Compiling GRASS on MS-Windows

Dependencies required for building with MinGW

Compiling your own copy of GRASS is greatly simplified by using the OSGeo4W directory structure to install most dependencies and downloading the rest from a few other locations. Follow the steps below to set up the build environment for GRASS.

Install the OSGeo4W directory structure

OSGeo4W has several of the required dependencies for compiling GRASS:

1. Download the OSGeo4W installer from ​here.

2. Run the installer.

3. Select Advanced Install, and Next.

4. Set the install directory to c:\OSGeo4W (other directories or fine if there are no spaces in the path but make sure to adjust the instructions below (?))

5. Select grass from the desktop section (this is a binary but we'll compile from source later).

6. Also select:

• Commandline_Utilities
  • avce00
  • gpsbabel

• Libs:
  • fftw-devel
  • freetype-devel
  • freetype-devel-mingw
  • gsl-libs
  • gsl-devel
  • libpng-devel
  • libpng-devel-mingw
  • libtiff-devel
  • libxdr
  • mingw-libs (contains mingw-style libraries for VC build binaries and depends on gdal, libpq, libjpeg-devel, sqlite3, libtiff, zlib, proj)
  • pdcurses-devel
  • tcltk-devel
  • zlib-devel

7. Click next, the selected packages and their required subpackages will be downloaded and installed automatically.

Install the environment for compilation (MingW)

1. Run msys (there should be an icon on the desktop)
   • Note for Vista 64bit: in case that MSYS starts to open multiple windows, close them all. Check first ​this discussion. A solutions seems to be to download ​http://downloads.sourceforge.net/mingw/MSYS-1.0.11-20070729.tar.bz2 (or newer?). Open the tarball, and copy the bin directory over C:\osgeo4w\apps\msys\bin. see also ​https://sourceforge.net/forum/forum.php?forum_id=720513

2. Type:

    mkdir /c/osgeo4w/apps/msys/osgeo4w
   

3. Copy c:\osgeo4w\apps\msys\etc\fstab.sample to c:\osgeo4w\apps\msys\etc\fstab (without .sample)

4. Open c:\osgeo4w\apps\msys\etc\fstab

5. At line 16, change:

   c:/mingw		/mingw
   c:/ActiveState/perl	/perl
   

To:

c:/osgeo4w/	/osgeo4w

6. Download the MinGW packages:

(​or newer??)

• bin-utils from ​here
• gcc-core from ​here
• gcc-g++ from ​here
• mingw32-make from ​here
• mingw-runtime from ​here
• mingw-utils from ​here
• w32api from ​here

7. Unpack all to c:\osgeo4w

8. Download an updated make from ​here (required for grass-7.0.svn)

(​or newer??)

9. Unpack to c:\osgeo4w\apps\msys

Pre-built Binaries

Download: (​or newer??)

• bison from ​here
• bison-deps from ​here
• flex from ​here
• gettext-bin from ​here
• gettext-lib from ​here
• libintl-bin from ​here
• libintl-lib from ​here
• regex from ​here

Unpack all to c:\osgeo4w

Compiling and Installing GRASS (6.4.0)

1. Download the latest GRASS 6.4.0 source code from ​here.

2. Unpack to c:\osgeo4w\usr\src

3. Open c:\osgeo4w\usr\src\grass64\mswindows\osgeo4w\package.sh and at line 12, change:

   --with-libs="/c/OSGeo4W/lib /c/MinGW/lib" \
   --with-includes="/c/OSGeo4W/include /c/MinGW/include" \
   

To:

--with-libs=/c/OSGeo4W/lib \
--with-includes=/c/OSGeo4W/include \

5. To compile, type in MSYS console:

   export PATH="/osgeo4w/bin:$PATH"
   cd /osgeo4w/usr/src/grass-6.4xxx (change to dir of the version you downloaded)
   ./mswindows/osgeo4w/package.sh
   

When finished, you should have the following compilation log (c:\osgeo4w\usr\src\grass-6.4xxx\error.log):

(UPDATE: Makefile fixed to avoid building r.li if Msys detected)

GRASS GIS compilation log
-------------------------
Started compilation: Mon Feb 16 10:11:17 GMT 2009
--
Errors in:
/usr/local/src/grass-6.4.0/raster/r.li/r.li.daemon
...
make: *** [default] Error 1

Currently r.li.* cannot be compiled on Windows, but grass will run fine without them.

