INSTALLpc.txt - Installation of Vim on PC This file contains instructions for compiling Vim. If you already have an executable version of Vim, you don't need this. You can find the lastest here: https://github.com/vim/vim-win32-installer This page also has links to install support for interfaces such as Perl, Python, Lua, etc. The file "feature.h" can be edited to match your preferences. You can skip this, then you will get the default behavior as is documented, which should be fine for most people. This document assumes that you are building Vim for Win32 or later (Windows XP/2003/Vista/7/8/10). There are also instructions for pre-XP systems, but they might no longer work. The recommended way is to build a 32 bit Vim, also on 64 bit systems. You can build a 64 bit Vim if you like, the executable will be bigger and Vim won't be any faster, but you can edit files larger than 2 Gbyte. Contents: 1. Microsoft Visual C++ 2. Using MinGW 3. Cygwin 4. Borland 5. Cross compiling for Win32 from a Linux machine 6. Building with Python support 7. Building with Python3 support 8. Building with Racket or MzScheme support 9. Building with Lua support 10. Building with Perl support 11. Building with Ruby support 12. Building with Tcl support 13. Building with Terminal support 14. Building with DirectX (DirectWrite) support 15. Windows 3.1 16. MS-DOS 17. Installing after building from sources The currently recommended way (that means it has been verified to work) is using the "Visual Studio Community 2015" installation. This includes the SDK needed to target Windows XP. But not older Windows versions (95, 98), see |msvc-2008-express| below for that 1. Microsoft Visual C++ ======================= We do not provide download links, since Microsoft keeps changing them. You can search for "Visual Studio Community 2015", for example. You will need to create a Microsoft account (it's free). When installing "Visual Studio Community 2015 with Update 3" make sure to select "custom" and check "Windows XP Support for C++" and all checkboxes under "Universal Windows App Development Tools" Visual Studio ------------- Building with Visual Studio (VS 98, VS .NET, VS .NET 2003, VS 2005, VS 2008, VS2010, VS2012, VS2013 and VS2015) is straightforward. (These instructions should also work for VS 4 and VS 5.) Using VS C++ 2008 Express is recommended if you need the binary to run on Windows 95 or 97, see |msvc-2008-express| below. To build Vim from the command line with MSVC, use Make_mvc.mak. Visual Studio installed a batch file called vcvars32.bat, which you must run to set up paths for nmake and MSVC. nmake -f Make_mvc.mak console Win32 SDK or Microsoft Visual C++ nmake -f Make_mvc.mak GUI=yes GUI Microsoft Visual C++ nmake -f Make_mvc.mak OLE=yes OLE Microsoft Visual C++ nmake -f Make_mvc.mak PERL=C:\Perl PYTHON=C:\Python etc. Perl, Python, etc. Make_mvc.mak allows a Vim to be built with various different features and debug support. Debugging with MS Devstudio is provided by Make_dvc.mak. For a description of the use of Make_dvc.mak, look in Make_mvc.mak. For compiling Gvim with IME support on far-east Windows, add IME=yes to the parameters you pass to Make_mvc.mak. To build Vim from within the Visual Studio IDE, open the Make_ivc.mak project. (Note: Make_ivc.mak is not as rich as Make_mvc.mak, which allows for far more configuration.) Make_ivc.mak can also be built with nmake. nmake -f Make_ivc.mak CFG="Vim - Win32 Release gvim" GUI Microsoft Visual C++ 4.x or later nmake -f Make_ivc.mak CFG="Vim - Win32 Release gvim OLE" OLE Microsoft Visual C++ 4.x or later See the specific files for comments and options. These files have been supplied by George V. Reilly, Ben Singer, Ken Scott and Ron Aaron; they have been tested. Visual C++ 2008 Express Edition *msvc-2008-express* ------------------------------- Visual C++ 2008 Express Edition can be downloaded for free from: