The xPack MinGW-w64 GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)

A standalone cross-platform (Windows/macOS/Linux) MinGW-w64 GCC binary distribution, intended for reproducible builds.

In addition to the the binary archives and the package meta data, this project also includes the build scripts.

Overview

This open source project is hosted on GitHub as xpack-dev-tools/mingw-w64-gcc-xpack and provides the platform specific binaries for the xPack MinGW-w64 GNU Compiler Collection; it includes, in addition to project metadata, the full build scripts.

The binaries can be installed automatically as binary xPacks or manually as portable archives.

Release schedule

This distribution generally follows the official GNU Compiler Collection releases.

User info

This section is intended as a shortcut for those who plan to use the GCC binaries. For full details please read the xPack MinGW-w64 GNU Compiler Collection pages.

Supported languages

The xPack MinGW-w64 GCC binaries include support for:

• C
• C++
• Obj-C
• Obj-C++
• Fortran

Note: Obj-C support is minimalistic.

-static-libgcc -static-libstdc++

To avoid issues with DLLs, specific when using toolchains installed in custom locations, it is highly recommended to use only the static versions of the GCC libraries.

For C programs, append -static-libgcc to the linker line.

For C++ programs, since the toolchain is configured to use POSIX threads, instead of -static-libstdc++, use the more explicit variant -Wl,-Bstatic,-lstdc++,-lpthread,-Bdynamic when invoking the linker.

libwinpthread-1.dll

Due to the specifics of the MinGW-w64 build, the threading library is not very well integrated into the build, and invoking the compiler with -static-libgcc -static-libstdc++ does not apply to this DLL, so the resulting binaries might still have a reference to it.

Compiler DLLs

For projects that create multiple executables, using static libraries is not space efficient, especially for C++, since the code is multiplied in all executables.

The solution is to copy the required DLLs to the folder where the compiled .exe files will be installed (like /bin).

$ ls -l $(dirname $(bin/x86_64-w64-mingw32-g++ -print-file-name=libstdc++-6.dll))/*.dll
-rwxr-xr-x 1 ilg ilg   38296 Sep 20 13:00 /home/ilg/Work/mingw-w64-gcc-12.3.0-1-static/linux-x64/install/mingw-w64-gcc/bin/../lib/gcc/x86_64-w64-mingw32/12.3.0/../../../../x86_64-w64-mingw32/lib/../lib/libatomic-1.dll
-rwxr-xr-x 1 ilg ilg  535781 Sep 20 13:00 /home/ilg/Work/mingw-w64-gcc-12.3.0-1-static/linux-x64/install/mingw-w64-gcc/bin/../lib/gcc/x86_64-w64-mingw32/12.3.0/../../../../x86_64-w64-mingw32/lib/../lib/libgcc_s_seh-1.dll
-rwxr-xr-x 1 ilg ilg 2981114 Sep 20 13:00 /home/ilg/Work/mingw-w64-gcc-12.3.0-1-static/linux-x64/install/mingw-w64-gcc/bin/../lib/gcc/x86_64-w64-mingw32/12.3.0/../../../../x86_64-w64-mingw32/lib/../lib/libgfortran-5.dll
-rwxr-xr-x 1 ilg ilg  247187 Sep 20 13:00 /home/ilg/Work/mingw-w64-gcc-12.3.0-1-static/linux-x64/install/mingw-w64-gcc/bin/../lib/gcc/x86_64-w64-mingw32/12.3.0/../../../../x86_64-w64-mingw32/lib/../lib/libgomp-1.dll
-rwxr-xr-x 1 ilg ilg  383320 Sep 20 13:00 /home/ilg/Work/mingw-w64-gcc-12.3.0-1-static/linux-x64/install/mingw-w64-gcc/bin/../lib/gcc/x86_64-w64-mingw32/12.3.0/../../../../x86_64-w64-mingw32/lib/../lib/libquadmath-0.dll
-rwxr-xr-x 1 ilg ilg   22227 Sep 20 13:00 /home/ilg/Work/mingw-w64-gcc-12.3.0-1-static/linux-x64/install/mingw-w64-gcc/bin/../lib/gcc/x86_64-w64-mingw32/12.3.0/../../../../x86_64-w64-mingw32/lib/../lib/libssp-0.dll
-rwxr-xr-x 1 ilg ilg 1940952 Sep 20 13:00 /home/ilg/Work/mingw-w64-gcc-12.3.0-1-static/linux-x64/install/mingw-w64-gcc/bin/../lib/gcc/x86_64-w64-mingw32/12.3.0/../../../../x86_64-w64-mingw32/lib/../lib/libstdc++-6.dll
-rwxr-xr-x 1 ilg ilg  106093 Sep 20 12:58 /home/ilg/Work/mingw-w64-gcc-12.3.0-1-static/linux-x64/install/mingw-w64-gcc/bin/../lib/gcc/x86_64-w64-mingw32/12.3.0/../../../../x86_64-w64-mingw32/lib/../lib/libwinpthread-1.dll

