Configure options for building MinGW-64 on linux-64 for linux-64 (ultimately targetting windows-64)

Question

I want to build MinGW-w64 where:

A: I want to compile MinGW itself on Linux (64-bit).
B: I want the MinGW tools (compiler, etc) to run on Linux (64-bit).
C: I want the MinGW tools (compiler, etc) to produce code that runs on Windows 64-bit (Win7 & Win8).

I'm having trouble at the configure stage. I've googled around a bit but I can't find out what options I need to pass to configure.

I have downloaded the source for MinGW-w64 SVN from (https://svn.code.sf.net/p/mingw-w64/code/trunk/). (AFAICT this is the current official repo).

The source has a text help (mingw-w64-doc/howto-build/mingw-w64-howto-build.txt). However, this is primarily intended for those wanting to run MinGW tools on Windows.
The example options (for a non-multilib w64 target) are:

--host=x86_64-w64-mingw32 --target=x86_64-w64-mingw32 --disable-multilib

But I think I want the host option to refer to linux (right?). I've tried

--host=x86_64-linux-gnu

and

--host=x86_64-pc-linux-gnu

but no luck.

I get the error:

configure: error: Please check if the mingw-w64 header set and the build/host option are set properly.

configure: error: ../../../svn/mingw-w64-v6615-2014-05-07/mingw-w64-crt/configure failed for mingw-w64-crt

The full log is

    checking whether to enable maintainer-specific portions of Makefiles... no
    checking for a BSD-compatible install... /usr/bin/install -c
    checking whether build environment is sane... yes
    /make/tool/MinGW/svn/mingw-w64-v6615-2014-05-07/build-aux/missing: Unknown `--is-lightweight' option
    Try `/make/tool/MinGW/svn/mingw-w64-v6615-2014-05-07/build-aux/missing --help' for more information
    configure: WARNING: 'missing' script is too old or missing
    checking for x86_64-linux-gnu-strip... no
    checking for strip... strip
    checking for a thread-safe mkdir -p... /bin/mkdir -p
    checking for gawk... gawk
    checking whether make sets $(MAKE)... yes
    checking whether make supports nested variables... yes
    checking build system type... x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
    checking host system type... x86_64-pc-linux-gnu
    checking whether to build the headers... yes
    checking whether to build the crt... yes
    checking whether to build the optional libraries... no
    checking whether to build the optional tools... no
    checking that generated files are newer than configure... done
    configure: creating ./config.status
    config.status: creating Makefile
    config.status: creating config.h
    config.status: config.h is unchanged
    === configuring in mingw-w64-headers (/make/tool/MinGW/build/v6615-2014-05-07/mingw-w64-headers)
    configure: running /bin/bash ../../../svn/mingw-w64-v6615-2014-05-07/mingw-w64-headers/configure --disable-option-checking '--prefix=/make/tool/MinGW/use/v6615/x86_64-w64-mingw32'  '--target=x86_64-w64-mingw32' '--host=x86_64-linux-gnu' '--disable-multilib' '--with-sysroot=/make/tool/MinGW/use/v6615/x86_64-w64-mingw32' 'host_alias=x86_64-linux-gnu' 'target_alias=x86_64-w64-mingw32' --cache-file=/dev/null --srcdir=../../../svn/mingw-w64-v6615-2014-05-07/mingw-w64-headers
    checking for a BSD-compatible install... /usr/bin/install -c
    checking whether build environment is sane... yes
    /make/tool/MinGW/svn/mingw-w64-v6615-2014-05-07/mingw-w64-headers/build-aux/missing: Unknown `--is-lightweight' option
    Try `/make/tool/MinGW/svn/mingw-w64-v6615-2014-05-07/mingw-w64-headers/build-aux/missing --help' for more information
    configure: WARNING: 'missing' script is too old or missing
    checking for x86_64-linux-gnu-strip... no
    checking for strip... strip
    checking for a thread-safe mkdir -p... /bin/mkdir -p
    checking for gawk... gawk
    checking whether make sets $(MAKE)... yes
    checking whether make supports nested variables... yes
    checking whether to enable maintainer-specific portions of Makefiles... no
    checking build system type... x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
    checking host system type... x86_64-pc-linux-gnu
    checking for a sed that does not truncate output... /bin/sed
    checking whether to rebuild headers with widl... no
    checking whether to build a w32api package for Cygwin... no
    checking for c-runtime headers... yes
    checking for optional sdk headers... ddk,directx
    checking if installing idl files is enabled... no
    checking whether to enable the secure API... no
    checking that generated files are newer than configure... done
    configure: creating ./config.status
    config.status: creating Makefile
    config.status: creating crt/_mingw.h
    config.status: creating config.h
    config.status: config.h is unchanged
    === configuring in mingw-w64-crt (/make/tool/MinGW/build/v6615-2014-05-07/mingw-w64-crt)
    configure: running /bin/bash ../../../svn/mingw-w64-v6615-2014-05-07/mingw-w64-crt/configure --disable-option-checking '--prefix=/make/tool/MinGW/use/v6615/x86_64-w64-mingw32'  '--target=x86_64-w64-mingw32' '--host=x86_64-linux-gnu' '--disable-multilib' '--with-sysroot=/make/tool/MinGW/use/v6615/x86_64-w64-mingw32' 'host_alias=x86_64-linux-gnu' 'target_alias=x86_64-w64-mingw32' --cache-file=/dev/null --srcdir=../../../svn/mingw-w64-v6615-2014-05-07/mingw-w64-crt
    checking for a BSD-compatible install... /usr/bin/install -c
    checking whether build environment is sane... yes
    checking for x86_64-linux-gnu-strip... no
    checking for strip... strip
    checking for a thread-safe mkdir -p... /bin/mkdir -p
    checking for gawk... gawk
    checking whether make sets $(MAKE)... yes
    checking whether make supports nested variables... yes
    checking whether to enable maintainer-specific portions of Makefiles... no
    checking build system type... x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
    checking host system type... x86_64-pc-linux-gnu
    checking for sysroot... /make/tool/MinGW/use/v6615/x86_64-w64-mingw32
    checking for a sed that does not truncate output... /bin/sed
    checking for gawk... (cached) gawk
    checking for x86_64-linux-gnu-gcc... x86_64-linux-gnu-gcc
    checking whether the C compiler works... yes
    checking for C compiler default output file name... a.out
    checking for suffix of executables... 
    checking whether we are cross compiling... no
    checking for suffix of object files... o
    checking whether we are using the GNU C compiler... yes
    checking whether x86_64-linux-gnu-gcc accepts -g... yes
    checking for x86_64-linux-gnu-gcc option to accept ISO C89... none needed
    checking whether x86_64-linux-gnu-gcc understands -c and -o together... yes
    checking for style of include used by make... GNU
    checking dependency style of x86_64-linux-gnu-gcc... gcc3
    checking for x86_64-linux-gnu-g++... x86_64-linux-gnu-g++
    checking whether we are using the GNU C++ compiler... yes
    checking whether x86_64-linux-gnu-g++ accepts -g... yes
    checking dependency style of x86_64-linux-gnu-g++... gcc3
    checking how to run the C preprocessor... x86_64-linux-gnu-gcc -E
    checking for x86_64-linux-gnu-ranlib... no
    checking for ranlib... ranlib
    checking for x86_64-linux-gnu-dlltool... no
    checking for dlltool... no
    checking for x86_64-linux-gnu-ar... no
    checking for x86_64-linux-gnu-lib... no
    checking for x86_64-linux-gnu-link... no
    checking for ar... ar
    checking the archiver (ar) interface... ar
    checking dependency style of x86_64-linux-gnu-gcc... gcc3
    checking for x86_64-linux-gnu-as... no
    checking for as... as
    checking whether to build a w32api package for Cygwin... no
    checking whether to build the Win32 libraries... no
    checking whether to build the Win64 libraries... yes
    checking whether to build the WinCE libraries... no
    checking whether to enable globbing... no
    checking whether to enable private exports... no
    checking whether to enable delay import libs... no
    checking whether to enable experimental features... no
    checking whether the compiler supports -municode... no
    checking for grep that handles long lines and -e... /bin/grep
    checking for egrep... /bin/grep -E
    checking for ANSI C header files... yes
    checking for sys/types.h... yes
    checking for sys/stat.h... yes
    checking for stdlib.h... yes
    checking for string.h... yes
    checking for memory.h... yes
    checking for strings.h... yes
    checking for inttypes.h... yes
    checking for stdint.h... yes
    checking for unistd.h... yes
    checking _mingw_mac.h usability... no
    checking _mingw_mac.h presence... no
    checking for _mingw_mac.h... no
    configure: error: Please check if the mingw-w64 header set and the build/host option are set properly.
    configure: error: ../../../svn/mingw-w64-v6615-2014-05-07/mingw-w64-crt/configure failed for mingw-w64-crt

