I usually only code in high level code so I have no experience at all compiling code (as the IDE usually does this for me) so I could be overlooking something very obvious. I've spent a lot of time figuring out how to compile Vala in Linux but I don't seem to be able to make this work.
These are the steps I took:
The output I got was:
In file included from /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/glib-2.0/include/glibconfig.h:9:0,
from /usr/include/glib-2.0/glib/gtypes.h:32,
from /usr/include/glib-2.0/glib/galloca.h:32,
from /usr/include/glib-2.0/glib.h:30,
from /home/developer/vala/Documents/Projects/gamedev/vala-test/bin/main.vala.c:6:
/usr/include/glib-2.0/glib/gtypes.h: In function '_GLIB_CHECKED_ADD_U64':
/usr/include/glib-2.0/glib/gmacros.h:241:53: error: size of array '_GStaticAssertCompileTimeAssertion_0' is negative
#define G_STATIC_ASSERT(expr) typedef char G_PASTE (_GStaticAssertCompileTimeAssertion_, __COUNTER__)[(expr) ? 1 : -1] G_GNUC_UNUSED
^
/usr/include/glib-2.0/glib/gmacros.h:238:47: note: in definition of macro 'G_PASTE_ARGS'
#define G_PASTE_ARGS(identifier1,identifier2) identifier1 ## identifier2
^~~~~~~~~~~
/usr/include/glib-2.0/glib/gmacros.h:241:44: note: in expansion of macro 'G_PASTE'
#define G_STATIC_ASSERT(expr) typedef char G_PASTE (_GStaticAssertCompileTimeAssertion_, __COUNTER__)[(expr) ? 1 : -1] G_GNUC_UNUSED
^~~~~~~
/usr/include/glib-2.0/glib/gtypes.h:423:3: note: in expansion of macro 'G_STATIC_ASSERT'
G_STATIC_ASSERT(sizeof (unsigned long long) == sizeof (guint64));
^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In file included from /usr/include/glib-2.0/gio/gio.h:46:0,
from /usr/include/gtk-3.0/gdk/gdkapplaunchcontext.h:28,
from /usr/include/gtk-3.0/gdk/gdk.h:32,
from /usr/include/gtk-3.0/gtk/gtk.h:30,
from /home/developer/vala/Documents/Projects/gamedev/vala-test/bin/main.vala.c:10:
/usr/include/glib-2.0/gio/gcredentials.h: At top level:
/usr/include/glib-2.0/gio/gcredentials.h:75:1: error: unknown type name 'uid_t'
uid_t g_credentials_get_unix_user (GCredentials *credentials,
^~~~~
/usr/include/glib-2.0/gio/gcredentials.h:79:52: error: unknown type name 'uid_t'; did you mean 'pid_t'?
uid_t uid,
^~~~~
pid_t
error: cc exited with status 256
Compilation failed: 1 error(s), 0 warning(s)
I also tried compiling the c file but I got the exact same results, so it's not a buggy version.
I managed to compile the same project on Windows though, so not all is lost, but I really want to be able to do this without a dual-boot/VM. I'm so close, I don't want to quit this now.
This might be usefull (main.vala):
using Gtk;
int main(string[] args) {
Gtk.init(ref args);
var window = new Window();
window.title = "First GTK+ Program";
window.border_width = 10;
window.window_position = WindowPosition.CENTER;
window.set_default_size(350, 70);
window.destroy.connect(Gtk.main_quit);
var button = new Button.with_label("Click me!");
button.clicked.connect(() => {
button.label = "Thank you";
});
window.add(button);
window.show_all();
Gtk.main();
return 0;
}
This is a problem with the libraries used. /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/ and /usr/include/ are the paths for native libraries. The pkg-config tool sorts this out for you. So when calling valac also pass the right pkg-config:
valac --cc x86_64-w64-mingw32-gcc-win32 \
--pkg-config x86_64-w64-mingw32-pkg-config \
--pkg gtk+-3.0 \
-X -mwindows \
../main.vala
The next step is then make sure you have cross-compiled libraries installed on your Linux machine. It will depend on the Linux distribution you are using, for example with Fedora you will likely need to install:
dnf install mingw64-gtk3 mingw64-glib2
Finally, to make things easier to distribute, you may want to try static linking so everything is lumped together in one big binary. In Fedora there is a glib2-static package, but the problem is there doesn't seem to be static builds for GTK3. Otherwise take a look at How to distribute a GTK+ application on Windows? for some tips on the dynamic libraries you need to package.
Unfortunately none of this is tested - I don't have Windows to try this. It would be great to have a working procedure for cross-compiling Vala applications to run on Windows. Thanks for putting the effort in to get this far and it would be useful to know if you get it working.