6. Because of these errors in the install script stops. To finish it type:

   make install
   

Now GRASS should be installed in c:\osgeo4w\apps\grass-6.4.0\

Usage

To start grass use the icon on the desktop.

OR, if you want to be able to use the command line from within grass, you'll need a different start-up file.

1. Open C:\OSGeo4W\apps\grass\bin\grass64 and at line 24 add:

(UPDATE: PYTHONPATH setting bug in Init.sh now fixed)

if [ -z "$PYTHONPATH" ] ; then
 PYTHONPATH="$GISBASE/etc/python"
else
 PYTHONPATH="$GISBASE/etc/python:$PYTHONPATH"
fi
export PYTHONPATH

2. To start grass, type in MSYS console:

   /osgeo4w/apps/grass/bin/grass64
   

Or to use the new wxpython GUI:

/osgeo4w/apps/grass/bin/grass64 -wxpython

Compiling and Installing Development Versions of GRASS

Optional Installation of Subversion

The GRASS source tree is stored in an online repository called Subversion. Rather than downloading source trees from the website, subversion lets you keep up to date, and manage your modifications, with simply commands. For more see ​Working with SVN.

1. Download Collabnet Subversion Command-Line Client (1.6) from ​here. (You'll have to register on Collabnet)

2. Run the installer and install to a path without spaces(?) such as c:/Subversion or c:/Programs/Subversion

3. Open c:\osgeo4w\etc\ini\msys.bat and at line 1 add the path to your subversion folder, eg. change:

   PATH %PATH%;%OSGEO4W_ROOT%\apps\msys\bin
   

To:

PATH %PATH%;%OSGEO4W_ROOT%\apps\msys\bin;/c/Programs/Subversion

Alternatively TortoiseSVN, a plugin for Windows Explorer, can be used for managing the local source tree. Download ​here.

Grass-6.5.svn (develbranch_6)

1. Download the grass-6.5.svn source tree with:
   • subversion (also see here

     cd /osgeo4w/usr/src
     svn co http://svn.osgeo.org/grass/grass/branches/develbranch_6/ grass6-devel
     #For Subsequent updates, type:
     cd /osgeo4w/usr/src/grass6-devel
     svn up
     

OR

• Download a weekly snapshot from ​here

2. Follow the instructions above for grass-6.4.0, but change all grass64 to grass65, etc.

nb. To update your source tree later using subversion and recompile type:

cd /osgeo4w/usr/src/grass6-devel
svn up
rm configure-stamp
./mswindows/osgeo4w/package.sh

Grass-7.0.svn (trunk)

1. Download the grass-7.0.svn source tree with:
   • subversion (also see here

     cd /osgeo4w/usr/src
     svn checkout https://svn.osgeo.org/grass/grass/trunk grass_trunk
     #For Subsequent updates, type:
     cd /osgeo4w/usr/src/grass_trunk
     svn up
     

OR

• Download a weekly snapshot from ​here and unpack to c:\osgeo4w\usr\src (if you use this method in the instructions below change "grass_trunk" to the folder name of your snapshot eg. "grass-7.0.svn_src_snapshot_2009_03_29")

2. Open c:\osgeo4w\etc\ini\msys.bat and at line 3 add:

   set PYTHONPATH=%OSGEO4W_ROOT%\apps\Python25
   

3. Open c:\osgeo4w\usr\src\grass_trunk\lib\python\grass.py, and at line 208 change:

(UPDATE: automatic OS detection fixed in SVN; moved to core.py)

os.execvp("g.parser", [name] + argv)

