MINGW PORT OF ICARUS VERILOG Copyright 2006 Stephen Williams Copyright 2010 Martin Whitaker Icarus Verilog source can be compiled with the MinGW C/C++ compilers to get a Windows binary that does not require the POSIX compatibility cruft of the Cygwin.dll library. The resulting program can be run with or without Cygwin, so this is the preferred Windows distribution form. The configure scripts automatically detect that the compilers in use are the MinGW compilers and will configure the Makefiles appropriately. The base MinGW package doesn't contain tools beyond the compiler, but there is the MSYS package that the makers of MinGW publish that has enough extra tools to get most everything else working. There are a few extra packages needed beyond MinGW and MSYS, and the following instructions explain how to get them and install them. * Some Preliminary Comments -- PLEASE READ ME -- The Windows port of Icarus Verilog is the most difficult of all the ports. The Windows system off the shelf is completely stripped, devoid of any support for software development. Everything needed to compile Icarus Verilog must be collected from various sources and stitched together by hand. Normal human beings with a basic understanding of software development can do this, but some patience (and access to the Internet) is required. You may choose to print these instructions. FOR BEST RESULTS, FOLLOW THESE INSTRUCTIONS CAREFULLY. NOTE that if you have Cygwin installed, it is best to not use a Cygwin window to do the build, as the Cygwin tools will intermix with the MinGW tools such that it is hard to be sure you are using the right compiler. Thus, it is recommended that these steps *not* be done in a Cygwin window. Use a MinGW window instead, and be careful that your MSYS/MinGW tools are not masked by paths that point to Cygwin binaries. We have no plans to intentionally support MSVC++ compilation. Don't ask. Incidentally, besides MinGW, none of the packages installed in the following steps are needed after installation of Icarus Verilog is complete. They are only needed to build the compiler. The MinGW package can be used to compile VPI modules if you choose. * Install MinGW and MSYS Base Packages From the MinGW project (http://www.mingw.org), download and run the MinGW graphical installer (mingw-get-inst). Select the following components to be installed: C Compiler C++ Compiler MSYS Basic System MinGW Developer Toolkit NOTE: If the download site is responding slowly, the installer tends to time out. If this happens it will skip the package it is currently trying to download and continue. If this happens, you can install the skipped packages later using the mingw-get command in a MinGW shell. The default installation path is C:\MinGW, but you can change this to anything you like (but make sure there are no spaces in the path names). This path is referred to as in subsequent instructions. The installation will leave a "MinGW Shell" icon in the MinGW sub-menu of your Start menu. This icon brings up a shell window (a command line) that has paths all set up for executing MSYS and MinGW commands. NOTE: If you intend to compile VPI modules for Icarus Verilog, you need MinGW, even if you are using a precompiled binary. VPI modules only require MinGW, and none of the other libraries. * Install Additional MinGW Packages Start a MinGW shell. In the shell window, execute the following commands: mingw-get install libz mingw-get install bzip2 mingw-get install pthreads-w32 mingw-get install msys-man If you also want to build Git (optional): mingw-get install libiconv mingw-get install msys-perl NOTE: Building Git allows you to execute Git commands in a MinGW shell, and allows the Icarus Verilog tools to report more detailed version information when called with the -V option. * Install GnuWin32 Packages The GnuWin32 project is a collection of open source programs and libraries ported to Windows. These also work well with the MinGW compiler, and in fact Icarus Verilog uses a few pieces from this collection. From the GnuWin project (http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net), download the following packages: gperf-3.0.1-bin readline-5.0.1-bin NOTE: You need the binaries and the developer files, but you do not need the source to these packages. From the downloaded gperf-3.0.1-bin zip archive: extract bin\gperf.exe to \bin From the downloaded readline-5.0.1-bin zip archive: extract bin\* to \bin extract lib\* to \lib extract include\* to \include where is the location you chose to install MinGW. NOTE: readline is only required to enable command line editing when in the vvp interactive mode. * Install Git for Windows (optional) NOTE: You can skip this step if you are building from a snapshot or stable release. From the msysgit project (http://code.google.com/p/msysgit), download and install the Git for Windows binary package. NOTE: When installing, you must select the option of preserving Unix style line