Step-by-step instructions to build Emacs for Windows 64 bit with MSYS2 and MinGW-w64. Now `native-comp` supported.

Build Emacs for Windows 64bit with Native Compilation.md

Build Emacs-w64 with MSYS2/MinGW-w64 with Native Compilation

Instructions are modified from emacs-w64 Wiki page by zklhp. Many thanks for sharing!

1. Download the latest MSYS2 from this download page.

2. Install MSYS2 to, for example, C:\msys2 (make sure no space in path to avoid unwanted problems).

3. Optionally prettify the MSYS2 console mintty with ~/.minttyrc to make it more pleasing to eyes. Thanks to this awesome theme!

ForegroundColour=131,148,150
BackgroundColour=0,43,54
CursorColour=192,192,192
Black=7,54,66
BoldBlack=0,43,54
Red=220,50,47
BoldRed=203,75,22
Green=133,153,0
BoldGreen=88,110,117
Yellow=181,137,0
BoldYellow=101,123,131
Blue=38,139,210
BoldBlue=131,148,150
Magenta=211,54,130
BoldMagenta=108,113,196
Cyan=42,161,152
BoldCyan=147,161,161
White=238,232,213
BoldWhite=253,246,227
BoldAsFont=yes
Font=Consolas
FontHeight=12
Transparency=off
OpaqueWhenFocused=no
ScrollbackLines=200000
FontSmoothing=full
CursorType=underscore
CursorBlinks=yes
ScrollMod=off
RightClickAction=paste
ClickTargetMod=off

4. Remove all /c/* paths in $PATH by adding this to .bashrc and restart mintty.

This is important to avoid interference from programs installed on the same machine, especially if you have Cygwin installed.

# Remove '/c/*' from PATH if running under Msys to avoid possible 
# interference from programs already installed on system. Removal 
# with awk is copied from http://stackoverflow.com/a/370192.
if [ $(uname -o) == 'Msys' ]; then
    export PATH=`echo ${PATH} | awk -v RS=: -v ORS=: '/c\// {next} {print}' | sed 's/:*$//'`
fi

The whole .bashrc is copied here.

# .bashrc
 
# Source global definitions
if [ -f /etc/bashrc ]; then
    . /etc/bashrc
fi
 
##############
### Basics ###
##############
 
# Don't wait for job termination notification
set -o notify
 
# Enables UTF-8 in Putty.
# See http://www.earth.li/~huggie/blog/tech/mobile/putty-utf-8-trick.html
echo -ne '\e%G\e[?47h\e%G\e[?47l'
 
# My pretty prompt (Yay!)
PS1='\[\e[32;40m\]\u\[\e[0m\]\[\e[34;40m\]\H\[\e[0m\]\[\e[40;1m\]\w\[\e[0m\] '
 
############
### PATH ###
############
 
# Remove '/c/*' from PATH if running under Msys to avoid possible 
# interference from programs already installed on system. Removal 
# with awk is copied from http://stackoverflow.com/a/370192.
if [ $(uname -o) == 'Msys' ]; then
    export PATH=`echo ${PATH} | awk -v RS=: -v ORS=: '/c\// {next} {print}' | sed 's/:*$//'`
fi
 
###############
### Aliases ###
###############
 
 
alias less='less -r'
alias rm='rm -i'
alias whence='type -a'
alias ls='ls -F --color=auto'
alias dir='ls --color=auto --format=long -L'
alias vdir='ls --color=auto --format=long'
alias ll='ls -l'
alias la='ls -A'
alias l='ls -CF'
alias md='mkdir'
alias pico='nano'
alias cls='clear'

5. Install packages required to build Emacs.

Follow instructions on this page first.

pacman -Syu
pacman -Sy
pacman -Sy\
    --needed \
    filesystem \
    msys2-runtime \
    bash \
    libreadline \
    libiconv \
    libarchive \
    libgpgme \
    libcurl \
    pacman \
    ncurses \
    libintl
    

Close mintty and restart it, do this again.

pacman -Su

Then let us install all required libs for building Emacs.