To:

os.execvp("g.parser.exe", [name] + argv)

4. Open c:\osgeo4w\usr\src\grass_trunk\include\Make\Multi.make, at at line 19 change:

(UPDATE: suspect that this isn't needed; for now skip it but please let us know if you find it breaks without it)

$(BIN)/%$(EXE): $(DEPENDENCIES)
	$(call linker)

define objs_rule
$(BIN)/$(1)$(EXE): $$(patsubst %.o,$(OBJDIR)/%.o,$$($$(subst .,_,$(1)_OBJS)))

To:

define objs_rule
$(BIN)/$(1)$(EXE): $$(patsubst %.o,$(OBJDIR)/%.o,$$($$(subst .,_,$(1)_OBJS))) $(DEPENDENCIES)
	$$(call linker)

5. Download the package.sh script from ​here

(why not use the native grass 7 ver?? grass/trunk/mswindows/osgeo4w/package.sh​)

6. Put in c:\osgeo4w\usr\src\grass_trunk\mswindows\osgeo4w\ (you may have to create the latter two folders)

7. Open c:\osgeo4w\usr\src\grass_trunk\mswindows\osgeo4w\package.sh, and make the same changes as in the grass-6.4.0 section above

8. Also, at line 35 change:

(UPDATE: not needed if you pull mswindows\osgeo4w\package.sh from the GRASS 7 source code)

--with-freetype-includes=/osgeo4w/include/freetype2 

To:

--with-freetype-includes=/osgeo4w/include/freetype2 \
--without-cairo \
--without-geos

9. To compile, type in MSYS console:

   cd /osgeo4w/usr/src/grass_trunk
   ./mswindows/osgeo4w/package.sh
   

10. Once the script fails on the r.li.* errors (see above), type:

(UPDATED: fixed to avoid building r.li if Msys detected)

make install

11. Once this is finished open c:\osgeo4w\apps\grass\grass-7.0.svn\etc\Init.sh, and at line 150 change:

(still aplicable???)

PATH="$GRASS_LD_LIBRARY_PATH"

To:

PATH="$GRASS_LD_LIBRARY_PATH:$PATH"

12. Open c:\osgeo4w\apps\grass\bin\grass70, and at line 25 add:

(still needed???)

if [ -z "$PYTHONPATH" ] ; then
 PYTHONPATH="$GISBASE/etc/python"
else
 PYTHONPATH="$GISBASE/etc/python:$PYTHONPATH"
fi
export PYTHONPATH

13. You're finished, start with:

    /osgeo4w/apps/grass/bin/grass70
    

nb. To update your source tree later using subversion and recompile type:

cd /osgeo4w/usr/src/grass_trunk
make distclean
svn up
rm configure-stamp
./mswindows/osgeo4w/package.sh

Troubleshooting

Here are a few common problems and their solutions:

With module...	If you get the error	Do the following
r.mapcalc, r.univar, or raster3d/base	No rule to make target ... needed by 'progs'	Update msys's make (see step 8 in the MinGW section above)
scripts/*	ImportError: No module named grass	Fix PYTHONPATH to *nix-style (eg. PYTHONPATH=/osego4w/apps/Python25)

TODO

• QGIS
• Add cairo support to grass-7.0.svn
  • Possibly use these cairo binaries ​deps and ​bin. (check for newer versions)
  • Preferably get cairo added to osgeo4w tree.
• Add geos support for grass-7.0.svn (need geos-config file)

Building with MS Visual Studio

• See CompileOnWindowsMSVC

See also

• ​GRASS package page in OSGeo4W (including ​packaging notes)
• Develop your own GRASS modules on MS-Windows
• ​http://wiki.qgis.org/qgiswiki/BuildingFromSource by QGIS Team
• ​http://www.webalice.it/marco.pasetti/grass/BuildFromSource.html by Marco Pasetti
• ​http://www.webalice.it/marco.pasetti/qgis+grass/BuildFromSource.html by Marco Pasetti