http://www.microsoft.com/express/downloads/ This includes the IDE and the debugger. To set the environment execute the msvc2008.bat script. You can then build Vim with Make_mvc.mak. For building 64 bit binaries you also need to install the SDK: "Microsoft Windows SDK for Windows 7 and .NET Framework 3.5 SP1" You don't need the examples and documentation. If you get an error that Win32.mak can't be found, you have to set the variable SDK_INCLUDE_DIR. For example, on Windows 10, installation of MSVC puts include files in the following directory: set SDK_INCLUDE_DIR=C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v6.0A\Include Visual C++ 2010 Express Edition *msvc-2010-express* ------------------------------- Visual C++ 2010 Express Edition can be downloaded for free from: http://www.microsoft.com/express/vc/Default.aspx This includes the IDE and the debugger. To set the environment execute the msvc2010.bat script. You can then build Vim with Make_mvc.mak. Targeting Windows XP with MSVC 2012 and later *new-msvc-windows-xp* --------------------------------------------- Beginning with Visual C++ 2012, Microsoft changed the behavior of LINK.EXE so that it targets Windows 6.0 (Vista) by default. In order to override this, the target Windows version number needs to be passed to LINK like follows: LINK ... /subsystem:console,5.01 Make_mvc.mak now supports a macro SUBSYSTEM_VER to pass the Windows version. Use lines like follows to target Windows XP x86 (assuming using Visual C++ 2012 under 64-bit Windows): set WinSdk71=%ProgramFiles(x86)%\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v7.1A set INCLUDE=%WinSdk71%\Include;%INCLUDE% set LIB=%WinSdk71%\Lib;%LIB% set CL=/D_USING_V110_SDK71_ nmake -f Make_mvc.mak ... WINVER=0x0501 SUBSYSTEM_VER=5.01 To target Windows XP x64 instead of x86, you need to change the settings of LIB and SUBSYSTEM_VER: ... set LIB=%WinSdk71%\Lib\x64;%LIB% ... nmake -f Make_mvc.mak ... WINVER=0x0501 SUBSYSTEM_VER=5.02 If you use Visual C++ 2015 (either Express or Community Edition), executing msvc2015.bat will set them automatically. For x86 builds run this without options: msvc2015 For x64 builds run this with the "x86_amd64" option: msvc2015 x86_amd64 The following Visual C++ team blog can serve as a reference page: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/vcblog/archive/2012/10/08/windows-xp-targeting-with-c-in-visual-studio-2012.aspx OLDER VERSIONS The minimal supported version is Windows XP. Building with older compilers might still work, but these instructions might be outdated. If you need the executable to run on Windows 98 or ME, use the 2003 one |msvc-2003-toolkit|. Visual C++ Toolkit 2003 *msvc-2003-toolkit* ----------------------- You could download the Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit 2003 from http://msdn.microsoft.com/visualc/vctoolkit2003/ Unfortunately this URL is no longer valid. Inofficial downloads appear to be available from links mentioned on these pages (use at your own risk): http://www.filewatcher.com/m/VCToolkitSetup.exe.32952488.0.0.html http://feargame.net/wiki/index.php?title=Building_Source_with_the_VC2003_Toolkit This contains the command-line tools (compiler, linker, CRT headers, and libraries) for Visual Studio .NET 2003, but not the Visual Studio IDE. To compile and debug Vim with the VC2003 Toolkit, you will also need |ms-platform-sdk|, |dotnet-1.1-redist|, |dotnet-1.1-sdk|, and |windbg-download|. It's easier to download Visual C++ 2008 Express Edition, |msvc-2008-express|, which is freely available in perpetuity. The free Code::Blocks IDE works with the VC2003 Toolkit, as described at http://wiki.codeblocks.org/index.php?title=Integrating_Microsoft_Visual_Toolkit_2003_with_Code::Blocks_IDE (This site also takes you through configuring a number of other free C compilers for Win32.) To compile Vim using the VC2003 Toolkit and Make_mvc.mak, you must