Prerequisite: GCC Version
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    If your MinGW version isn't using at least GCC 3.4.5, it needs
    to be updated.  Older versions are known to not work with MySQL++.

    As of MySQL++ 3.1.1, the required version might need to be even
    newer, as we are now depending on improvements to the MinGW linker
    which probably don't go back that far.


Prerequisite: MySQL C Development Files
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    MySQL++ is built atop MySQL's C API library.  The easiest way to
    get that is to install Connector/C on your development system,
    which you can download from mysql.com.  The distribution assumes
    these files are in:

        C:\Program Files\MySQL\MySQL Connector C 6.1\

    There are a number of reasons why that path may not work for you:

      - You have a newer version of Connector/C installed

      - You're on a 64-bit system, but have the 32-bit versions of
        Connector/C and MinGW installed and wish to build a 32-bit
        binary.  In that case, the path will look like this instead:

          C:\Program Files (x86)\MySQL\MySQL Connector C 6.1\

      - You may have the MySQL Server on your system and installed the
        development files along with it, and therefore don't want to
        install Connector/C separately.  In that case, the path will
        look like this instead:

          C:\Program Files\MySQL\MySQL Server 5.6\
    
    Regardless of the reason you have for changing this path, there are
    two ways that work:

      - The easy way is to do a global search and replace on the path
        in Makefile.mingw.  This is a generated file, but if that's the
        only change to MySQL++ you need, it works fine.

      - If you're doing deeper work on MySQL++, you should change the
        MYSQL_WIN_DIR variable at the top of mysql++.bkl instead.
        
        Having done that, you can generate Makefile.mingw from that
        file using the Windows port of Bakefile (http://bakefile.org/):
        
          bakefile_gen -f mingw


Building the Library and Example Programs
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    With the prerequisites above taken care of, you can build MySQL++
    with this command:

        mingw32-make -f Makefile.mingw

    Notice that we're using the MinGW-specific version of GNU make, not
    the Cygwin or MSYS versions.  Many things will break otherwise: path
    separator handling, shell commands used by the Makefile, etc.

    Speaking of Cygwin and MSYS, if you have either these or any other
    Unix emulation environment installed, be sure their executables
    aren't in the PATH when building MySQL++.  MinGW's version of GNU
    make does some funny things if it thinks it's running in the
    presence of Unixy tools, which will break the MySQL++ build.

    Once the library is built, you should run the examples.  At minimum,
    run resetdb and simple1.

    Once you're satisfied that the library is working correctly, you can
    run install.hta to automatically install the library files and
    headers in subdirectories under c:\mysql++.


Cygwin and MinGW Coexistence
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    It's possible to have both Cygwin and MinGW installed and build
    with the MinGW tools without interference from the Cygwin bits.
    The main thing you have to take care of is that MinGW's bin
    directory must precede the Cygwin bin directory in the PATH,
    so that its tools are found first.  If you use Cygwin's bash
    as a command shell in preference to the DOS-like cmd.exe, you
    can use this shell script to temporarily set the environment to
    "MinGW mode" and make it easy to get back to "Cygwin mode":

        #!/bin/sh
        PATH=/c/mingw/bin:/c/windows:/c/windows/system32:/c/cygwin/bin
        echo "Say 'exit' to leave MinGW shell and restore Cygwin environment."
        /usr/bin/bash --rcfile ~/.mingwrc

    I recommend having at least this in the ~/.mingwrc file:

        alias make=mingw32-make
        PS1='MinGW: \W \$ '

    The prompt change reminds you that you are in a sub-shell set up for
    MinGW.  The alias for 'make' ensures you don't accidentally run
    Cygwin's make, which won't work with Makefile.mingw.  We could just
    leave /c/cygwin/bin out of the environment, but there are Cygwin
    tools we want access to, like vim.  As long as all the MinGW ones
    override those Cygwin also provides, we don't need to worry about
    having both in the PATH.  Besides, having the alias is nice for
    those who have 'make' committed to muscle memory.


Building on Linux
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    You might wish to build MySQL++ with MinGW because you're
    not actually running Windows, but need Windows executables.
    The thought being that this lets you use GCC, the same compiler
    you're probably using to make native executables.  There are
    indeed ways to make this work.

    The most "native" way to do this is to run MinGW under Wine.
    Leonti Bielski provided these instructions:

        1. Install MinGW through Wine:

           $ wine MinGW-5.1.6.exe

        2. Add the MinGW directory to Wine's PATH with Wine regedit:

           http://winehq.org/site/docs/wineusr-guide/environment-variables

        3. Install MySQL under Wine, or at least unpack the Windows
           ZIP file version of MySQL in a place where Wine can find it.
           You don't need to run a Windows MySQL server under Wine.
           We're only doing this to get the MySQL C API library and
           its headers, which MySQL++ builds against.  The resulting
           MinGW build of MySQL++ can talk to a native MySQL server
           out in Wine's host environment or on some other machine.

        4. Modify Makefile.mingw to match the install location for
           the MySQL C API files.

        5. Build MySQL++ with:
        
           $ wine mingw32-make -f Makefile.mingw

    Another way is to build a Windows virtual machine, such as with
    VMware or VirtualBox.  In that case, you'd use the regular build
    instructions at the top of this document.

    You might think to avoid the need for Wine or Windows by use of a
    MinGW cross-compiler:

        $ ./configure --target=mingw32
        $ make

    Unfortunately, that currently doesn't work.

    The reason is that our autoconf build system assumes a
    typical POSIX type target, which MinGW is not.  We made this
    assumption because we have a perfectly good MinGW build option,
    Makefile.mingw.  But, that also won't work on a POSIX system
    because that Makefile assumes external commands run under cmd.exe,
    not some Unixy shell.  Thus the advice to build with Makefile.mingw
    under Windows or something sufficiently close to it.

    If you really wanted to, you could extend the autoconf build system
    to make it realize when it's being used to cross-compile for MinGW.
    Patches thoughtfully considered; see HACKERS.txt.