pacman -Su \
    autoconf \
    autogen \
    automake \
    automake-wrapper \
    diffutils \
    git \
    guile \
    libgc \
    libguile \
    libidn-devel \
    libltdl \
    libnettle-devel \
    libopenssl \
    libp11-kit-devel \
    libtasn1-devel \
    libunistring \
    make \
    mingw-w64-x86_64-binutils \
    mingw-w64-x86_64-bzip2 \
    mingw-w64-x86_64-cairo \
    mingw-w64-x86_64-crt-git \
    mingw-w64-x86_64-dbus \
    mingw-w64-x86_64-expat \
    mingw-w64-x86_64-fontconfig \
    mingw-w64-x86_64-freetype \
    mingw-w64-x86_64-gcc \
    mingw-w64-x86_64-gcc-libs \
    mingw-w64-x86_64-gdk-pixbuf2 \
    mingw-w64-x86_64-gettext \
    mingw-w64-x86_64-giflib \
    mingw-w64-x86_64-glib2 \
    mingw-w64-x86_64-gmp \
    mingw-w64-x86_64-gnutls \
    mingw-w64-x86_64-harfbuzz \
    mingw-w64-x86_64-headers-git \
    mingw-w64-x86_64-imagemagick \
    mingw-w64-x86_64-isl \
    mingw-w64-x86_64-jansson \
    mingw-w64-x86_64-libffi \
    mingw-w64-x86_64-libgccjit \
    mingw-w64-x86_64-libiconv \
    mingw-w64-x86_64-libidn2 \
    mingw-w64-x86_64-libjpeg-turbo \
    mingw-w64-x86_64-libpng \
    mingw-w64-x86_64-librsvg \
    mingw-w64-x86_64-libsystre \
    mingw-w64-x86_64-libtasn1 \
    mingw-w64-x86_64-libtiff \
    mingw-w64-x86_64-libunistring \
    mingw-w64-x86_64-libwinpthread-git \
    mingw-w64-x86_64-libxml2 \
    mingw-w64-x86_64-mpc \
    mingw-w64-x86_64-mpfr \
    mingw-w64-x86_64-nettle \
    mingw-w64-x86_64-p11-kit \
    mingw-w64-x86_64-pango \
    mingw-w64-x86_64-pixman \
    mingw-w64-x86_64-winpthreads \
    mingw-w64-x86_64-xpm-nox \
    mingw-w64-x86_64-xz \
    mingw-w64-x86_64-zlib \
    mingw-w64-x86_64-jbigkit \
    nano \
    openssl \
    pkgconf \
    tar \
    texinfo \
    wget
      

6. Get emacs source.

mkdir emacs; cd emacs
git clone http://git.savannah.gnu.org/r/emacs.git emacs
git config core.autocrlf false

7. Build Emacs!

Change target accordingly, the directory in which the freshly built Emacs binaries, libraries, and docs live.

target=/c/emacs

export PATH=/mingw64/bin:$PATH
 
mkdir build; cd build

(cd ../emacs; ./autogen.sh)

export PKG_CONFIG_PATH=/mingw64/lib/pkgconfig

../emacs/configure \
    --host=x86_64-w64-mingw32 \
    --target=x86_64-w64-mingw32 \
    --build=x86_64-w64-mingw32 \
    --with-native-compilation \
    --with-gnutls \
    --with-imagemagick \
    --with-jpeg \
    --with-json \
    --with-png \
    --with-rsvg \
    --with-tiff \
    --with-wide-int \
    --with-xft \
    --with-xml2 \
    --with-xpm \
    'CFLAGS=-I/mingw64/include/noX' \
    prefix=$target
 
make
 
make install prefix=$target

# Only needed for standalone dist (wo MSYS2 env)
# cp /mingw64/bin/*.dll $target/bin

Hi. Thanks for posting this. I'm very much a newbie so this is super helpful. However, the link to SourceForge (http://sourceforge.net/p/msys2/wiki/MSYS2%20installation/) is dead for me.

Please ignore the sf link and just follow the steps below. I was trying to give due credits to the authors of that page.

Thanks!

thanks! consider using make -j$(nproc).

Hello, thanks for this guide.
For me it worked but only until I closed the shell. Meaning I performed the steps above in an MSYS2 UCRT64 shell and after make install is finished I could run emacs/bin/emacs and the GUI is visible. Closed the MSYS2 UCRT64 shell. Reopened it and there is no response in the shell (no warnings no errors). When trying to run emacs.exe or runemacs.exe from the windows file explorer I get the messages for missing .dll : libgmp-10.dll, libMagickCore-7.Q16HDRI-10.dll, libMagickWand-7.Q16HDRI-10.dll, libdbus-1-3.dll .

Any Idea why those .dll files were accessbile before but not after the shell restart?