first execute the following commands in a cmd.exe window (the msvcsetup.bat batch file can be used): set PATH=%SystemRoot%\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v1.1.4322;%PATH% call "%VCToolkitInstallDir%vcvars32.bat" set MSVCVer=7.1 call "%ProgramFiles%\Microsoft Platform SDK\SetEnv.Cmd" set LIB=%ProgramFiles%\Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003\Vc7\lib;%LIB% Now you can build Vim with Make_mvc.mak. Getting the Windows Platform SDK *ms-platform-sdk* You will also need a copy of the Windows Platform SDK. Specifically, you need the Windows Core SDK subset of the Platform SDK, which contains the Windows headers and libraries. You need to search for it, Microsoft keeps changing the URL. Getting the .NET Framework 1.1 Runtime *dotnet-1.1-redist* You need the .NET Framework 1.1 Redistributable Package from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=262d25e3-f589-4842-8157-034d1e7cf3a3 or from Windows Update: http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/ This is needed to install |dotnet-1.1-sdk|. It also contains cvtres.exe, which is needed to link Vim. Getting the .NET Framework 1.1 SDK *dotnet-1.1-sdk* You need the .NET Framework 1.1 SDK from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=9b3a2ca6-3647-4070-9f41-a333c6b9181d This contains some additional libraries needed to compile Vim, such as msvcrt.lib. You must install |dotnet-1.1-redist| before installing the .NET 1.1 SDK. Getting the WinDbg debugger *windbg-download* The Debugging Tools for Windows can be downloaded from http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/devtools/debugging/default.mspx This includes the WinDbg debugger, which you will want if you ever need to debug Vim itself. An earlier version of the Debugging Tools is also available through the Platform SDK, |ms-platform-sdk|. Visual C++ 2005 Express Edition *msvc-2005-express* ------------------------------- Visual C++ 2005 Express Edition can be downloaded for free from: http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/visualC/default.aspx This includes the IDE and the debugger. You will also need |ms-platform-sdk|. You can build Vim with Make_mvc.mak. Instructions for integrating the Platform SDK into VC Express: http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/visualc/usingpsdk/default.aspx 2. MinGW ======== (written by Ron Aaron: ) This is about how to produce a Win32 binary of gvim with MinGW. First, you need to get the 'mingw32' compiler, which is free for the download at: http://www.mingw.org/ or you can use 'MinGW-w64' compiler. http://mingw-w64.sourceforge.net/ Or a compiler provided on msys2: https://msys2.github.io/ Once you have downloaded the compiler binaries, unpack them on your hard disk somewhere, and put them on your PATH. If you are on Win95/98 you can edit your AUTOEXEC.BAT file with a line like: set PATH=C:\MinGW\bin;%PATH% or on NT/2000/XP, go to the Control Panel, (Performance and Maintenance), System, Advanced, and edit the environment from there. If you use msys2 compilers, set your installed paths (normally one of the following): C:\msys32\mingw32\bin (32-bit msys2, targeting 32-bit builds) C:\msys64\mingw32\bin (64-bit msys2, targeting 32-bit builds) C:\msys64\mingw64\bin (64-bit msys2, targeting 64-bit builds) Test if gcc is on your path. From a CMD (or COMMAND on '95/98) window: C:\> gcc --version gcc (GCC) 4.8.1 C:\> mingw32-make --version GNU Make 3.82.90 (...etc...) Now you are ready to rock 'n' roll. Unpack the vim sources (look on www.vim.org for exactly which version of the vim files you need). Change directory to 'vim\src': C:\> cd vim\src C:\VIM\SRC> and you type: mingw32-make -f Make_ming.mak gvim.exe After churning for a while, you will end up with 'gvim.exe' in the 'vim\src' directory. You should not need to do *any* editing of any files to get vim compiled this way. If, for some reason, you