAME to msvcrt
    which is used for the Ruby's DLL name.

B) Using MinGW

Using MinGW is easier than using MSVC when linking with RubyInstaller.
After you install RubyInstaller, just type this (as one line):

    mingw32-make -f Make_ming.mak
        RUBY=C:/Ruby24-x64 DYNAMIC_RUBY=yes RUBY_VER=24 RUBY_API_VER_LONG=2.4.0
        WINVER=0x601

If you set WINVER explicitly, it must be set to >=0x500, when building with
Ruby 2.1 or later.  (Default is 0x601.)



12. Building with Tcl support
=============================

Vim with Tcl support can be built with either MSVC or MinGW (or Cygwin).
You can use binaries from ActiveState (ActiveTcl).

    http://www.activestate.com/activetcl

Alternatively, you can use the binaries provided by IronTcl from

    https://www.irontcl.com/

They might lack behind the latest version a bit, but should provide a 64bit
version even if ActiveTcl does not provide it anymore.

For building with MSVC 2015 use version 8.6.6 or later.
When building, you need to set the following variables:

    TCL:          Where tcl is installed. E.g. C:\Tcl86
    DYNAMIC_TCL:  Whether dynamic linking is used. Usually, set to yes.
    TCL_VER:      Tcl version in a short format. E.g. 86 for Tcl 8.6.X.
    TCL_VER_LONG: Tcl version in a long format. E.g. 8.6 for Tcl 8.6.X.

Sometimes the Tcl dll name changes.  E.g. ActiveTcl 8.6.4 comes with tcl86.dll,
but ActiveTcl 8.6.6 comes with tcl86t.dll.  You can set the dll name by setting
the TCL_DLL variable:
    TCL_DLL=tcl86t.dll

E.g. When using MSVC (as one line):

    nmake -f Make_mvc.mak
        TCL=C:\Tcl86 DYNAMIC_TCL=yes TCL_VER=86 TCL_VER_LONG=8.6

Or when using MinGW (as one line):

    mingw32-make -f Make_ming.mak
        TCL=C:/Tcl86 DYNAMIC_TCL=yes TCL_VER=86 TCL_VER_LONG=8.6


13. Building with DirectX (DirectWrite) support
===============================================

Vim with DirectX (DirectWrite) support can be built with either MSVC or MinGW.
This requires dwrite_2.h and some other header files which come with Windows
SDK 8.1 or later (or MinGW-w64), if you want to enable color emoji support.
This also requires MBYTE=yes which is enabled by default.

A) Using MSVC

If you use MSVC 2013 or later, Windows SDK 8.1 or later is used by default.
You just need to specify DIRECTX=yes:

    nmake -f Make_mvc.mak DIRECTX=yes

If you use MSVC 2012 or earlier, the required header files are not available
by default.  However, you can use the header files from newer SDKs with older
compilers.  E.g.:

    set "INCLUDE=%INCLUDE%;C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\8.1\Include\um"
    nmake -f Make_mvc.mak DIRECTX=yes

If you don't need color emoji support, only dwrite.h is required.  You can use
older compilers (e.g. VC2010) without Windows SDK 8.1.  E.g.:

    nmake -f Make_mvc.mak DIRECTX=yes COLOR_EMOJI=no

B) Using MinGW-w64

Just set DIRECTX to yes:

    mingw32-make -f Make_ming.mak DIRECTX=yes


14. Building with libsodium support
===================================

For better encryption support, you can build Vim with libsodium.

A) Using MSVC

You can download the latest libsodium library from here:
	https://download.libsodium.org/libsodium/releases/

At this moment, libsodium-1.0.18-stable-msvc.zip is the latest package.
Unpack it to anywhere you like, and specify the path to the SODIUM option:

    nmake -f Make_mvc.mak SODIUM=C:/path/to/libsodium
    (libsodium.dll will be used as the libsodium DLL name.)

B) Using MinGW

If you use msys2, you can install the libsodium package by pacman (or pacboy):

    $ pacman -S mingw-w64-x86_64-libsodium	# for 64-bit Vim

Then set SODIUM to yes:

    mingw32-make -f Make_ming.mak SODIUM=yes
    (libsodium-23.dll will be used as the libsodium DLL name.)

