4.4 What Files to Download?

Q: What's the minimum set of .zip files I need to download?

A: This depends on what you are planning to use DJGPP for.

The following table lists required and recommended files by category. An alternative method of choosing the files suitable for your needs is to use the DJGPP zip-picker feature which will guide you through the process.

• To only run DJGPP-compiled programs, you MUST download all of these¹⁰:

  v2/readme.1st

  This explains how to install DJGPP and get started with using it.
  

  v2/faq230b.zip

  The latest edition of this FAQ list. Use it whenever you have problems installing and using DJGPP.
  

  v2/frfaq21b.zip

  This FAQ list translated into French by Francois Charton.
  

  v2misc/csdpmi4b.zip

  CWSDPMI, the DJGPP free DPMI server. DJGPP programs require DPMI services, which provide a way to run 32-bit protected-mode programs under real-mode MS-DOS. (If you can get DPMI services in your environment, like if you run under Windows, QDPMI, or OS/2, you don't need CWSDPMI, but I recommend downloading it nonetheless so you can try it in case you have trouble with other DPMI servers.)
  

  v2misc/pmode11b.zip

  This is an alternative DPMI server, PMODE/DJ. Its memory footprint is smaller than CWSDPMI and it can be bundled with DJGPP programs to make a stand-alone executable that doesn't require a DPMI server to run. PMODE/DJ doesn't support virtual memory and its implementation of the DPMI spec is a bit more restricted than that of CWSDPMI, but it is faster, and therefore more appropriate for high-performance interrupt handling.
  

  v2/djtzn203.zip

  This archive includes the timezone files, which are used by several library functions and programs that call those functions, to translate file time stamps between different time zones. You will need this archive if you run DJGPP-compiled programs that set file times for files downloaded from a distant place; one example is an archiving program such as unzip or Tar. Most people will only need a single file from this distribution. See zoneinfo files, for a detailed explanation of these files.

• For developing C programs (no C++), you MUST download all of the above, plus the following:

  v2gnu/gcc2952b.zip

  The GNU C Compiler binaries and docs (including the docs for the C++ compiler).
  

  v2gnu/bnu281b.zip

  The GNU Binutils, including as, the GNU assembler; ld, the GNU linker; and their docs. GCC calls these utilities during compilation.
  

  v2/djdev203.zip

  C header files and libraries, library reference, minimal development environment (including assembly-level debuggers), DJGPP-specific utilities and their documentation. Required to compile/link C programs.
  

  v2gnu/txi40b.zip

  Info, a stand-alone program to read GNU hypertext documentation files, and an environment to produce such files. Without info, you cannot read the C library reference and the docs included with the ported GNU software packages. This package also includes the install-info utility, which helps to install Info docs of optional utilities that you download. Several files required to format Texinfo docs for printing are also included.

• For developing C++ programs, you will need all of the above, plus the following:

  v2gnu/gpp2952b.zip

  The GNU C++ compiler, (the docs are part of the gccNNNb.zip package, see above), the C++ header files and standard C++ class libraries, including the STL, and their docs.
  

  v2gnu/lgp2952b.zip

  Additional GNU C++ class libraries. This library is now deprecated and no longer maintained. I suggest not to use it.
  

  v2gnu/objc2952b.zip

  If you want to develop Objective-C programs, you will need this file, which includes the Objective-C compiler and header files. More information about Objective-C is available from Brad Cox's home page. Many Objective-C related links can be found at <http://www.sente.ch/cetus/oo_objective_c.html>.

• For developing Fortran programs, you will need the C development tools (no need to download C++ compilers and libraries), plus the following:

  v2gnu/g772952b.zip

  The GNU f77 compiler and libraries.

• The following are some optional packages which you might want:
  • Debugging:

    v2gnu/gdb418b.zip

    GDB, the GNU Debugger and its docs. (Note that the djdev distribution includes two simpler, assembly-level debuggers, edebug and fsdb. The latter presents a user interface similar to that of Turbo Debugger.)