want the console-mode-only version of vim (this is NOT recommended on Win32, especially on '95/'98!!!), you can use: mingw32-make -f Make_ming.mak GUI=no vim.exe If you are dismayed by how big the EXE is, I strongly recommend you get 'UPX' (also free!) and compress the file (typical compression is 50%). UPX can be found at http://www.upx.org/ As of 2011, UPX still does not support compressing 64-bit EXE's; if you have built a 64-bit vim then an alternative to UPX is 'MPRESS'. MPRESS can be found at: http://www.matcode.com/mpress.htm ADDITION: NLS support with MinGW (by Eduardo F. Amatria ) If you want National Language Support, read the file src/po/README_mingw.txt. You need to uncomment lines in Make_ming.mak to have NLS defined. 3. Cygwin ========= Use Make_cyg.mak with Cygwin's GCC. See http://users.skynet.be/antoine.mechelynck/vim/compile.htm With Cygnus gcc you should use the Unix Makefile instead (you need to get the Unix archive then). Then you get a Cygwin application (feels like Vim is running on Unix), while with Make_cyg.mak you get a Windows application (like with the other makefiles). 4. Borland =========== Use Make_bc5.mak with Borland C++ 5.x. See http://users.skynet.be/antoine.mechelynck/vim/compile.htm 5. Cross compiling for Win32 from a Linux machine ================================================= [Update of 1) needs to be verified] If you like, you can compile the 'mingw' Win32 version from the comfort of your Linux (or other unix) box. To do this, you need to follow a few steps: 1) Install the mingw32 cross-compiler. See http://www.mingw.org/wiki/LinuxCrossMinGW http://www.libsdl.org/extras/win32/cross/README.txt 2) Get and unpack both the Unix sources and the extra archive 3) in 'Make_cyg_ming.mak', set 'CROSS' to 'yes' instead of 'no'. Make further changes to 'Make_cyg_ming.mak' and 'Make_ming.mak' as you wish. If your cross-compiler prefix differs from the predefined value, set 'CROSS_COMPILE' corresponding. 4) make -f Make_ming.mak gvim.exe Now you have created the Windows binary from your Linux box! Have fun... 6. Building with Python support =============================== For building with MSVC 2008 the "Windows Installer" from www.python.org works fine. When building, you need to set the following variables at least: PYTHON: Where Python is installed. E.g. C:\Python27 DYNAMIC_PYTHON: Whether dynamic linking is used. Usually, set to yes. PYTHON_VER: Python version. E.g. 27 for Python 2.7.X. E.g. When using MSVC (as one line): nmake -f Make_mvc.mak PYTHON=C:\Python27 DYNAMIC_PYTHON=yes PYTHON_VER=27 (rest written by Ron Aaron: ) Building with the mingw32 compiler, and the ActiveState ActivePython: http://www.ActiveState.com/Products/ActivePython/ After installing the ActivePython, you will have to create a 'mingw32' 'libpython20.a' to link with: cd $PYTHON/libs pexports python20.dll > python20.def dlltool -d python20.def -l libpython20.a Once that is done, edit the 'Make_ming.mak' so the PYTHON variable points to the root of the Python installation (C:\Python20, for example). If you are cross-compiling on Linux with the mingw32 setup, you need to also convert all the 'Include' files to *unix* line-endings. This bash command will do it easily: for fil in *.h ; do vim -e -c 'set ff=unix|w|q' $fil Now just do: make -f Make_ming.mak gvim.exe And if you use msys2 to build python support (as one line): mingw32-make -f Make_ming.mak PYTHON=c:/msys64/mingw64 PYTHON_HOME=c:/msys64/mingw64 PYTHONINC=-Ic:/msys64/mingw64/include/python2.7 DYNAMIC_PYTHON=yes PYTHON_VER=27 DYNAMIC_PYTHON_DLL=libpython2.7.dll STATIC_STDCPLUS=yes (This is for 64-bit builds. For 32-bit builds, replace mingw64 with mingw32.) You will end up with a Python-enabled, Win32 version. Enjoy! 