2 NOTES FOR WINDOWS PLATFORMS
3 ===========================
5 There are various options to build and run OpenSSL on the Windows platforms.
7 "Native" OpenSSL uses the Windows APIs directly at run time.
8 To build a native OpenSSL you can either use:
10 Microsoft Visual C++ (MSVC) C compiler on the command line
13 run on the GNU-like development environment MSYS2
14 or run on Linux or Cygwin
16 "Hosted" OpenSSL relies on an external POSIX compatibility layer
17 for building (using GNU/Unix shell, compiler, and tools) and at run time.
18 For this option you can use Cygwin.
21 Visual C++ native builds, a.k.a. VC-*
22 =====================================
27 In addition to the requirements and instructions listed in INSTALL.md,
28 these are required as well:
31 We recommend Strawberry Perl, available from http://strawberryperl.com/
32 Please read NOTES.PERL for more information, including the use of CPAN.
33 An alternative is ActiveState Perl, https://www.activestate.com/ActivePerl
34 for which you may need to explicitly build the Perl module Win32/Console.pm
35 via https://platform.activestate.com/ActiveState and then download it.
37 - Microsoft Visual C compiler.
38 Since these are proprietary and ever-changing we cannot test them all.
39 Older versions may not work. Use a recent version wherever possible.
41 - Netwide Assembler (NASM), available from https://www.nasm.us
42 Note that NASM is the only supported assembler.
51 3. Make sure both Perl and NASM are on your %PATH%
53 4. Use Visual Studio Developer Command Prompt with administrative privileges,
54 choosing one of its variants depending on the intended architecture.
55 Or run "cmd" and execute "vcvarsall.bat" with one of the options x86,
56 x86_amd64, x86_arm, x86_arm64, amd64, amd64_x86, amd64_arm, or amd64_arm64.
57 This sets up the environment variables needed for nmake.exe, cl.exe, etc.
58 See also https://docs.microsoft.com/cpp/build/building-on-the-command-line
60 5. From the root of the OpenSSL source directory enter
61 perl Configure VC-WIN32 if you want 32-bit OpenSSL or
62 perl Configure VC-WIN64A if you want 64-bit OpenSSL
70 For the full installation instructions, or if anything goes wrong at any stage,
71 check the INSTALL.md file.
73 Installation directories
74 ------------------------
76 The default installation directories are derived from environment
79 For VC-WIN32, the following defaults are use:
81 PREFIX: %ProgramFiles(86)%\OpenSSL
82 OPENSSLDIR: %CommonProgramFiles(86)%\SSL
84 For VC-WIN64, the following defaults are use:
86 PREFIX: %ProgramW6432%\OpenSSL
87 OPENSSLDIR: %CommonProgramW6432%\SSL
89 Should those environment variables not exist (on a pure Win32
90 installation for examples), these fallbacks are used:
92 PREFIX: %ProgramFiles%\OpenSSL
93 OPENSSLDIR: %CommonProgramFiles%\SSL
95 ALSO NOTE that those directories are usually write protected, even if
96 your account is in the Administrators group. To work around that,
97 start the command prompt by right-clicking on it and choosing "Run as
98 Administrator" before running 'nmake install'. The other solution
99 is, of course, to choose a different set of directories by using
100 --prefix and --openssldir when configuring.
102 Special notes for Universal Windows Platform builds, a.k.a. VC-*-UWP
103 --------------------------------------------------------------------
105 - UWP targets only support building the static and dynamic libraries.
107 - You should define the platform type to "uwp" and the target arch via
108 "vcvarsall.bat" before you compile. For example, if you want to build
109 "arm64" builds, you should run "vcvarsall.bat x86_arm64 uwp".
112 Native OpenSSL built using MinGW
113 ================================
115 MinGW offers an alternative way to build native OpenSSL, by cross compilation.
117 * Usually the build is done on Windows in a GNU-like environment called MSYS2.
119 MSYS2 provides GNU tools, a Unix-like command prompt,
120 and a UNIX compatibility layer for applications.
121 However in this context it is only used for building OpenSSL.
122 The resulting OpenSSL does not rely on MSYS2 to run and is fully native.
126 - MSYS2 shell, from https://www.msys2.org/
128 - Perl, at least version 5.10.0, which usually comes pre-installed with MSYS2
130 - make, installed using "pacman -S make" into the MSYS2 environment
132 - MinGW[64] compiler: mingw-w64-i686-gcc and/or mingw-w64-x86_64-gcc.
133 These compilers must be on your MSYS2 $PATH.
134 A common error is to not have these on your $PATH.
135 The MSYS2 version of gcc will not work correctly here.
137 In the MSYS2 shell do the configuration depending on the target architecture:
139 ./Configure mingw ...
141 ./Configure mingw64 ...
144 for the default architecture.
146 Apart from that, follow the Unix / Linux instructions in INSTALL.md.
148 * It is also possible to build mingw[64] on Linux or Cygwin.
150 In this case configure with the corresponding --cross-compile-prefix= option.
153 ./Configure mingw --cross-compile-prefix=i686-w64-mingw32- ...
155 ./Configure mingw64 --cross-compile-prefix=x86_64-w64-mingw32- ...
157 This requires that you've installed the necessary add-on packages for
158 mingw[64] cross compilation.
160 Linking your application
161 ========================
163 This section applies to all "native" builds.
165 If you link with static OpenSSL libraries then you're expected to
166 additionally link your application with WS2_32.LIB, GDI32.LIB,
167 ADVAPI32.LIB, CRYPT32.LIB and USER32.LIB. Those developing
168 non-interactive service applications might feel concerned about
169 linking with GDI32.LIB and USER32.LIB, as they are justly associated
170 with interactive desktop, which is not available to service
171 processes. The toolkit is designed to detect in which context it's
172 currently executed, GUI, console app or service, and act accordingly,
173 namely whether or not to actually make GUI calls. Additionally those
174 who wish to /DELAYLOAD:GDI32.DLL and /DELAYLOAD:USER32.DLL and
175 actually keep them off service process should consider implementing
176 and exporting from .exe image in question own _OPENSSL_isservice not
177 relying on USER32.DLL. E.g., on Windows Vista and later you could:
179 __declspec(dllexport) __cdecl BOOL _OPENSSL_isservice(void)
181 if (ProcessIdToSessionId(GetCurrentProcessId(),&sess))
186 If you link with OpenSSL .DLLs, then you're expected to include into
187 your application code a small "shim" snippet, which provides
188 the glue between the OpenSSL BIO layer and your compiler run-time.
189 See also the OPENSSL_Applink manual page.
192 Hosted OpenSSL built using Cygwin
193 =================================
195 Cygwin implements a POSIX/Unix runtime system (cygwin1.dll) on top of the
196 Windows subsystem and provides a Bash shell and GNU tools environment.
197 Consequently, a build of OpenSSL with Cygwin is virtually identical to the
200 To build OpenSSL using Cygwin, you need to:
202 * Install Cygwin, see https://cygwin.com/
204 * Install Cygwin Perl, at least version 5.10.0
205 and ensure it is in the $PATH
207 * Run the Cygwin Bash shell
209 Apart from that, follow the Unix / Linux instructions in INSTALL.md.
211 NOTE: "make test" and normal file operations may fail in directories
212 mounted as text (i.e. mount -t c:\somewhere /home) due to Cygwin
213 stripping of carriage returns. To avoid this ensure that a binary
214 mount is used, e.g. mount -b c:\somewhere /home.