Problem compiling freetype2 with MinGW/MSYS

Question

There seems to be a problem compiling freetype2 with MinGW and MSYS

My attempts on a clean copy of the freetype source, and an unadulterated MinGW and MSYS give:

Andrew@MCARDLE-PC ~/documents/code
$ cd freetype-2.3.11

Andrew@MCARDLE-PC ~/documents/code/freetype-2.3.11
$ ./configure

FreeType build system -- automatic system detection

The following settings are used:

  platform                    unix
  compiler                    cc
  configuration directory     ./builds/unix
  configuration rules         ./builds/unix/unix.mk

If this does not correspond to your system or settings please remove the file
`config.mk' from this directory then read the INSTALL file for help.

Otherwise, simply type `c:/code/mingw/bin/make' again to build the library,
or `c:/code/mingw/bin/make refdoc' to build the API reference (the latter needs
python).

Generating modules list in ./objs/ftmodule.h...
* module: truetype  (Windows/Mac font files with extension *.ttf or *.ttc)
* module: type1     (Postscript font files with extension *.pfa or *.pfb)
* module: cff       (OpenType fonts with extension *.otf)
* module: cid       (Postscript CID-keyed fonts, no known extension)
* module: pfr       (PFR/TrueDoc font files with extension *.pfr)
* module: type42    (Type 42 font files with no known extension)
* module: winfnt    (Windows bitmap fonts with extension *.fnt or *.fon)
* module: pcf       (pcf bitmap fonts)
* module: bdf       (bdf bitmap fonts)
* module: sfnt      (helper module for TrueType & OpenType formats)
* module: autofit   (automatic hinting module)
* module: pshinter  (Postscript hinter module)
* module: raster    (monochrome bitmap renderer)
* module: smooth    (anti-aliased bitmap renderer)
* module: smooth    (anti-aliased bitmap renderer for LCDs)
* module: smooth    (anti-aliased bitmap renderer for vertical LCDs)
* module: psaux     (Postscript Type 1 & Type 2 helper module)
* module: psnames   (Postscript & Unicode Glyph name handling)
done.
cd builds/unix; ./configure
checking build system type... i686-pc-mingw32
checking host system type... i686-pc-mingw32
checking for gcc... gcc
checking for C compiler default output file name... a.exe
checking whether the C compiler works... yes
checking whether we are cross compiling... no
checking for suffix of executables... .exe
checking for suffix of object files... o
checking whether we are using the GNU C compiler... yes
checking whether gcc accepts -g... yes
checking for gcc option to accept ISO C89... none needed
checking how to run the C preprocessor... gcc -E
checking for rm... rm -f
checking for rmdir... rmdir
checking for a BSD-compatible install... /bin/install -c
checking for grep that handles long lines and -e... /c/code/mingw/bin/grep
checking for egrep... /c/code/mingw/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 fcntl.h usability... yes
checking fcntl.h presence... yes
checking for fcntl.h... yes
checking for unistd.h... (cached) yes
checking for an ANSI C-conforming const... yes
checking size of int... 4
checking size of long... 4
checking cpp computation of bit length in ftconfig.in works... yes
checking for stdlib.h... (cached) yes
checking for unistd.h... (cached) yes
checking for getpagesize... yes
checking for working mmap... no
checking for memcpy... yes
checking for memmove... yes
checking for gzsetparams in -lz... yes
checking zlib.h usability... yes
checking zlib.h presence... yes
checking for zlib.h... yes
checking whether CFLAGS includes -isysroot option... no
checking for a sed that does not truncate output... /c/code/mingw/bin/sed
checking for fgrep... /c/code/mingw/bin/grep -F
checking for ld used by gcc... /c/code/mingw/bin/ld
checking if the linker (/c/code/mingw/bin/ld) is GNU ld... yes
checking for BSD- or MS-compatible name lister (nm)... /c/code/mingw/bin/nm
checking the name lister (/c/code/mingw/bin/nm) interface... BSD nm
checking whether ln -s works... yes
checking the maximum length of command line arguments... 8192
checking whether the shell understands some XSI constructs... yes
checking whether the shell understands "+="... yes
checking for /c/code/mingw/bin/ld option to reload object files... -r
checking for objdump... objdump
checking how to recognize dependent libraries... file_magic ^x86 archive import|
^x86 DLL
checking for ar... ar
checking for strip... strip
checking for ranlib... ranlib
checking command to parse /c/code/mingw/bin/nm output from gcc object... ok
checking for dlfcn.h... no
checking for as... as
checking for dlltool... dlltool
checking for objdump... (cached) objdump
checking for objdir... .libs
checking if gcc supports -fno-rtti -fno-exceptions... c:\code\mingw\bin\sed.exe:
 -e expression #2, char 1: unknown command: `C'
no
checking for gcc option to produce PIC... -DDLL_EXPORT -DPIC
checking if gcc PIC flag -DDLL_EXPORT -DPIC works... c:\code\mingw\bin\sed.exe:
-e expression #2, char 1: unknown command: `C'
yes
checking if gcc static flag -static works... yes
checking if gcc supports -c -o file.o... c:\code\mingw\bin\sed.exe: -e expressio
n #2, char 1: unknown command: `C'
yes
checking if gcc supports -c -o file.o... (cached) yes
checking whether the gcc linker (/c/code/mingw/bin/ld) supports shared libraries
... yes
checking whether -lc should be explicitly linked in... yes
checking dynamic linker characteristics... Win32 ld.exe
checking how to hardcode library paths into programs... immediate
checking whether stripping libraries is possible... yes
checking if libtool supports shared libraries... yes
checking whether to build shared libraries... yes
checking whether to build static libraries... yes
c:\code\mingw\bin\sed.exe: -e expression #1, char 1: unknown command: `C'
configure: creating ./config.status
c:\code\mingw\bin\sed.exe: -e expression #1, char 1: unknown command: `C'
config.status: creating unix-cc.mk
c:\code\mingw\bin\sed.exe: -e expression #1, char 1: unknown command: `C'
config.status: creating unix-def.mk
config.status: creating freetype-config
c:\code\mingw\bin\sed.exe: -e expression #1, char 1: unknown command: `C'
config.status: creating freetype2.pc
c:\code\mingw\bin\sed.exe: -e expression #1, char 1: unknown command: `C'
config.status: creating ftconfig.h
config.status: executing libtool commands
c:\code\mingw\bin\sed.exe: -e expression #1, char 1: unknown command: `C'
c:\code\mingw\bin\sed.exe: -e expression #1, char 1: unknown command: `C'
mv: cannot stat `libtoolT': No such file or directory
cp: cannot stat `libtoolT': No such file or directory
chmod: cannot access `libtool': No such file or directory
c:\code\mingw\bin\sed.exe: -e expression #1, char 1: unknown command: `C'
make: Nothing to be done for `unix'.