7. Building with Python3 support ================================ For building with MSVC 2008 the "Windows Installer" from www.python.org works fine. Python 3.6 is recommended. When building, you need to set the following variables at least: PYTHON3: Where Python3 is installed. E.g. C:\Python36 DYNAMIC_PYTHON3: Whether dynamic linking is used. Usually, set to yes. PYTHON3_VER: Python3 version. E.g. 36 for Python 3.6.X. E.g. When using MSVC (as one line): nmake -f Make_mvc.mak PYTHON3=C:\Python36 DYNAMIC_PYTHON3=yes PYTHON3_VER=36 When using msys2 and link with Python3 bundled with msys2 (as one line): mingw32-make -f Make_ming.mak PYTHON3=c:/msys64/mingw64 PYTHON3_HOME=c:/msys64/mingw64 PYTHON3INC=-Ic:/msys64/mingw64/include/python3.6m DYNAMIC_PYTHON3=yes PYTHON3_VER=36 DYNAMIC_PYTHON3_DLL=libpython3.6m.dll STATIC_STDCPLUS=yes (This is for 64-bit builds. For 32-bit builds, replace mingw64 with mingw32.) 8. Building with Racket or MzScheme support ======================================== 1) Building with Racket support (newest) MzScheme and PLT Scheme names have been rebranded as Racket. Vim with Racket support can be built with either MSVC or MinGW (or Cygwin). Get it from https://download.racket-lang.org/ Copy lib/libracket{version}.dll to your Windows system directory. The system directory depends on your Windows bitness and Vim bitness: 32-bit Vim on 32-bit Windows: C:\Windows\System32 32-bit Vim on 64-bit Windows: C:\Windows\SysWOW64 64-bit Vim on 64-bit Windows: C:\Windows\System32 For building you need to set the following variables: MZSCHEME: Where Racket is installed. E.g. C:\Program Files (x86)\Racket DYNAMIC_MZSCHEME: Whether dynamic linking is used. Usually, set to yes. MZSCHEME_VER: Racket DLL version which is used for the file name. See below for a list of MZSCHEME_VER. The DLL can be found under the lib directory. E.g. C:\Program Files (x86)\Racket\lib\libracket3m_XXXXXX.dll MZSCHEME_COLLECTS: (Optional) Path of the collects directory used at runtime. Default: $(MZSCHEME)\collects User can override this with the PLTCOLLECTS environment variable. List of MZSCHEME_VER (incomplete): Racket ver. | MZSCHEME_VER ========================== 6.3 | 3m_9z0ds0 6.6 | 3m_a0solc 6.8 | 3m_a1zjsw 6.10 | 3m_a36fs8 E.g. When using MSVC (as one line): nmake -f Make_mvc.mak MZSCHEME="C:\Program Files (x86)\Racket" DYNAMIC_MZSCHEME=yes MZSCHEME_VER=3m_9z0ds0 Or when using MinGW (as one line): mingw32-make -f Make_ming.mak MZSCHEME='C:/Program\ Files\ (x86)/Racket' DYNAMIC_MZSCHEME=yes MZSCHEME_VER=3m_9z0ds0 Spaces should be escaped with '\'. 2) Building with MzScheme support (older) (written by Sergey Khorev ) Vim with MzScheme (http://www.plt-scheme.org/software/mzscheme) support can be built with either MSVC, or MinGW, or Cygwin. Supported versions are 205 and above (including 299 and 30x series). The MSVC build is quite straightforward. Simply invoke (in one line) nmake -fMake_mvc.mak MZSCHEME= [MZSCHEME_VER=] [DYNAMIC_MZSCHEME=] where is the last seven characters from MzScheme dll name (libmzschXXXXXXX.dll). If DYNAMIC_MZSCHEME=yes, resulting executable will not depend on MzScheme DLL's, but will load them in runtime on demand. Building dynamic MzScheme support on MinGW and Cygwin is similar. Take into account that should contain slashes rather than backslashes (e.g. d:/Develop/MzScheme) "Static" MzScheme support (Vim executable will depend on MzScheme DLLs explicitly) on MinGW and Cygwin requires additional step. libmzschXXXXXXX.dll and libmzgcXXXXXXX.dll should be copied from %WINDOWS%\System32 to other location (either build directory, some temporary dir or even MzScheme home). Pass that path as MZSCHEME_DLLS parameter for Make. E.g., make -f Make_cyg.mak MZSCHEME=d:/Develop/MzScheme MZSCHEME_VER=209_000 MZSCHEME_DLLS=c:/Temp DYNAMIC_MZSCHEME=no After a successful build, these dlls can be freely removed, leaving them in %WINDOWS%\System32 only. 9. Building with Lua support ============================ Vim with Lua support can be built with either MSVC or MinGW (or maybe Cygwin). You can use binaries from LuaBinaries: http://luabinaries.sourceforge.net/ This also applies to when you get a Vim executable and don't build yourself, do the part up to "Build". 