  • Additional development tools (consider getting at least the Make distribution):

    v2gnu/mak3781b.zip

    GNU Make program with its docs. (Make is a program that can automatically compile/link a program given the description of dependencies between the various source and object files, on a special file called Makefile.) You should install Make 3.75 or later if you use DJGPP v2.01 (previous ports of Make have subtle incompatibilities with v2.01 tools). The DJGPP port of Make supports Unix-style shells (as well as DOS COMMAND.COM and its 4DOS/NDOS replacements) and can be used to run Unix Makefiles if you install a Unix-style shell (e.g., bash) and auxiliary utilities. It also supports long filenames on Windows 9X and MS-DOS pathnames with drive letters.
    

    v2apps/rhide14b.zip

    The RHIDE integrated development environment for DJGPP (similar to Borland IDE), written by Robert Hoehne. The latest version features an integrated debugger, based on GDB code; a stand-alone version of GDB with a Turbo Vision interface (but not all GDB features can be used); and support for user interface in languages other than English (using a port of GNU gettext library). Latest developments and beta versions of RHIDE are available from RHIDE home page. Binaries of an improved beta version is available from Andris Pavenis's home page; this version uses TVision v1.0.9, SETEdit v0.4.39, and its debugging engine is based on GDB 4.18 and DJGPP debug support from a pretest version of v2.03.
    

    v2/djlsr203.zip

    The sources of the DJGPP C library and utilities written specifically for DJGPP. If you can afford the disk space (it requires about 10MB), I recommend installing or at least downloading it, so you can easily fix possible library bugs. Note that beginning with DJGPP v2.02, the sources for the time-zone-related programs and files are available separately, in the djtzs203.zip archive.
    

    v2gnu/bsh203b.zip

    Bash (Bourne-Again SHell), the GNU shell, and its docs. If you mostly work in Unix environment, you will feel right at home using bash as your interactive shell. It is also great as a batch shell for running Unix-born shell scripts and Makefiles when these are too complex to convert them to MSDOS. If you install bash, you should also install auxiliary utilities (Fileutils, Textutils, Sh-utils, Grep, Diffutils, Findutils, Sed and Gawk) as these are usually invoked from many shell scripts and Makefiles.
    

    v2gnu/bsn125b.zip

    Bison, a Yacc-like parser generator, and its docs. You will need it if you intend to build a compiler or a parser for some language.
    

    v2gnu/acnf213b.zip

    Gnu Autoconf, a tool for producing shell scripts that automatically configure software source code packages to adapt to target platforms.
    

    v2gnu/dif272b.zip

    GNU Diffutils (diff, cmp, diff3, sdiff), and their docs. If you need to submit patches or changes to DJGPP or GNU sources, you will need the GNU diff program from this package. diff is also required by almost all configuration-management packages, such as RCS and CVS.
    

    v2gnu/emacs.README

    v2gnu/em2005*.zip

    GNU Emacs, the most powerful, customizable, extensible programmer's editor known today. The DJGPP port supports mouse, menu bar, pop-up menus, color syntax highlighting, reading Info documentation and compilation from within the editor, long filenames on Windows 9X, and much more. Emacs can and should be used as an integrated development environment (another alternative is RHIDE, see above). Please read the file emacs.README before you begin downloading the rest.
    

    v2gnu/fil316b.zip

    GNU Fileutils, including ls, rm, cp, mv, and others. Highlights of the latest port: ls supports colorization of files (like on Linux), ln -s knows about DJGPP-style "symlinks" (see symlink feature of DJGPP, elsewhere in this document), install -s will strip executables on the fly, and all the utilities support long filenames on Windows 9X and numbered backups (even on plain DOS). This package is a must if you want to run Unix shell scripts, as they use some of these utilities a lot.
    

    v2gnu/find41b.zip

    GNU Findutils, including find, xargs, and locate. These programs are used to process a group of files which share some common attributes, like the file name pattern, read/write permissions, file time-stamps, etc. Since DOS has its own, incompatible program called find.exe, you will need either to make sure DJGPP's bin subdirectory is before the C:\DOS directory (for DOS and Windows 3.X) and C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND directory (for Windows 9X) on your PATH, or to rename the DOS find program to some other name. If you don't, you might see the following message when you try to run find:

     FIND: Parameter format not correct
    

    
    

    v2gnu/flx254b.zip

    Flex, a Lex-like lexical analyzer generator, and its docs. Required to build compilers or programs which break streams of characters into lexical tokens. Used a lot in conjunction with Bison, a parser generator.
    

    v2gnu/gwk304b.zip

    GNU Awk, an interpreter for a powerful text-processing language with many built-in functions. Gawk is also invoked by many shell scripts, so if you use Bash or need to run shell scripts, you should download Gawk.
    

    v2gnu/grep24b.zip

    GNU Grep package and its docs. The programs of this package are used to search for strings or regular expressions within files. You will also need this if you use Emacs (which has commands that invoke Grep) or if you want to run Unix shells and Makefiles.
    

    v2gnu/idu32db.zip

    GNU Id-utils and their docs. These utilities are used to quickly search for tokens in all the files that comprise a directory tree (e.g., a large project). They are similar to Grep, but much faster, and their notion of a token is sensitive to the source language of the scanned file, so they are more appropriate e.g. for searching variable names in C source files.
    

    v2gnu/pat254b.zip

    GNU Patch program and docs. Required to apply patches to sources given a source-level patch-file generated by diff.
    

    v2gnu/perl552b.zip

    Perl, a powerful scripting and text-processing language implemented as an interpreter. Many sophisticated scripts, like texi2html¹¹, use Perl. In particular, the GNU Automake package is implemented as a Perl script.
    

    v2gnu/sed302b.zip

    GNU Sed (a batch editor) program and its docs. Many ported packages require it during the build process on MSDOS.
    

    v2gnu/shl112b.zip

    GNU Sh-utils. A must if you use the port of bash or want to run Unix Makefiles, but some utilities (such as env or test) can also be very useful on their own right.
    

    v2gnu/txt20b.zip

    GNU Textutils. Includes many useful programs, such as sort, wc, cat, join, paste, od, and uniq. Unix shell scripts and Makefiles call some of these a lot, so you should install this package if you run them.

  • Developing text-mode and graphics GUI applications:

    v2tk/grx23.zip

    A graphics library for DJGPP. Note that it is still in development, so some advanced features might not work. GRX is quite portable to other operating systems: it is known to work with several DOS compilers, including Borland and Watcom; on Linux with svgalib and X11, and on several Unix platforms with X11R5 or later version of X-Windows. Also, GRX is the only library that supports printing out graphics images (check out the addons/print directory in the GRX distribution). A significant drawback of GRX is that its docs is very outdated and incomplete. Hartmut Schirmer is the current maintainer of GRX. GRX is distributed under the GNU Library License (a.k.a. LGPL). Latest versions of GRX, including fixes to known problems and plans for future developments can be found on the GRX home page.
    

    v2tk/bcc2grx.zip

    The interface library to convert Borland graphics calls into calls to GRX library functions.
    

    v2tk/allegro/alleg312.zip

    A recursive acronym for Allegro Low LEvel Game ROutines, Allegro is a powerful game-writing and graphics library. It is also an alternative to GRX (see above), even if you don't need to develop a game. It is somewhat less portable than GRX to other operating systems, but its documentation is significantly better and up-to-date. Unlike GRX, Allegro is not under LGPL, it is free. A port of Allegro to Win32 and to Linux is in the works (initial versions are available).

    By popular demand, Allegro now has its mailing list. To post a message to the list, send email to allegro@canvaslink.com. To subscribe to the Allegro list, send a message to listserv@canvaslink.com with the text subscribe allegro {your full name}. Another related resource is the Allegro home page.
    

    v2tk/pdc22.zip

    A public-domain Curses library, for programming text-mode user-interfaces which are portable to Unix or ported from Unix.

    Version 2.3 of PDCurses was released. It is available via FTP.

  Note that all of the packages have source distributions (*s.zip) which you can download in case you discover a bug, or want to know more about how the tools work. The companion *d.zip files hold the documentation for the package converted into HTML, DVI and PostScript formats.

  For description of additional files not mentioned here, get the file 00_index.txt; it contains a full list of the distribution files and a short description of every file.