Andrew@MCARDLE-PC ~/documents/code/freetype-2.3.11
$ make
./builds/unix/libtool --mode=compile gcc -pedantic -ansi  -Ic:/Users/Andrew/docu
ments/code/freetype-2.3.11/objs -I./builds/unix -Ic:/Users/Andrew/documents/code
/freetype-2.3.11/include -c -Wall -g -O2 -DFT_CONFIG_OPTION_SYSTEM_ZLIB -DFT_CON
FIG_CONFIG_H="<ftconfig.h>" -DFT2_BUILD_LIBRARY -DFT_CONFIG_MODULES_H="<ftmodule
.h>"  -o c:/Users/Andrew/documents/code/freetype-2.3.11/objs/ftsystem.lo c:/User
s/Andrew/documents/code/freetype-2.3.11/src/base/ftsystem.c
/bin/sh: ./builds/unix/libtool: No such file or directory
make: *** [c:/Users/Andrew/documents/code/freetype-2.3.11/objs/ftsystem.lo] Erro
r 127

Andrew@MCARDLE-PC ~/documents/code/freetype-2.3.11
$

To my mind the two problems appear to be sed not recognising 'C', and libtool not being found.

Answer 1

The solution is to delete C:\mingw\bin\sed.exe so the MSYS sed will get used instead.

Answer 2

In your msys Environment, path/to/msys/installation/bin is mounted to /bin and MinGW is usually mounted to /mingw.

The problem is due to sed.exe coming from either /mingw/bin (or GnuWin32's bin or Git's bin, etc... if you have those installed), and not from /bin, as /bin is being included after all these in your msys Environment path.

The solution is to start your msys environment with the argument MSYS so that /bin comes before /mingw/bin (and possibly the rest as mentioned above) in your msys Environment's PATH, and hence sed.exe from /bin be used.

From your command prompt, assuming your Windows path contains /path/to/msys/installation/, use

$> msys.bat MSYS

instead of

$> msys.bat

to launch msys.

To test if everything is in order, echo $PATH under msys to see the Environment's PATH is correct.