1) Download and install LuaBinaries Go to the Download page of LuaBinaries: http://luabinaries.sourceforge.net/download.html Download lua-X.Y.Z_Win32_dllw4_lib.zip for x86 or lua-X.Y.Z_Win64_dllw4_lib.zip for x64. You can use them both for MSVC and MinGW. Unpack it to a working directory. E.g. C:\projects\lua53. Lua's header files will be installed under the include directory. Copy luaXY.dll to your Windows system directory. The system directory depends on your Windows bitness and Vim bitness: 32-bit Vim on 32-bit Windows: C:\Windows\System32 32-bit Vim on 64-bit Windows: C:\Windows\SysWOW64 64-bit Vim on 64-bit Windows: C:\Windows\System32 Or another option is copying luaXY.dll to the directory where gvim.exe (or vim.exe) is. 2) Build You need to set LUA, DYNAMIC_LUA and LUA_VER. LUA: Where Lua's header files are installed. E.g. C:\projects\lua53. DYNAMIC_LUA: Whether dynamic linking is used. Set to yes. LUA_VER: Lua version. E.g. 53 for Lua 5.3.X. E.g. When using MSVC (as one line): nmake -f Make_mvc.mak LUA=C:\projects\lua53 DYNAMIC_LUA=yes LUA_VER=53 Or when using MinGW (as one line): mingw32-make -f Make_ming.mak LUA=C:/projects/lua53 DYNAMIC_LUA=yes LUA_VER=53 Or when using Cygwin (as one line) (untested): make -f Make_cyg.mak LUA=/cygdrive/c/projects/lua53 DYNAMIC_LUA=yes LUA_VER=53 10. Building with Perl support ============================== Vim with Perl support can be built with either MSVC or MinGW (or Cygwin). You can use binaries from ActiveState (ActivePerl) or Strawberry Perl. http://www.activestate.com/activeperl http://strawberryperl.com/ When building, you need to set the following variables: PERL: Where perl is installed. E.g. C:\Perl, C:\Strawberry\perl DYNAMIC_PERL: Whether dynamic linking is used. Usually, set to yes. PERL_VER: Perl version. E.g. 522 for Perl 5.22.X. E.g. When using MSVC (as one line): nmake -f Make_mvc.mak PERL=C:\Perl DYNAMIC_PERL=yes PERL_VER=522 Or when using MinGW (as one line): mingw32-make -f Make_ming.mak PERL=C:/Perl DYNAMIC_PERL=yes PERL_VER=522 11. Building with Ruby support ============================== Vim with Ruby support can be built with either MSVC or MinGW (or Cygwin). Ruby doesn't provide the official Windows binaries. The most widely used Windows binaries might be RubyInstaller. Currently Ruby 2.4 is recommended. http://rubyinstaller.org/ If you use MinGW you can easily build with RubyInstaller, but if you use MSVC you need some tricks described below. (Another binary distribution is ActiveScriptRuby: http://www.artonx.org/data/asr/) When building, you need to set the following variables at least: RUBY: Where ruby is installed. E.g. C:\Ruby24 DYNAMIC_RUBY: Whether dynamic linking is used. Usually, set to yes. RUBY_VER: Ruby version. E.g. 24 for Ruby 2.4.X. RUBY_API_VER_LONG: Ruby API version in a long format. E.g. 2.4.0 for Ruby 2.4.X. Ruby version vs. Ruby API version: Ruby ver. | Ruby API ver. ========================= 1.8.X | 1.8 1.9.[1-3] | 1.9.1 2.0.0 | 2.0.0 2.X.Y | 2.X.0 (Ruby 1.9.0 is excluded from the table because it is an unstable version.) A) Using MSVC If you want to link with ruby, normally you must use the same compiler as which was used to build the ruby binary. RubyInstaller is built with MinGW, so normally you cannot use MSVC for building Vim if you want to link with RubyInstaller. If you use a different compiler, there are mainly two problems: config.h and Ruby's DLL name. Here are the steps for working around them: 1) Download and Install RubyInstaller. You can install RubyInstaller with the default options and directory. E.g.: C:\Ruby24 (32-bit) or C:\Ruby24-x64 (64-bit) Ruby 2.4.X is used in this example. 