Compiling Apache for Microsoft Windows

There are many important points before you begin compiling Apache. See Using Apache with Microsoft Windows before you begin.

Compiling Apache requires Microsoft Visual C++ 5.0 (or later) to be properly installed. It is easiest to compile with the command-line tools (nmake, etc...). Consult the VC++ manual to determine how to install them. Be especially aware that the vcvars32.bat file from the Program Files/DevStudio/VC/bin folder may be required to prepare the command-line environment for command-line builds!

First, unpack the Apache distribution into an appropriate directory. Open a command-line prompt and cd to that directory.

The master Apache makefile instructions are contained in the Makefile.win file. To compile Apache on Windows, simply use one of the following commands:

These will both compile Apache. The latter will include debugging information in the resulting files, making it easier to find bugs and track down problems.

Apache can also be compiled using VC++'s VisualStudio development environment. To simplify this process, a VisualStudio workspace, Apache.dsw, is provided. This workspace exposes the entire list of working .dsp projects that are required for the complete Apache binary release. It includes dependencies between the projects to assure that they are built in the appropriate order.

Notice: The Apache/VisualStudio project files are distributed in VisualStudio 6.0 (98) format. In fact you may build with VisualStudio 5.0 (97) but you must first use the perl script command:

    cd srclib\apr\build
    cvstodsp5.pl

Without running the script you will be able to load and build Apache, however VisualStudio 97 in particular will not recognize the /ZI flag to the C compiler for the debugging mode. This script toggles the new /ZI flag back to /Zi for Debug builds, among other adjustments. The converse script in srclib\apr\build\dsp5tocvs.pl will reverse the adjustments, and we ask you to do so before submitting patches against any .dsp project files.

The Apache.dsw workspace and makefile.win nmake script both build the .dsp projects of the Apache server in the following sequence:

  1. srclib\apr\aprlib.dsp
  2. srclib\apr\aprlibdll.dsp requires aprlib
  3. srclib\pcre\dftables.dsp
  4. srclib\pcre\pcre.dsp requires dftables
  5. srclib\pcre\pcreposix.dsp requires dftables and pcre
  6. srclib\expat-lite\xmltok.dsp
  7. srclib\expat-lite\xmlparse.dsp requires xmltok
  8. main\gen_uri_delims.dsp
  9. main\gen_test_char.dsp
  10. ApacheCore.dsp requires all of the above
  11. Apache.dsp requires ApacheCore and aprlibdll

In addition, the os\win32 subdirectory contains project files for the optional modules.

  1. os\win32\ApacheModuleAuthAnon.dsp
  2. os\win32\ApacheModuleAuthDigest.dsp
  3. os\win32\ApacheModuleCERNMeta.dsp
  4. os\win32\ApacheModuleExpires.dsp
  5. os\win32\ApacheModuleFileCache.dsp
  6. os\win32\ApacheModuleHeaders.dsp
  7. os\win32\ApacheModuleInfo.dsp
  8. os\win32\ApacheModuleRewrite.dsp
  9. os\win32\ApacheModuleSpeling.dsp
  10. os\win32\ApacheModuleStatus.dsp
  11. os\win32\ApacheModuleUserTrack.dsp
  12. modules\proxy\ApacheModuleProxy.dsp

The support\ folder contains project files for additional programs that are not part of the apache runtime, but are used by the administrator to test Apache and maintain password and log files.

  1. support\ab.dsp
  2. support\htdigest.dsp
  3. support\htpasswd.dsp
  4. support\logresolve.dsp
  5. support\rotatelogs.dsp

Once Apache has been compiled, it needs to be installed in its server root directory. The default is the \Apache directory, on the current hard drive.

To build and install all the files into the desired folder dir automatically, use one the following nmake commands:

The dir argument to INSTDIR gives the installation directory; it can be omitted if Apache is to be installed into \Apache.

This will install the following:

If you do not have nmake, or wish to install in a different directory, be sure to use a similar naming scheme, or use the following shortcut.

To simplify the process, dependencies between all projects are defined in the Microsoft VisualStudio workspace file: 

   Apache.dsw

This assures that lower-level sources are rebuilt from within VisualStudio. The top level project is InstallBin, which invokes Makefile.win to move the compiled executables and dlls. You may personalize the INSTDIR= setting by changing the Settings for InstallBin, Build command line entry under the General tab. INSTDIR defaults to the same directory as the httpd source.

Warning about building Apache from the development tree

Only the .dsp files are distributed between release builds. The .mak files are NOT regenerated, due to the tremendous waste of reviewer's time. Therefore, you cannot rely on the NMAKE commands above to build revised .dsp project files unless you then export all .mak files yourself from the project. This is unnecessary if you build from within the Microsoft DeveloperStudio environment.

Before running the server you must fill out the conf directory. Copy the *.conf-dist-win from the distribution conf directory and rename *.conf. Edit the @@ServerRoot@@ entries to your actual server root (for example "C:\apache"). Copy over the conf/magic and conf/mime.types files as well.