NOTE: I can successfully compile native GCC & Clang from source.

Purpose: My ultimate goal is to use the latest Clang to produce C++14 code for Windows 7/8 64-bit (including D3D11 & OpenGL).
I want to build trunk MinGW because the latest Clang produces assembly code that the default MinGW cannot assemble (mainly "junk at end of line" errors).
As of 2014-05-07 (today), only Clang offers full C++14 support, and I am making use of features only available in Clang (eg: variable templates).
Yet, Clang relies on GCC / MinGW for assembling and linking.

Info: OS: Linux Mint 16 64-bit (XFCE).

Thanks for all assistance.

Answer 1

Old question, but an answer might be helpful to those coming from google.

The host and build flags are a bit misleading. The info from the help page at mingw-w64-crt/configure --help shows:

System types:
  --build=BUILD     configure for building on BUILD [guessed]
  --host=HOST       cross-compile to build programs to run on HOST [BUILD]

So we want to leave --build alone, and specify the windows system we wish to cross-compile for with --host.

So, the way to build for 64bit windows, and include both 32bit and 64bit libraries and std::experimental features is with:

./configure --enable-lib32 --enable-lib64 --enable-experimental --host=x86_64-w64-mingw32

It's very similar if you want to build for 32bit windows, but of course you can't enable 64bit mode:

./configure --enable-lib32 --enable-experimental --host=i686-w64-mingw32

Answer 2

https://github.com/Zeranoe/mingw-w64-build

I think your answer is here:
./mingw-w64-build x86_64 for 64bit;
or
./mingw-w64-build x86_64 i686 for 32bit.

I met the same error while configuring. After reading the shell in mingw-w64-build this file, I think you will have to execute:

./configure in folder ../x86_64-w64-v8.0.0/mingw-w64-headers,

then

./configure in folder ../x86_64-w64-v8.0.0/mingw-w64-crt,

and finally

./configure in folder ../x86_64-w64-v8.0.0/mingw-w64-libraries/winpthreads.

I did not verify the whole process manually, because this shell file just did the job.