Update:
export PATH=/mingw64/bin:$PATH is missing.
I misunderstood the ,bashrc . Found one in C:\msys2\etc\skel and edited it, but with no effect. Apparently there needs to be a .bashrc and a .bash_profile (just calling .bashrc in this case) in the home directory. --> tested and working.

For those who want to build Emacs 29 in MSys2 so you can use it in terminal by emacs -nw, this works as long as you use the GNU Emacs tarball. That being said, don't choose emacs-29-deps-mingw-w64-src.zip to build from, unless you wanna the GUI version in Windows.

Hello, thanks for this guide. For me it worked but only until I closed the shell. Meaning I performed the steps above in an MSYS2 UCRT64 shell and after make install is finished I could run emacs/bin/emacs and the GUI is visible. Closed the MSYS2 UCRT64 shell. Reopened it and there is no response in the shell (no warnings no errors). When trying to run emacs.exe or runemacs.exe from the windows file explorer I get the messages for missing .dll : libgmp-10.dll, libMagickCore-7.Q16HDRI-10.dll, libMagickWand-7.Q16HDRI-10.dll, libdbus-1-3.dll .

Any Idea why those .dll files were accessbile before but not after the shell restart?

Update: export PATH=/mingw64/bin:$PATH is missing. I misunderstood the ,bashrc . Found one in C:\msys2\etc\skel and edited it, but with no effect. Apparently there needs to be a .bashrc and a .bash_profile (just calling .bashrc in this case) in the home directory. --> tested and working.

Hey @HarryTheFairy ,
Can you please elaborate on the last bit, how did you run it on windows? The .bashrc you mentioned is a part of the minnty shell, I guess.
However, double clicking the emacs/runemacs.exe still shows .dll error, and it also doesn't show up in the start menu.
Do you have any clue?

@cosmologistPiyush I think I only ran it only from my ucrt64.exe shell that came with msys2. I have not tried setting a shortcut in the start menu.

• I followed the guide above.
• Note: I skipped the minnty part and I do not see a ~/.minntyrc
• After I was done and typed $ emacs in my ucrt64.exe shell doom emacs started as expected
• closed the shell and reopened it --> $ emacs --> missing .dll errors
• added .bash_profile and .bashrc to my HOME directory
• added to .bashrc: export PATH=/mingw64/bin:$PATH
• reopened a ucrt64 shell --> $ emacs --> doom emacs started as expected
  So the /mingw64/bin folder needs to be visible in the environment path for emacs to start.
  I do not know how to start this version in another way like a shortcut.

In the beginning I thought building emacs like this is necessary to have native compilation active. But currently i have installed emacs 29.3 via the windows installer and setup doom emacs through another guide and it runs well, also native compilation seems to be active. There I can start it from the start menu shorcut that came with the installer.
Currently not using msys2 anymore, maybe trying it again if I learn that the performance is significantly better that way.

Hey @HarryTheFairy

@cosmologistPiyush I think I only ran it only from my ucrt64.exe shell that came with msys2. I have not tried setting a shortcut in the start menu.

• I followed the guide above.
• Note: I skipped the minnty part and I do not see a ~/.minntyrc
• After I was done and typed $ emacs in my ucrt64.exe shell doom emacs started as expected
• closed the shell and reopened it --> $ emacs --> missing .dll errors
• added .bash_profile and .bashrc to my HOME directory

When you say HOME I am assuming its the urcrt64 shell home dir, as Windows I don't think has a .bashrc?

• added to .bashrc: export PATH=/mingw64/bin:$PATH
• reopened a ucrt64 shell --> $ emacs --> doom emacs started as expected
  So the /mingw64/bin folder needs to be visible in the environment path for emacs to start.
  I do not know how to start this version in another way like a shortcut.

In the beginning I thought building emacs like this is necessary to have native compilation active. But currently i have installed emacs 29.3 via the windows installer and setup doom emacs through another guide and it runs well, also native compilation seems to be active. There I can start it from the start menu shorcut that came with the installer. Currently not using msys2 anymore, maybe trying it again if I learn that the performance is significantly better that way.

In my case the make install fails, as a reason I probably don't get the Start menu options. :(
Thanks for elaborating though.

Also a FYI for people doing this, MINGW GCC 14.1 and 14.2 have missing waitpid headers, so try -Wno-error=implicit-function-declaration, otherwise you can downgrade, or wait for the update to be fixed.