Compiling Apache for Microsoft Windows

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

Requirements

Compiling Apache requires the following environment to be properly installed;

Command-Line Build

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 NT, simply use one of the following commands to compiled the release or debug build, respectively:

    nmake /f Makefile.win _apacher

    nmake /f Makefile.win _apached

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

Developer Studio Workspace IDE Build

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.

Open the Apache.dsw workspace, and choose InstallBin (Release or Debug build, as desired) as the Active Project. InstallBin causes all related project to be build, and then invokes Makefile.win to move the compiled executables and dlls. You may personalize the INSTDIR= choice by changing InstallBin's Settings, General tab, Build command line entry. INSTDIR defaults to the /Apache2 directory.

The .dsp project files are distributed in Visual C++ 6.0 format. Visual C++ 5.0 (97) will recognize them with the single exception of the /ZI flag (which corresponds to the VC 5.0 /Zi flag for debugging symbols.) To quickly prepare the .dsp files for the Visual Studio 5.0 (97), you can run this command from the top-level httpd-2.0 directory:

     perl srclib\apr\build\cvtdsp.pl -5
You must type this command from the top level directory of the httpd source tree. Every VC6 .dsp project file within the current directory and below will be listed as it is converted. If you contribute back a patch that revises project files, please convert them back with the the -6 option instead of -5, which returns the project files to Visual Studio 6.0 format.

Project Components

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\apr.dsp
  2. srclib\apr\libapr.dsp
  3. srclib\apr-util\uri\gen_uri_delims.dsp
  4. srclib\apr-util\aprutil.dsp
  5. srclib\apr-util\libaprutil.dsp
  6. srclib\pcre\dftables.dsp
  7. srclib\pcre\pcre.dsp
  8. srclib\pcre\pcreposix.dsp
  9. srclib\expat-lite\libexpat.dsp
  10. server\gen_test_char.dsp
  11. libhttpd.dsp
  12. Apache.dsp

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

  1. modules\aaa\mod_auth_dbm.dsp
  2. modules\aaa\mod_auth_anon.dsp
  3. modules\aaa\mod_auth_digest.dsp
  4. modules\cache\mod_file_cache.dsp
  5. modules\dav\fs\mod_dav_fs.dsp
  6. modules\dav\main\mod_dav.dsp
  7. modules\generators\mod_info.dsp
  8. modules\generators\mod_status.dsp
  9. modules\mappers\mod_rewrite.dsp
  10. modules\mappers\mod_speling.dsp
  11. modules\metadata\mod_usertrack.dsp
  12. modules\metadata\mod_cern_meta.dsp
  13. modules\metadata\mod_headers.dsp
  14. modules\metadata\mod_expires.dsp
  15. modules\ssl\mod_ssl.dsp
  16. modules\tls\mod_tls.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
  6. support\win32\wintty.dsp

Once Apache has been compiled, it needs to be installed in its server root directory. The default is the \Apache2 directory, of the same drive.

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

    nmake /f Makefile.win installr INSTDIR=dir

    nmake /f Makefile.win installd INSTDIR=dir
The dir argument to INSTDIR gives the installation directory; it can be omitted if Apache is to be installed into \Apache2.

This will install the following:

Warning about building Apache from the development tree

Only the .dsp files are maintained 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.