Or you can set the path to libsodium explicitly:

    mingw32-make -f Make_ming.mak SODIUM=C:/path/to/libsodium
    (libsodium.dll will be used as the libsodium DLL name.)


15. Windows 3.1x
================

The Windows 3.1x support was removed in patch 7.4.1364.


16. MS-DOS
==========

The MS-DOS support was removed in patch 7.4.1399.  Only very old Vim versions
work on MS-DOS because of the limited amount of memory available.


17. Installing after building from sources
==========================================

[provided by Michael Soyka, updated by Ken Takata]

After you've built the Vim binaries as described above, you're ready to
install Vim on your system.  However, if you've obtained the Vim sources
using Git, Mercurial or by downloading them as a unix tar file, you must
first create a "vim91" directory.  If you instead downloaded the sources as
zip files, you can skip this setup as the zip archives already have the
correct directory structure.

  A.  Create a Vim "runtime" subdirectory named "vim91"
  -----------------------------------------------------
  If you obtained your Vim sources as zip files, you can skip this step.
  Otherwise, continue reading.

  Go to the directory that contains the Vim "src" and "runtime"
  directories and create a new subdirectory named "vim91".

  Copy the "runtime" files into "vim91":
     copy runtime\* vim91
     xcopy /s runtime\* vim91

  B.  Copy the new binaries into the "vim91" directory
  ----------------------------------------------------
  Regardless of how you installed the Vim sources, you need to copy the
  new binaries you created above into "vim91":

     copy src\*.exe vim91
     copy src\tee\tee.exe vim91
     copy src\xxd\xxd.exe vim91

  To install the "Edit with Vim" popup menu, you need both 32-bit and 64-bit
  versions of gvimext.dll.  They should be copied to "vim91\GvimExt32" and
  "vim91\GvimExt64" respectively.
  First, build the 32-bit version, then:

     mkdir vim91\GvimExt32
     copy src\GvimExt\gvimext.dll vim91\GvimExt32

  Next, clean the 32-bit version and build the 64-bit version, then:

     mkdir vim91\GvimExt64
     copy src\GvimExt\gvimext.dll vim91\GvimExt64

  C.  Copy gettext and iconv DLLs into the "vim91" directory
  ----------------------------------------------------------
  Get gettext and iconv DLLs from the following site:
     https://github.com/mlocati/gettext-iconv-windows/releases
  Both 64- and 32-bit versions are needed.
  Download the files gettextX.X.X.X-iconvX.XX-shared-{32,64}.zip, extract
  DLLs and place them as follows:

        vim91\
            |   libintl-8.dll
            |   libiconv-2.dll
            |   libgcc_s_sjlj-1.dll     (only for 32-bit)
            |
            + GvimExt32\
            |   libintl-8.dll
            |   libiconv-2.dll
            |   libgcc_s_sjlj-1.dll
            |
            ` GvimExt64\
                libintl-8.dll
                libiconv-2.dll

  The DLLs in the "vim91" should be the same bitness with the (g)vim.exe.

  D.  Move the "vim91" directory into the Vim installation subdirectory
  ---------------------------------------------------------------------
  Move the "vim91" subdirectory into the subdirectory where you want Vim
  to be installed.  Typically, this subdirectory will be named "vim".
  If you already have a "vim91" subdirectory in "vim", delete it first
  by running its uninstall.exe program.

  E.  Install Vim
  ---------------
  "cd" to your Vim installation subdirectory "vim\vim91" and run the
  "install.exe" program.  It will ask you a number of questions about
  how you would like to have your Vim setup.  Among these are:
  - You can tell it to write a "_vimrc" file with your preferences in the
    parent directory.
  - It can also install an "Edit with Vim" entry in the Windows Explorer
    popup menu.
  - You can have it create batch files, so that you can run Vim from the
    console or in a shell.  You can select one of the directories in your
    PATH or add the directory to PATH using the Windows Control Panel.
  - Create entries for Vim on the desktop and in the Start menu.

Happy Vimming!