1<!-- 2Copyright (C) Daniel Stenberg, <daniel@haxx.se>, et al. 3 4SPDX-License-Identifier: curl 5--> 6 7Building via IDE Project Files 8============================== 9 10This document describes how to compile, build and install curl and libcurl 11from sources using legacy versions of Visual Studio 2010 - 2013. 12 13You will need to generate the project files before using them. Please run 14"generate -help" for usage details. 15 16To generate project files for recent versions of Visual Studio instead, use 17cmake. Refer to INSTALL-CMAKE in the docs directory. 18 19## Directory Structure 20 21The following directory structure is used for the legacy project files: 22 23 somedirectory\ 24 |_curl 25 |_projects 26 |_<platform> 27 |_<ide> 28 |_lib 29 |_src 30 31This structure allows for side-by-side compilation of curl on the same machine 32using different versions of a given compiler (for example VC10 and VC12) and 33allows for your own application or product to be compiled against those 34variants of libcurl for example. 35 36Note: Typically this side-by-side compilation is generally only required when 37a library is being compiled against dynamic runtime libraries. 38 39## Dependencies 40 41The projects files also support build configurations that require third party 42dependencies such as OpenSSL, wolfSSL and libssh2. If you wish to support 43these, you will also need to download and compile those libraries as well. 44 45To support compilation of these libraries using different versions of 46compilers, the following directory structure has been used for both the output 47of curl and libcurl as well as these dependencies. 48 49 somedirectory\ 50 |_curl 51 | |_ build 52 | |_<architecture> 53 | |_<ide> 54 | |_<configuration> 55 | |_lib 56 | |_src 57 | 58 |_openssl 59 | |_ build 60 | |_<architecture> 61 | |_VC <version> 62 | |_<configuration> 63 | 64 |_libssh2 65 |_ build 66 |_<architecture> 67 |_VC <version> 68 |_<configuration> 69 70As OpenSSL and wolfSSL don't support side-by-side compilation when using 71different versions of Visual Studio, build helper batch files have been 72provided to assist with this. Please run `build-openssl -help` and/or 73`build-wolfssl -help` for usage details. 74 75## Building with Visual C++ 76 77To build with VC++, you will of course have to first install VC++ which is 78part of Visual Studio. 79 80Once you have VC++ installed you should launch the application and open one of 81the solution or workspace files. The VC directory names are based on the 82version of Visual C++ that you will be using. Each version of Visual Studio 83has a default version of Visual C++. We offer these versions: 84 85 - VC10 (Visual Studio 2010 Version 10.0) 86 - VC11 (Visual Studio 2012 Version 11.0) 87 - VC12 (Visual Studio 2013 Version 12.0) 88 89Separate solutions are provided for both libcurl and the curl command line 90tool as well as a solution that includes both projects. libcurl.sln, curl.sln 91and curl-all.sln, respectively. We recommend using curl-all.sln to build both 92projects. 93 94For example, if you are using Visual Studio 2010 then you should be able to 95use `VC10\curl-all.sln` to build curl and libcurl. 96 97## Running DLL based configurations 98 99If you are a developer and plan to run the curl tool from Visual Studio with 100any third-party libraries (such as OpenSSL, wolfSSL or libssh2) then you will 101need to add the search path of these DLLs to the configuration's PATH 102environment. To do that: 103 104 1. Open the 'curl-all.sln' or 'curl.sln' solutions 105 2. Right-click on the 'curl' project and select Properties 106 3. Navigate to 'Configuration Properties > Debugging > Environment' 107 4. Add `PATH='Path to DLL';C:\Windows\System32;C:\Windows;C:\Windows\System32\Wbem` 108 109... where 'Path to DLL` is the configuration specific path. For example the 110following configurations in Visual Studio 2010 might be: 111 112DLL Debug - DLL OpenSSL (Win32): 113 114 PATH=..\..\..\..\..\openssl\build\Win32\VC10\DLL Debug;C:\Windows\System32; 115 C:\Windows;C:\Windows\System32\Wbem 116 117DLL Debug - DLL OpenSSL (x64): 118 119 PATH=..\..\..\..\..\openssl\build\Win64\VC10\DLL Debug;C:\Windows\System32; 120 C:\Windows;C:\Windows\System32\Wbem 121 122DLL Debug - DLL wolfSSL (Win32): 123 124 PATH=..\..\..\..\..\wolfssl\build\Win32\VC10\DLL Debug;C:\Windows\System32; 125 C:\Windows;C:\Windows\System32\Wbem 126 127DLL Debug - DLL wolfSSL (x64): 128 129 PATH=..\..\..\..\..\wolfssl\build\Win64\VC10\DLL Debug;C:\Windows\System32; 130 C:\Windows;C:\Windows\System32\Wbem 131 132If you are using a configuration that uses multiple third-party library DLLs 133(such as DLL Debug - DLL OpenSSL - DLL libssh2) then 'Path to DLL' will need 134to contain the path to both of these. 135 136## Notes 137 138The following keywords have been used in the directory hierarchy: 139 140 - `<platform>` - The platform (For example: Windows) 141 - `<ide>` - The IDE (For example: VC10) 142 - `<architecture>` - The platform architecture (For example: Win32, Win64) 143 - `<configuration>` - The target configuration (For example: DLL Debug, LIB 144 Release - LIB OpenSSL) 145 146Should you wish to help out with some of the items on the TODO list, or find 147bugs in the project files that need correcting, and would like to submit 148updated files back then please note that, whilst the solution files can be 149edited directly, the templates for the project files (which are stored in the 150git repository) will need to be modified rather than the generated project 151files that Visual Studio uses. 152 153## Legacy Windows and SSL 154 155Some of the project configurations allow the use of Schannel, the native SSL 156library in Windows which forms part of Windows SSPI. However, Schannel in 157Windows <= XP is unable to connect to servers that no longer support the 158legacy handshakes and algorithms used by those versions. If you will be using 159curl in one of those earlier versions of Windows you should choose another SSL 160backend such as OpenSSL. 161
