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+How to build Erlang/OTP on Windows.
+-----------------------------------
+Table of contents
+
+1. Introduction
+2. Answers to some "frequently asked questions"
+3. Tools you need and their environment
+4. The shell environment
+5. Building and installing
+6. Development
+7. Final words
+
+%CopyrightBegin%
+
+Copyright Ericsson AB 2003-2009. All Rights Reserved.
+
+The contents of this file are subject to the Erlang Public License,
+Version 1.1, (the "License"); you may not use this file except in
+compliance with the License. You should have received a copy of the
+Erlang Public License along with this software. If not, it can be
+retrieved online at http://www.erlang.org/.
+
+Software distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS"
+basis, WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See
+the License for the specific language governing rights and limitations
+under the License.
+
+%CopyrightEnd%
+
+
+
+Introduction
+------------
+
+This file describes how to build the Erlang emulator and the OTP
+libraries on Windows. The instructions apply to versions of Windows
+supporting the Cygwin emulated gnuish environment for Windows. We've
+built on the following platforms: Windows 2000 Professional, Windows
+2003 server, Windows XP Home/Professional, and Windows Vista. Any
+Windows95'ish platform will surely get you into trouble, what I'm not
+sure of, but it certainly will...
+
+The procedure described uses Cygwin as a build environment, you run
+the bash shell in Cygwin and uses gnu make/configure/autoconf etc to
+do the build. The emulator C-source code is, however, mostly compiled
+with Microsoft Visual C++(tm), producing a native Windows binary. This
+is the same procedure as we use to build the pre-built binaries. The
+fact that we use VC++ and not gcc is explained further in the FAQ
+section.
+
+I describe the build procedure to make it possible for open source
+customers to build the emulator, given that they have the needed
+tools. The binary Windows releases is still a preferred alternative if
+one does not have Microsoft's development tools and/or don't want to
+install Cygwin.
+
+To use Cygwin, one needs basic experience from a Unix environment, if
+one does not know how to set environment variables, run programs etc
+in a Unix environment, one will be quite lost in the Cygwin
+ditto. I can unfortunately not teach all the world how to use
+Cygwin and bash, neither how to install Cygwin nor perform basic tasks
+on a computer. Please refer to other documentation on the net for
+help, or use the binary release instead if you have problems using the
+tools.  
+
+However, if you feel comfortable with the environment and build
+system, and have all the necessary tools, you have a great opportunity
+to make the Erlang/OTP distribution for Windows better. Please submit
+any suggestions and patches to the appropriate mailing lists (see
+http://www.erlang.org) to let them find their way into the next
+version of Erlang. If making changes to the build system (like
+makefiles etc) please bear in mind that the same makefiles are used on
+Unix/VxWorks/OSEDelta, so that your changes don't break other
+platforms. That of course goes for C-code too, system specific code
+resides in the $ERL_TOP/erts/emulator/sys/win32 and $ERL_TOP/erts/etc/win32
+directories mostly. The  $ERL_TOP/erts/emulator/beam directory is for
+common code.
+
+Before the R9C release of Erlang/OTP, the Windows release was built
+partly on a Unix (Solaris) box and partly on a Windows box, using Perl
+hacks to communicate and sync between the two machines. R9C was the
+first release ever built solely on Windows, where no Unix machine is
+needed at all. Now we've used this build procedure for a couple of
+releases, and it has worked fine for us. Still, there might be all
+sorts of troubles on different machines and with different
+setups. I'll try to give hints wherever I've encountered difficulties,
+but please share your experiences by using the mailing list
[email protected]. I cannot of course help everyone with all
+their problems, please try to solve the problems and submit
+solutions/workarounds. Remember, it's all about sharing, not about
+demanding...
+
+Lets go then, I'll start with a little FAQ, based on in house questions
+and misunderstandings.
+
+
+Answers to "frequently asked questions"
+---------------------------------------
+
+Q: So, now I can build Erlang using GCC on Windows?
+
+A: No, unfortunately not. You'll need Microsoft's Visual C++ still, a
+Bourne-shell script (cc.sh) wraps the Visual C++ compiler and runs it
+from within the Cygwin environment. All other tools needed to build
+Erlang are free-ware/open source, but not the C compiler.
+
+Q: Why haven't you got rid of VC++ then, you ******
+
+A: Well, partly because it's a good compiler - really! Actually it's
+been possible in late R11-releases to build using mingw instead of
+visual C++ (you might see the remnants of that in some scripts and
+directories). Unfortunately the development of the SMP version for
+Windows broke the mingw build and we chose to focus on the VC++ build
+as the performance has been much better in the VC++ versions. The
+mingw build will be back, but as long as VC++ gives better
+performance, the commercial build will be a VC++ one.
+
+Q: OK, VC++ you need, but now you've started to demand a very recent
+(and expensive) version of Visual studio, not the old and stable VC++
+6.0 that was used in earlier versions. Why?
