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<p><a href="../index.html"><img src="title-21.png" width="253" height="39" alt="C++ Portable Types Library (PTypes) Version 2.1" border="0"></a>
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<p class="hpath"><a href="index.html">Top</a>: <a href="intro.html">Introduction</a>:
Compiling and Porting</p>
<p><br>
<b>Supported platforms and compilers</b></p>
<blockquote>
<p><b>Linux/i386, Alpha, PPC, Sparc, AMD64</b>: GNU C/C++</p>
<p><b>MacOS X/Intel, PPC</b>: CC - Apple Objective-C compiler</p>
<p><b>SunOS/Sparc, i386</b>: GNU C/C++</p>
<p><b>FreeBSD</b>: GNU C/C++</p>
<p><b>HP-UX</b>: aCC</p>
<p><b>Windows</b>: MS Visual Studio 7, 8</p>
<p><b><br>
</b><br>
The build process on all platforms produces 3 versions of the library: static
single-threaded, static multithreaded and dynamic (shared) multithreaded. In addition,
MSVC can build debug versions for each of these 3 libraries.</p>
<p>Single-threaded versions have a suffix 'n' (non-reentrant) in their names:
<span class="lang">libptypesn.a</span> for UNIX and MinGW and <span class="lang">ptypesn.lib</span>
for MSVC. They are somewhat faster and smaller than the multithreaded versions
and are intended to be used in smaller projects that do not require to be linked
with the slower reentrant system libraries.</p>
<p>The dynamic versions of the library have the library version number in their
names: <span class="lang">ptypes21.dll</span>, <span class="lang">libptypes.so.21</span>
and <span class="lang">libptypes.21.dylib</span>. The version number in file names
reflects incompatible changes and/or significant enhancement of functionality.
Change in the third number in the version usually indicates a compatible improvement
and/or bug fix release, so it is not reflected in the DLL/so file name.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><b><br>
Building on UNIX and MacOS X</b></p>
<blockquote>
<p>In order to build the library on one of the UNIX systems listed above, run
<span class="lang">make</span> in the library's root directory. The makefile in
this directory actually calls makefiles in <span class="lang">src/</span> and
<span class="lang">wshare/</span> with a suffix which is an output of <span class="lang">uname</span>
on the given system (e.g. <span class="lang">src/Makefile.Linux</span> or <span class="lang">src/Makefile.FreeBSD</span>).
Make builds the library and the demo program, and then places:</p>
<ul>
<li>Static single-threaded version -> <span class="lang">lib/libptypesn.a</span></li>
<li>Static multi-threaded version -> <span class="lang">lib/libptypes.a</span></li>
<li>Shared multi-threaded version -> <span class="lang">so/libptypes.so.21</span>
(<span class="lang">libptypes.21.dylib</span> on MacOS X)</li>
<li>Demo program -> <span class="lang">bin/wshare</span></li>
</ul>
<p> The public headers are in <span class="lang">include/</span>.</p>
<p>When building your own multithreaded application on <b>Linux</b> or <b>FreeBSD</b>,
GCC requires you to specify a special command-line option <span class="lang">-pthread</span>
which automatically links POSIX threads library and the reentrant version of <span class="lang">libc</span>.
On <b>Linux</b> you should specify a macro <span class="lang">-D_GNU_SOURCE</span>
in the command line to include the <span class="lang">rwlock</span> interface.</p>
<p>When building your multithreaded application on <b>SunOS</b>, you should specify
a macro <span class="lang">-D_REENTRANT</span> and also link the following libraries:
<span class="lang">-lpthread -lposix4</span> for multithreaded applications, and
in addition, <span class="lang">-lsocket -lnsl</span> for network applications.
<i>NOTE</i>: if you omit <span class="lang">-lpthread</span>, the program links
without errors, but then the thread objects fail to initialize.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><b><br>
Building on Windows with MSVC 7 or 8</b></p>
<blockquote>
<p>The MSVC project files are:</p>
<ul>
<li><span class="lang">win32\PTypes_Lib_ST.vcproj</span> - static single-threaded
version </li>
<li><span class="lang">win32\PTypes_Lib.vcproj</span> - static multithreaded version</li>
<li><span class="lang">win32\PTypes_DLL.vcproj</span> - dynamic multithreaded version</li>
<li><span class="lang">win32\wshare.vcproj</span> - the demo program</li>
</ul>
<p>A "solution" file <span class="lang">PTypes.sln</span> is provided for building
all components and versions of the library.</p>
<p>You can include one of the project files in your own solutions. Make your
project dependent of PTypes to automatically link the library to your program.
To use PTypes headers you will have to explicitly specify the directory in your
project settings, e.g. "<span class="lang">..\ptypes\include</span>".</p>
<p>In order to link a program against the DLL version of PTypes (<span class="lang">ptypes21.dll</span>)
use <span class="lang">PTYPES_DLL</span> macro definition when compiling your
modules. You may want to add a post-build command in the MSVC environment that
copies the PTypes DLL to the directory where you build and debug your application.</p>
<p>You should link your application with the multithreaded version of CRTL, except
when using the single-threaded <span class="lang">ptypesn.lib</span>. When compiling
with the dynamic version of PTypes, it is recommended also to use the multithreaded
DLL version of CRTL.</p>
<p>Specify an additional library <span class="lang">ws2_32.lib</span> if you are
using PTypes' IP socket classes.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><b><br>
PTypes namespace</b></p>
<blockquote>
<p>The entire PTypes interface is enclosed within a namespace called <span class="lang">pt</span>.
The header file <a href="include/pport.h.html"><pport.h></a> provides a
macro <span class="lang">USING_PTYPES</span>, which is equivalent to <span class="lang">using
namespace pt</span>. This macro allows you to use PTypes interface symbols without
the scope specifier <span class="lang">pt::</span> in your source code.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><b><br>
Porting the library to other platforms</b></p>
<blockquote>
<p>The author would greatly appreciate any effort to port the library to other
popular platforms. If you either ported the library or just found that PTypes
builds with no problem under your favorite platform with your favorite compiler,
then all you'd have to do is to create a makefile with proper definitions in it.
Take a look at <span class="lang">Makefile.FreeBSD</span> or <span class="lang">Makefile.SunOS</span>,
for example. Besides <span class="lang">OS_CXXOPTS</span> you can specify additional
libraries through <span class="lang">OS_LDLIBS</span>. Name your makefile so that
running <span class="lang">make Makefile.`uname`</span> would work on the given
operating system. Try to build the library and then run <span class="lang">src/ptypes_test</span>
to make sure the library is functioning properly. </p>
<p>And finally, if you send the changes to the author, then (obviously) others
would be able to benefit from using PTypes on your favorite operating system with
your favorite compiler.</p>
</blockquote>
<p class="seealso">See also: <a href="deploying.html">Deploying the shared (dynamic)
library</a></p>
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