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

@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.