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Windows cross-build sample ​

Cross-compiling a Vala (or C/GTK) project for Windows from Linux, based on the archived GNOME Wiki page Projects/Vala/Win32CrossBuildSample.

The wiki walked through CMake, an old MinGW toolchain (i586-mingw32msvc), GTK+ 2 bundles, and NSIS packaging. Those pieces are mostly historical: current developers typically use Meson with a MinGW-w64 toolchain and GTK 3 or GTK 4 Windows runtimes from gvsbuild or similar distributors.

What the wiki described (CMake + GTK+ 2 bundle) ​

The archive suggested:

  • Installing mingw32, CMake, NSIS, and a pre-built GTK+ bundle for Windows.
  • Unzipping the bundle under win32/ and rewriting every .pc file’s prefix= so PKG_CONFIG_PATH points at the bundle.
  • A Toolchain.cmake that sets CMAKE_SYSTEM_NAME to Windows and selects i586-mingw32msvc-gcc.
  • A tiny hello-world.c linked with gtk+-2.0 to prove the cross prefix works, then running the .exe with Wine.

That flow is useful as background reading, but the exact package names, URLs, and compiler triples on modern distributions differ. Treat the wiki as a narrative, not copy-paste instructions.

Meson cross-compilation for Windows ​

Meson is the build system most Vala and GTK projects use today. A typical approach:

  1. Install a MinGW-w64 cross compiler (for example x86_64-w64-mingw32-gcc on Debian/Ubuntu via gcc-mingw-w64-x86-64).
  2. Install or build Windows copies of GLib/GTK and produce a pkg-config tree (gvsbuild output is common).
  3. Write a Meson cross file describing the host system and tool paths.

mingw-w64.ini (adjust paths to your SDK root):

text
[binaries]
c = 'x86_64-w64-mingw32-gcc'
cpp = 'x86_64-w64-mingw32-g++'
ar = 'x86_64-w64-mingw32-ar'
strip = 'x86_64-w64-mingw32-strip'
pkg-config = 'pkg-config'
windres = 'x86_64-w64-mingw32-windres'

[built-in options]
c_args = ['-I/path/to/windows-deps/include']
c_link_args = ['-L/path/to/windows-deps/lib']

[host_machine]
system = 'windows'
cpu_family = 'x86_64'
cpu = 'x86_64'
endian = 'little'

[properties]
pkg_config_libdir = '/path/to/windows-deps/lib/pkgconfig'

meson.build:

text
project('hello', 'c', vala: true)

glib_dep = dependency('glib-2.0')
exe = executable('hello', 'main.vala', dependencies: glib_dep)

Configure and compile from your project root:

shell
export PKG_CONFIG_PATH=/path/to/windows-deps/lib/pkgconfig
meson setup build-windows --cross-file mingw-w64.ini
meson compile -C build-windows

Meson then passes the correct --pkg arguments to valac and links against the Windows libraries described by the cross environment. Copy required DLLs next to the .exe (or run an install step that stages a runtime tree) before testing on Windows.

For GTK applications, follow upstream guidance for GTK on Windows and keep your SDK versions aligned with what your dependencies expect.