2) Download Ruby 2.4.X's source code and generate config.h: cd C:\projects git clone https://github.com/ruby/ruby.git -b ruby_2_4 cd ruby win32\configure.bat nmake .config.h.time Note that ruby_2_4 is the branch name for Ruby 2.4.X's source code. There is no need to build whole Ruby, just config.h is needed. If you use 32-bit MSVC 2015, the config.h is generated in the .ext\include\i386-mswin32_140 directory. If you use 64-bit MSVC 2015, the config.h is generated in the .ext\include\x64-mswin64_140 directory. 3) Install the generated config.h. For 32-bit version: xcopy /s .ext\include C:\Ruby24\include\ruby-2.4.0 For 64-bit version: xcopy /s .ext\include C:\Ruby24-x64\include\ruby-2.4.0 Note that 2.4.0 is Ruby API version of Ruby 2.4.X. You may need to close the console and reopen it to pick up the new $PATH. 4) Build Vim. Note that you need to adjust some variables (as one line): For 32-bit version: nmake -f Make_mvc.mak RUBY=C:\Ruby24 DYNAMIC_RUBY=yes RUBY_VER=24 RUBY_API_VER_LONG=2.4.0 RUBY_MSVCRT_NAME=msvcrt WINVER=0x501 For 64-bit version, replace RUBY=C:\Ruby24 with RUBY=C:\Ruby24-x64. If you set WINVER explicitly, it must be set to >=0x500, when building with Ruby 2.1 or later. (Default is 0x501.) When using this trick, you also need to set RUBY_MSVCRT_NAME to msvcrt which is used for the Ruby's DLL name. B) Using MinGW Using MinGW is easier than using MSVC when linking with RubyInstaller. After you install RubyInstaller, just type this (as one line): mingw32-make -f Make_ming.mak RUBY=C:/Ruby24 DYNAMIC_RUBY=yes RUBY_VER=24 RUBY_API_VER_LONG=2.4.0 WINVER=0x501 For 64-bit version, replace RUBY=C:/Ruby24 with RUBY=C:/Ruby24-x64. If you set WINVER explicitly, it must be set to >=0x500, when building with Ruby 2.1 or later. (Default is 0x501.) 12. Building with Tcl support ============================= Vim with Tcl support can be built with either MSVC or MinGW (or Cygwin). You can use binaries from ActiveState (ActiveTcl). http://www.activestate.com/activetcl For MSVC 2015 use version 8.6.6 or later. When building, you need to set the following variables: TCL: Where tcl is installed. E.g. C:\Tcl86 DYNAMIC_TCL: Whether dynamic linking is used. Usually, set to yes. TCL_VER: Tcl version in a short format. E.g. 86 for Tcl 8.6.X. TCL_VER_LONG: Tcl version in a long format. E.g. 8.6 for Tcl 8.6.X. Sometimes the Tcl dll name changes. E.g. ActiveTcl 8.6.4 comes with tcl86.dll, but ActiveTcl 8.6.6 comes with tcl86t.dll. You can set the dll name by setting the TCL_DLL variable: TCL_DLL=tcl86t.dll E.g. When using MSVC (as one line): nmake -f Make_mvc.mak TCL=C:\Tcl86 DYNAMIC_TCL=yes TCL_VER=86 TCL_VER_LONG=8.6 Or when using MinGW (as one line): mingw32-make -f Make_ming.mak TCL=C:/Tcl86 DYNAMIC_TCL=yes TCL_VER=86 TCL_VER_LONG=8.6 13. Building with Terminal support ================================== Vim with Terminal support can be built with either MSVC, MinGW or Cygwin. This uses the included libvterm and winpty. No extra header files or libraries are needed for building. Just set TERMINAL to yes. E.g. When using MSVC: nmake -f Make_mvc.mak TERMINAL=yes Or when using MinGW: mingw32-make -f Make_ming.mak TERMINAL=yes 14. Building with DirectX (DirectWrite) support =============================================== Vim with DirectX (DirectWrite) support can be built with either MSVC or MinGW. This requires dwrite_2.h and some other header files which come with Windows SDK 8.1 or later (or MinGW-w64), if you want to enable color emoji support. This also requires MBYTE=yes which is enabled by default. A) Using MSVC If you use MSVC 2013 or later, Windows SDK 8.1 or later is used by default. You just need to specify DIRECTX=yes: nmake -f Make_mvc.mak DIRECTX=yes If you use MSVC 2012 or earlier, the required header files are not available by default. However, you can use the header files from newer SDKs with older compilers. E.g.: set "INCLUDE=%INCLUDE%;C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\8.1\Include\um" nmake -f Make_mvc.mak DIRECTX=yes If you don't need color emoji support, only dwrite.h is required. You can use older compilers (e.g. VC2010) without Windows SDK 8.1. E.g.: nmake -f Make_mvc.mak DIRECTX=yes COLOR_EMOJI=no B) Using MinGW-w64 Just set DIRECTX to yes: mingw32-make -f Make_ming.mak DIRECTX=yes 15. Windows 3.1x ================ The Windows 3.1x support was removed in patch 7.4.1364. 