Using Vala on Windows

Introduction#

This topic focuses on how to get valac running on Windows.

Using msys2 (64 Bit)

1. Install msys2 (https://www.msys2.org/)

2. Install the required prerequisites for Vala

   pacman -S mingw64/mingw-w64-x86_64-gcc
   pacman -S mingw64/mingw-w64-x86_64-pkg-config
   pacman -S mingw64/mingw-w64-x86_64-vala

   and all the additional packages your code requires, i.e.

   pacman -S mingw64/mingw-w64-x86_64-libgee
   ...

3. Launch the correct msys2 shell

   C:\msys64\mingw64.exe

4. Check the MSYSTEM and PKG_CONFIG_PATH environment variables

   $ echo $MSYSTEM
   MINGW64
   
   $ echo $PKG_CONFIG_PATH
   /mingw64/lib/pkgconfig:/mingw64/share/pkgconfig

5. Run valac as usual, but make sure to always work in the correct environment (see steps 3 and 4)

   For example let’s build the first GeeSample here:

   $ valac gee-list.vala --pkg gee-0.8