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gdbmingwupdatesmingw-w64

Can you update isolated components of MinGW?

After installing MinGW-w64 on Windows 10, can you update single programs, like GDB alone (without updating the whole MingGW-w64 version)?

If so, how do you do it?

Thanks in advance

Solution

  • A lot of those tools have dependencies (in the form of .dll files) and those dependencies have dependencies, etc...

    So just replacing the .exe file is usually not the solution (unless it's a staticaly build .exe with no .dll dependencies), and overwriting .dll files that come with the new version mahy break other .exe and .dll files' dependencies.

    In conclusion: it's not a good idea unless you keep the single program (like GDB) in a seperate directory.

    The https://winlibs.com/ standalone build of MinGW-w64 includes recent versions of tools like GDB, and is always distributed as a whole package to avoid the issues above. Such package is created by building all the components and their dependencies from source.