and

$ ls -l $(dirname $(bin/i686-w64-mingw32-g++ -print-file-name=libstdc++-6.dll))/*.dll
-rwxr-xr-x 1 ilg ilg   37356 Sep 20 13:08 /home/ilg/Work/mingw-w64-gcc-12.3.0-1-static/linux-x64/install/mingw-w64-gcc/bin/../lib/gcc/i686-w64-mingw32/12.3.0/../../../../i686-w64-mingw32/lib/../lib/libatomic-1.dll
-rwxr-xr-x 1 ilg ilg  652335 Sep 20 13:08 /home/ilg/Work/mingw-w64-gcc-12.3.0-1-static/linux-x64/install/mingw-w64-gcc/bin/../lib/gcc/i686-w64-mingw32/12.3.0/../../../../i686-w64-mingw32/lib/../lib/libgcc_s_dw2-1.dll
-rwxr-xr-x 1 ilg ilg 2753320 Sep 20 13:08 /home/ilg/Work/mingw-w64-gcc-12.3.0-1-static/linux-x64/install/mingw-w64-gcc/bin/../lib/gcc/i686-w64-mingw32/12.3.0/../../../../i686-w64-mingw32/lib/../lib/libgfortran-5.dll
-rwxr-xr-x 1 ilg ilg  266392 Sep 20 13:08 /home/ilg/Work/mingw-w64-gcc-12.3.0-1-static/linux-x64/install/mingw-w64-gcc/bin/../lib/gcc/i686-w64-mingw32/12.3.0/../../../../i686-w64-mingw32/lib/../lib/libgomp-1.dll
-rwxr-xr-x 1 ilg ilg  570355 Sep 20 13:08 /home/ilg/Work/mingw-w64-gcc-12.3.0-1-static/linux-x64/install/mingw-w64-gcc/bin/../lib/gcc/i686-w64-mingw32/12.3.0/../../../../i686-w64-mingw32/lib/../lib/libquadmath-0.dll
-rwxr-xr-x 1 ilg ilg   22328 Sep 20 13:08 /home/ilg/Work/mingw-w64-gcc-12.3.0-1-static/linux-x64/install/mingw-w64-gcc/bin/../lib/gcc/i686-w64-mingw32/12.3.0/../../../../i686-w64-mingw32/lib/../lib/libssp-0.dll
-rwxr-xr-x 1 ilg ilg 2081167 Sep 20 13:08 /home/ilg/Work/mingw-w64-gcc-12.3.0-1-static/linux-x64/install/mingw-w64-gcc/bin/../lib/gcc/i686-w64-mingw32/12.3.0/../../../../i686-w64-mingw32/lib/../lib/libstdc++-6.dll
-rwxr-xr-x 1 ilg ilg  112374 Sep 20 13:06 /home/ilg/Work/mingw-w64-gcc-12.3.0-1-static/linux-x64/install/mingw-w64-gcc/bin/../lib/gcc/i686-w64-mingw32/12.3.0/../../../../i686-w64-mingw32/lib/../lib/libwinpthread-1.dll

Easy install

The easiest way to install GCC is using the binary xPack, available as @xpack-dev-tools/mingw-w64-gcc from the npmjs.com registry.

