[tex-live] 64 bits version of TeX Live on Windows

[Mojca Miklavec]

On 10 June 2016 at 15:15, Angelo Graziosi wrote:
> Akira Kakuto wrote:
>>
>> See CTAN/systems/win32/w32tex/TLW64/
>> Please read 00README.TLW64 carefully.
>
> I wonder if we can install TL2016 from MSYS2 shell using the Perl script
> install-tl with the "-custom-bin" option.

It would probably be nice to support installing TL under windows from
a shell script (either from MSYS2 or from the new shell that Windows
10 has introduced). This alone doesn't require official addition of
new binaries, but maybe some patches would be needed.

However adding *both* binaries (one compiled with Visual Studio and
one compiled with MinGW for the *same* architecture; please note that
I'm not talking about 32 vs. 64-bit here) makes no sense in my
opinion. (The cygwin binaries actually also have very little added
value if you ask me; cygwin users could just as well install the other
windows binaries from the shell script.)

Supporting 64-bit windows binaries is another story though. Akira
already compiles and provides 64-bit binaries built with Visual
Studio, so there is no need to compile yet another set (you can of
course do that at home and complain when something breaks). The
problem is just that they are not officially included.

I would also be in favour of adding them, but Karl is afraid of the
added complexity with not that much "added value" (properly supporting
64-bit Windows also means providing 64-bit perl, ghostscript etc.,
doubling the space required for all those binaries and properly
deciding whether the Windows in 32-bit or 64-bit, ...).


> BTW, I tried to build TL2016 many months ago with MSYS2/MINGW64 [1] and
> there were some build issues.. I tried to call attention [2] but none took
> care of it.
>     https://sourceforge.net/p/msys2/tickets/197

It's not that TeX Live calls clang. It's ICU that calls clang.

I would suggest you to try to compile the official ICU under the same
window. I would say that this is a bug that ICU developers have to fix
(or perhaps a bug in clang – not impossible either; Akira is probably
not using clang) and you probably need to complain to them. Just for
fun you could try to uninstall clang[++] and make a new clean build
attempt. Maybe you'll then succeed.

I didn't know that mingw64-w64 was actually shipping clang[++] by
default. I looked at it a while ago and only found gcc plus some
unofficial builds or instructions that needed quite a bit of patience
to make it work.

> I think that TL W64 binaries can be created adding MSYS2/MINGW64 as new TL
> platform but it need the help of TL gurus.. (as we did when Cygwin was
> added...)

There are several different unrelated goals:
- making 64-bit mingw builds work out of the box (you should really
try to pursue that further)
- supporting installation of existing or "third-party" binaries from
the msys shell
- adding a new set of binaries and support to TL

Karl was not particularly in favour of achieving the last goal, but
fixing the build can be taken care of separately.

Mojca