Compile fails on MSYS/MINGW64 with missing curses.h

[eabase]

Running the compile line in README fails by missing curses.h file.

# ./autogen.sh && ./configure && make

...
config.status: creating config.h
gcc -DHAVE_CONFIG_H -g -O2  -c hexedit.c
In file included from hexedit.c:17:
hexedit.h:16:10: fatal error: curses.h: No such file or directory
   16 | #include <curses.h>
      |          ^~~~~~~~~~
compilation terminated.
make: *** [Makefile:31: hexedit.o] Error 1

But I already have curses.h:

# find /c/msys64/mingw64/ -iname "curses.h"

/c/msys64/mingw64/include/ncurses/curses.h
/c/msys64/mingw64/include/ncursesw/curses.h

• Issue possibly related to #17

[eabase]

I managed to get original hexedit to compile under MSYS, but not under MINGW64, without minor patching. See raised MinGW64 package request.

Some AI told me:

The error storage size of 'sa' isn't known means that struct sigaction is not defined. 
This is a POSIX-specific structure that doesn't exist in Windows/MinGW's headers.
This is a deeper compatibility issue - hexedit uses POSIX signal handling which isn't directly available on Windows.

So I tried on MSYS, and it worked.

I also managed to get it to compile and run for MINGW64. But you need to apply the following patches, created by git diff display.c interact.c:

diff --git a/display.c b/display.c
index 06a2b31..7812f30 100644
--- a/display.c
+++ b/display.c
@@ -14,6 +14,10 @@
    You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
    along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
    Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.*/
+#include <windows.h>
+#ifndef __MINGW32__
+#include <signal.h>
+#endif
 #include "hexedit.h"

 int move_cursor(INT delta)
@@ -103,7 +107,9 @@ int computeCursorXPos(int cursor, int hexOrAscii)

 void initCurses(void)
 {
+#ifndef __MINGW32__
   struct sigaction sa;
+#endif
   initscr();

 #ifdef HAVE_COLORS
diff --git a/interact.c b/interact.c
index 5eb1fc4..0668375 100644
--- a/interact.c
+++ b/interact.c
@@ -15,7 +15,11 @@
    along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
    Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.*/
 #include "hexedit.h"
-
+#ifndef __MINGW32__
+#include <signal.h>
+#include <sys/types.h>
+#include <sys/wait.h>
+#endif

 static void goto_char(void);
 static void goto_sector(void);
@@ -116,7 +120,14 @@ static void end_of_buffer(void)
   set_cursor(s);
 }

+#ifdef __MINGW32__
+static void suspend(void) {
+  displayMessageAndWaitForKey("Suspend not supported on Windows");
+}
+#else
 static void suspend(void) { kill(getpid(), SIGTSTP); }
+#endif
+
 static void undo(void) { discardEdited(); readFile(); }
 static void quoted_insert(void) { setTo(getch()); }
 static void toggle(void) { hexOrAscii = (hexOrAscii + 1) % 2; }
@@ -306,6 +317,15 @@ static void save_buffer(void)

 static void help(void)
 {
+#ifdef __MINGW32__
+  /* Windows doesn't have fork/exec, and likely doesn't have man pages */
+  displayTwoLineMessage(
+    "Help: Open https://github.com/pixel/hexedit in a browser",
+    "or run 'man hexedit' on Linux/Unix for full documentation"
+  );
+  getch();
+  refresh();
+#else
   char *args[3];
   int status;

@@ -319,6 +339,7 @@ static void help(void)
   }
   wait(&status);
   refresh();
+#endif
   raw();
 }

However, the --color switch produces no color in MINGW64. Also, the binaries are not compatible, and need to be compiled for each environment. (I'm not sure how to make them environment agnostic.)

[eabase]

The build commands for MSYS and MINGW64 are:

# For MSYS:
./autogen.sh && ./configure CFLAGS="-I/usr/include/ncursesw" LDFLAGS="-L/usr/lib" LIBS="-lncursesw" && make

# For MINGW64:
./autogen.sh && ./configure CFLAGS="-I/mingw64/include/ncursesw" LDFLAGS="-L/mingw64/lib" LIBS="-lncursesw" && make

[prigaux]

I have pushed two cleanup commits that should help, can you try?

• https://github.com/pixel/hexedit/commit/38423ce383eeb8071389202321a7096bd42b0e9b

chore: remove unused include (should help build on MINGW64)

• https://github.com/pixel/hexedit/commit/f66a85e2fef408f71c69bbbef66f8f48a462f870

chore: remove leftover from commit "Move SIGWINCH handling from handler to NCURSES"