16. MS-DOS ========== The MS-DOS support was removed in patch 7.4.1399. Only very old Vim versions work on MS-DOS because of the limited amount of memory available. 17. Installing after building from sources ========================================== [provided by Michael Soyka, updated by Ken Takata] After you've built the Vim binaries as described above, you're ready to install Vim on your system. However, if you've obtained the Vim sources using Git, Mercurial or by downloading them as a unix tar file, you must first create a "vim80" directory. If you instead downloaded the sources as zip files, you can skip this setup as the zip archives already have the correct directory structure. A. Create a Vim "runtime" subdirectory named "vim80" ----------------------------------------------------- If you obtained your Vim sources as zip files, you can skip this step. Otherwise, continue reading. Go to the directory that contains the Vim "src" and "runtime" directories and create a new subdirectory named "vim80". Copy the "runtime" files into "vim80": copy runtime\* vim80 B. Copy the new binaries into the "vim80" directory ---------------------------------------------------- Regardless of how you installed the Vim sources, you need to copy the new binaries you created above into "vim80": copy src\*.exe vim80 copy src\tee\tee.exe vim80 copy src\xxd\xxd.exe vim80 To install the "Edit with Vim" popup menu, you need both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of gvimext.dll. They should be copied to "vim80\GvimExt32" and "vim80\GvimExt64" respectively. First, build the 32-bit version, then: mkdir vim80\GvimExt32 copy src\GvimExt\gvimext.dll vim80\GvimExt32 Next, clean the 32-bit version and build the 64-bit version, then: mkdir vim80\GvimExt64 copy src\GvimExt\gvimext.dll vim80\GvimExt64 C. Copy gettext and iconv DLLs into the "vim80" directory ---------------------------------------------------------- Get gettext and iconv DLLs from the following site: https://github.com/mlocati/gettext-iconv-windows/releases Both 64- and 32-bit versions are needed. Download the files gettextX.X.X.X-iconvX.XX-shared-{32,64}.zip, extract DLLs and place them as follows: vim80\ | libintl-8.dll | libiconv-2.dll | libgcc_s_sjlj-1.dll (only for 32-bit) | + GvimExt32\ | libintl-8.dll | libiconv-2.dll | libgcc_s_sjlj-1.dll | ` GvimExt64\ libintl-8.dll libiconv-2.dll The DLLs in the "vim80" should be the same bitness with the (g)vim.exe. D. Move the "vim80" directory into the Vim installation subdirectory --------------------------------------------------------------------- Move the "vim80" subdirectory into the subdirectory where you want Vim to be installed. Typically, this subdirectory will be named "vim". If you already have a "vim80" subdirectory in "vim", delete it first by running its uninstal.exe program. E. Install Vim --------------- "cd" to your Vim installation subdirectory "vim\vim80" and run the "install.exe" program. It will ask you a number of questions about how you would like to have your Vim setup. Among these are: - You can tell it to write a "_vimrc" file with your preferences in the parent directory. - It can also install an "Edit with Vim" entry in the Windows Explorer popup menu. - You can have it create batch files, so that you can run Vim from the console or in a shell. You can select one of the directories in your PATH or add the directory to PATH using the Windows Control Panel. - Create entries for Vim on the desktop and in the Start menu. Happy Vimming!