endings. The installation will leave a "Git Shell" icon on the desktop and in the Git sub-menu of your Start menu. This icon brings up a shell window (a command line) that has paths all set up for executing Git commands. * Get the Git Source (optional) NOTE: You can skip this step if you don't want to build Git. Start a Git shell. In the Git shell window, change directory to the location where you wish to store the source code and execute the following command: git clone git://repo.or.cz/git/mingw.git git This will create a directory "git" that contains all the source code for Icarus Verilog. The path to the directory containing the source code is referred to as in subsequent instructions. NOTE: Make sure there are no spaces in the path names. Use forward slashes in place of back slashes when using in a MinGW shell. * Build Git (optional) NOTE: You can skip this step if you don't want to build Git. In the MinGW shell window, execute the following commands: cd make NO_OPENSSL=YesPlease NO_TCLTK=YesPlease INSTALL=/bin/install \ prefix=/usr/local install You can now uninstall the Git for Windows binary package if you wish, as Git commands can now be executed in the MinGW shell. * Get the Icarus Verilog Source In the MinGW shell window, change directory to the location where you wish to store the source code. If you are building from a snapshot, execute the following command: gunzip -d verilog-xxxxxxxx.tar.gz | tar xvf - This will create a directory "verilog-xxxxxxxx" that contains all the source code for Icarus Verilog. NOTE: The exact name of the file will vary according to the snapshot. The 'xxxxxxxx' name is only an example. If you are obtaining source from Git, execute the following command: git clone git://icarus.com/~steve-icarus/verilog verilog This will create a directory "verilog" that contains all the source code for Icarus Verilog. NOTE: If you haven't built Git, you will need to execute the above command in a Git shell. The path to the directory containing the source code is referred to as in subsequent instructions. NOTE: Make sure there are no spaces in the path names. Use forward slashes in place of back slashes when using in a MinGW shell. * Preconfigure Icarus Verilog (not normally needed) Under certain cases, you may need to "preconfigure" the Icarus Verilog source tree. You should only need to do this if you are obtaining source from Git, or you are using an existing source tree that you've patched to cause configure.in files to change. NOTE: If you are building from a fresh, bundled source tree that you downloaded from an FTP site, then SKIP THIS STEP. Go on to the "Configure Icarus Verilog" step below. First, remove any autom4te.cache directories that may exist in your source tree. These can make a mess of autoconf runs. Then, in the MinGW shell window, execute the following commands: cd sh autoconf.sh This script will run the "autoconf" command to generate all the necessary "configure" scripts. * Configure and Build Icarus Verilog Now we are all set to configure and compile Icarus Verilog. Choose a destination path where you will want to install the binaries. This choice is not permanent, so don't get too much angst over it. Just choose a name without white space. The destination path is referred to as in subsequent instructions. NOTE: Make sure there are no spaces in the path names. Use forward slashes in place of back slashes when using in a MinGW shell. In the MinGW shell window, execute the following commands: cd ./configure --prefix= make NOTE: If you execute configure without the --prefix option, the default installation path is \msys\1.0\local, which in a MinGW shell is aliased to /usr/local/bin. * Install Icarus Verilog If the compile ran OK, then next you install Icarus Verilog in the directory you have chosen. In the MinGW shell window, execute the following commands: cd make install This is part of what the configure program did for you. The Makefiles know to put the files in the directory. You now need to add \bin and \bin to your Windows "PATH" environment variable. Alternatively, you can copy the DLLs needed by Icarus Verilog from \bin to bin, and just add \bin to your Windows "PATH" environment variable. * Running Icarus Verilog You can run Icarus Verilog either from a Windows command shell window or from a MinGW shell window. NOTE: You will need to start a new shell to pick up any changes you have made to the "PATH" environment variable. Currently, iverilog.exe uses the path to itself to locate the libraries and modules associated with itself. In other words, if you execute the \bin\iverilog.exe program, it will locate its subparts in the directory and subdirectories below that. This means you can move the Icarus Verilog installation by simply moving the root directory and all its contents. The vvp.pdf and iverilog.pdf files document the main commands. View these with Acrobat reader, or any other viewer capable of displaying PDF format files.