And if I have to install it, will I have to install it on every Windows computer that runs a copy of my code?

If you build against a static libidn library, then the libidn functionality will be built into the Net::LibIDN binaries, and you won't have to distribute anything other than your build of Net::LibIDN. But if you build against a shared libidn library (dll) then you'll have to distribute the dll as well as your build of Net::LibIDN.

I find that libidn-1.12 builds fine as a static library (didn't test a shared build) using MinGW in the MSYS shell. Just run ./configure --disable-shared --enable-static LDFLAGS=-L/usr/local/lib CPPFLAGS=-I/usr/local/include followed by make && make check then make install. Note that libiconv, which can be built using the same mantra, is also required.

Here's a diff showing the hack I made to the Makefile.PL in order to build Net::LibIDN-0.11: 
C:\>diff -u Makefile.PL_orig Makefile.PL
--- Makefile.PL_orig    Fri Feb  6 10:40:08 2009
+++ Makefile.PL Fri Feb  6 10:40:45 2009
@@ -46,18 +46,18 @@
                "disable-tld" => \$disable_tld
        );

-       if ($libdir)
+       if (1)
        {
-               $Params{LIBS} = "-L$libdir -lidn";
+               $Params{LIBS} = "-LC:/_32/msys/1.0/local/lib -lidn -li
+conv";
        }
        else
        {
                $Params{LIBS} = '-lidn';
        }

-       if ($incdir)
+       if (1)
        {
-               $Params{INC} = "-I$incdir";
+               $Params{INC} = "-IC:/_32/msys/1.0/local/include";
        }
        else
        {
@@ -164,7 +164,7 @@
                return 0;
        }

-       foreach my $cc (qw/cc gcc/)
+       foreach my $cc (qw/gcc/)
        {
                unlink($test);
                system "$cc $cflags -o $test $test.c $ldflags";

[download]
Unfortunately the tests fail with "Free to wrong pool..." errors, perhaps the result of bad practices used in the XS file. I'll see if I can patch the XS file so that the tests pass - and I'll post again to this thread when (if) I succeed.

Cheers,
Rob

In reply to Re: Net::LibIDN in Windows, is it possible? by syphilis
in thread Net::LibIDN in Windows, is it possible? by wilsond

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