Prerequisites

A recent xpm, which is a portable Node.js command line application that complements npm with several extra features specific to C/C++ projects.

It is recommended to install/update to the latest version with:

npm install --location=global xpm@latest

For details please follow the instructions in the xPack install page.

Install

With the xpm tool available, installing the latest version of the package and adding it as a development dependency for a project is quite easy:

cd my-project
xpm init # Add a package.json if not already present

xpm install @xpack-dev-tools/mingw-w64-gcc@latest --verbose

ls -l xpacks/.bin

This command will:

• install the latest available version, into the central xPacks store, if not already there
• add symbolic links to the central store (or .cmd forwarders on Windows) into the local xpacks/.bin folder.

The central xPacks store is a platform dependent location in the home folder; check the output of the xpm command for the actual folder used on your platform. This location is configurable via the environment variable XPACKS_STORE_FOLDER; for more details please check the xpm folders page.

It is also possible to install GCC globally, in the user home folder:

xpm install --global @xpack-dev-tools/mingw-w64-gcc@latest --verbose

After install, the package should create a structure like this (macOS files; only the first two depth levels are shown):

$ tree -L 2 /Users/ilg/Library/xPacks/@xpack-dev-tools/mingw-w64-gcc/12.3.0-1.1/.content/
/Users/ilg/Library/xPacks/@xpack-dev-tools/mingw-w64-gcc/12.3.0-1.1/.content/
├── README.md
├── bin
│   ├── i686-w64-mingw32-addr2line
│   ├── i686-w64-mingw32-ar
│   ├── i686-w64-mingw32-as
│   ├── i686-w64-mingw32-c++
│   ├── i686-w64-mingw32-c++filt
│   ├── i686-w64-mingw32-cpp
│   ├── i686-w64-mingw32-dlltool
│   ├── i686-w64-mingw32-dllwrap
│   ├── i686-w64-mingw32-elfedit
│   ├── i686-w64-mingw32-g++
│   ├── i686-w64-mingw32-gcc
│   ├── i686-w64-mingw32-gcc-12.3.0
│   ├── i686-w64-mingw32-gcc-ar
│   ├── i686-w64-mingw32-gcc-nm
│   ├── i686-w64-mingw32-gcc-ranlib
│   ├── i686-w64-mingw32-gcov
│   ├── i686-w64-mingw32-gcov-dump
│   ├── i686-w64-mingw32-gcov-tool
│   ├── i686-w64-mingw32-gendef
│   ├── i686-w64-mingw32-gfortran
│   ├── i686-w64-mingw32-gprof
│   ├── i686-w64-mingw32-ld
│   ├── i686-w64-mingw32-ld.bfd
│   ├── i686-w64-mingw32-lto-dump
│   ├── i686-w64-mingw32-nm
│   ├── i686-w64-mingw32-objcopy
│   ├── i686-w64-mingw32-objdump
│   ├── i686-w64-mingw32-ranlib
│   ├── i686-w64-mingw32-readelf
│   ├── i686-w64-mingw32-size
│   ├── i686-w64-mingw32-strings
│   ├── i686-w64-mingw32-strip
│   ├── i686-w64-mingw32-widl
│   ├── i686-w64-mingw32-windmc
│   ├── i686-w64-mingw32-windres
│   ├── x86_64-w64-mingw32-addr2line
│   ├── x86_64-w64-mingw32-ar
│   ├── x86_64-w64-mingw32-as
│   ├── x86_64-w64-mingw32-c++
│   ├── x86_64-w64-mingw32-c++filt
│   ├── x86_64-w64-mingw32-cpp
│   ├── x86_64-w64-mingw32-dlltool
│   ├── x86_64-w64-mingw32-dllwrap
│   ├── x86_64-w64-mingw32-elfedit
│   ├── x86_64-w64-mingw32-g++
│   ├── x86_64-w64-mingw32-gcc
│   ├── x86_64-w64-mingw32-gcc-12.3.0
