zlib

zlib is a compression library, and is a prerequisite for building the building blocks of much free software. It is indispensable!

Prerequisites

Install MSYS + MinGW.

You can use 7zip to unzip, if you like.

Download source

The current version as of December 8, 2016 is 1.2.8.

Copy the file to your MSYS $HOME/.

Start the MinGW Shell, and extract using 7zip:

  • cd

  • tar xvfz zlib-1.2.8.tar.gz

If you downloaded by browser, it may have decompressed to a 2.7MB file; in that case, mv zlib-1.2.8.tar.gz zlib-1.2.8.tar

Build

The makefile for MinGW is provided with the source, no need to run configure:

  • cd zlib-1.2.8

  • make -f win32/Makefile.gcc

Install

  • mkdir -p /usr/local/bin /usr/local/include /usr/local/lib

  • cp zlib1.dll /usr/local/bin/

  • cp zconf.h zlib.h /usr/local/include/

  • cp libz.a libz.dll.a /usr/local/lib

You might want to use /usr/local instead.

What was installed?

Static and dynamic Zlib library was installed, as well as include files. You may now use #include <zlib>.