│   ├── x86_64-w64-mingw32-gcc-ar
│   ├── x86_64-w64-mingw32-gcc-nm
│   ├── x86_64-w64-mingw32-gcc-ranlib
│   ├── x86_64-w64-mingw32-gcov
│   ├── x86_64-w64-mingw32-gcov-dump
│   ├── x86_64-w64-mingw32-gcov-tool
│   ├── x86_64-w64-mingw32-gendef
│   ├── x86_64-w64-mingw32-gfortran
│   ├── x86_64-w64-mingw32-gprof
│   ├── x86_64-w64-mingw32-ld
│   ├── x86_64-w64-mingw32-ld.bfd
│   ├── x86_64-w64-mingw32-lto-dump
│   ├── x86_64-w64-mingw32-nm
│   ├── x86_64-w64-mingw32-objcopy
│   ├── x86_64-w64-mingw32-objdump
│   ├── x86_64-w64-mingw32-ranlib
│   ├── x86_64-w64-mingw32-readelf
│   ├── x86_64-w64-mingw32-size
│   ├── x86_64-w64-mingw32-strings
│   ├── x86_64-w64-mingw32-strip
│   ├── x86_64-w64-mingw32-widl
│   ├── x86_64-w64-mingw32-windmc
│   └── x86_64-w64-mingw32-windres
├── distro-info
│   ├── CHANGELOG.md
│   ├── licenses
│   ├── patches
│   └── scripts
├── i686-w64-mingw32
│   ├── bin
│   ├── include
│   └── lib
├── include
├── lib
│   ├── gcc
│   ├── libcc1.0.so
│   ├── libcc1.a
│   ├── libcc1.la
│   └── libcc1.so -> libcc1.0.so
├── libexec
│   ├── libgmp.10.dylib
│   ├── libiconv.2.dylib
│   ├── libisl.23.dylib
│   ├── libmpc.3.dylib
│   ├── libmpfr.6.dylib
│   ├── libz.1.2.13.dylib
│   ├── libz.1.dylib -> libz.1.2.13.dylib
│   └── libzstd.1.5.5.dylib
├── share
│   └── gcc-12.3.0
└── x86_64-w64-mingw32
    ├── bin
    ├── include
    └── lib

20 directories, 84 files

No other files are installed in any system folders or other locations.

Uninstall

To remove the links created by xpm in the current project:

cd my-project

xpm uninstall @xpack-dev-tools/mingw-w64-gcc

To completely remove the package from the central xPack store:

xpm uninstall --global @xpack-dev-tools/mingw-w64-gcc

Manual install

For all platforms, the xPack MinGW-w64 GNU Compiler Collection binaries are released as portable archives that can be installed in any location.

The archives can be downloaded from the GitHub Releases page.

For more details please read the Install page.

Versioning

The version strings used by the GCC project are three number strings like 12.3.0; to this string the xPack distribution adds a four number, but since semver allows only three numbers, all additional ones can be added only as pre-release strings, separated by a dash, like 12.3.0-1. When published as a npm package, the version gets a fifth number, like 12.3.0-1.1.

Since adherence of third party packages to semver is not guaranteed, it is recommended to use semver expressions like ^12.3.0 and ~12.3.0 with caution, and prefer exact matches, like 12.3.0-1.1.

Maintainer info

For maintainer info, please see the README-MAINTAINER.

Support

The quick advice for getting support is to use the GitHub Discussions.

For more details please read the Support page.

License

Unless otherwise stated, the content is released under the terms of the MIT License, with all rights reserved to Liviu Ionescu.

The binary distributions include several open-source components; the corresponding licenses are available in the installed distro-info/licenses folder.

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