+
+A: The SMP version of Erlang needs features in the Visual Studio
+2005. Can't live without them. Besides the new compiler gives the
+Erlang emulator a ~40% performance boost(!)
+
+Q: Can/will I build a Cygwin binary with the procedure you describe?
+
+A: No, the result will be a pure Windows binary, and as far as I know,
+it's not possible to make a Cygwin binary yet. That is of course
+something desirable, but there are still some problems with the
+dynamic linking (dynamic Erlang driver loading) as well as the TCP/IP
+emulation in Cygwin, which, I'm sure of, will improve, but still has
+some problems. Fixing those problems might be easy or might be hard.
+I suggest you try yourself and share your experience. No one would be
+happier if a simple ./configure && make would produce a fully fledged
+Cygwin binary. Ericsson does however not pay me to do a Cygwin port, so
+such a port would have to happen in spare time, which is a limited resource... 
+
+Q: Hah, I saw you, you used GCC even though you said you didn't!
+
+A: OK, I admit, one of the files is compiled using Cygwin's GCC and
+the resulting object code is then converted to MS VC++ compatible coff
+using a small C hack. It's because that particular file, beam_emu.c
+benefits immensely from being able to use the GCC labels-as-values
+extension, which boosts emulator performance by up to 50%. That does
+unfortunately not (yet) mean that all of OTP could be compiled using
+GCC, that particular source code does not do anything system specific
+and actually is adopted to the fact that GCC is used to compile it on 
+Windows.
+
+Q: So now there's a MS VC++ project file somewhere and I can build OTP
+using the nifty VC++ GUI!
+
+A: No, never. The hassle of keeping the project files up to date and
+do all the steps that constitute an OTP build from within the VC++ GUI
+is simply not worth it, maybe even impossible. A VC++ project
+file for Erlang/OTP will never happen, at least I will never make
+one. Clicking around in super-multi-tab'd dialogs to add a file or
+compiler option when it's so much easier in a makefile is simply not
+my style.
+
+Q: So how does it all work then?
+
+A: Cygwin is the environment, which closely resembles the environments
+found on any Unix machine. It's almost like you had a virtual Unix
+machine inside Windows. Configure, given certain parameters, then
+creates makefiles that are used by the Cygwin gnu-make to built the
+system. Most of the actual compilers etc are not, however, Cygwin
+tools, so I've written a couple of wrappers (Bourne-shell scripts),
+which reside in $ERL_TOP/etc/win32/cygwin_tools and they all do
+conversion of parameters and switches common in the Unix environment
+to fit the native Windows tools. Most notable is of course the paths,
+which in Cygwin are Unix-like paths with "forward slashes" (/) and no
+drive letters, the Cygwin specific command 'cygpath' is used for most
+of the path conversions. Luckily most compilers accept forward slashes
+instead of backslashes as path separators, one still have to get the
+drive letters etc right, though. The wrapper scripts are not general
+in the sense that, for example, cc.sh would understand and translates
+every possible gcc option and passes correct options to cl.exe. The
+principle is that the scripts are powerful enough to allow building of
+Erlang/OTP, no more, no less. They might need extensions to cope with
+changes during the development of Erlang, that's one of the reasons I
+made them into shell-scripts and not Perl-scripts, I believe they are
+easier to understand and change that way. I might be wrong though,
+cause another reason I didn't write them in Perl is because I've never
+liked Perl and my Perl code is no pleasant reading...
+
+In $ERL_TOP, there is a script called otp_build, that script handles
+the hassle of giving all the right parameters to configure/make and
+also helps you set up the correct environment variables to work with
+the Erlang source under Cygwin.
+
+Q: You use and need Cygwin, but then you haven't taken the time to
+port Erlang to the Cygwin environment but instead focus on your
+commercial release, is that really ethical?
+
+A: No, not really, but see this as a step in the right direction. I'm
+aiming at GCC compiled emulators and a Cygwin version, but I really
+need to do other things as well... In time, but don't hold your
+breath...
+
+Q: Can I build something that looks exactly as the commercial release.
+
+A: Yes, we use the exactly same build procedure.
+
+Q: Which version of Cygwin and other tools do you use then?
+
+A: For Cygwin we try to use the latest releases available when
+building. What versions you use shouldn't really matter, I try to
+include workarounds for the bugs I've found in different Cygwin
+releases, please help me to add workarounds for new Cygwin-related
+bugs as soon as you encounter them. Also please do submit bug reports
+to the appropriate Cygwin developers. The Cygwin GCC we used for R13B
+was version 3.4.4. We used VC++ 8.0 (i.e. Visual studio 2005 SP1),
+Sun's JDK 1.5.0_17, NSIS 2.37, and Win32 OpenSSL 0.9.8e. Please read
+the next section for details on what you need.
+
+Q: Can you help me setup X in Cygwin?
+
+A: No, unfortunately I haven't got time to help with Cygwin related
+user problems, please read Cygwin related web sites, newsgroups and
+mailing lists.
+
+Q: Why is the instruction so long? Is it really that complicated?
+
+A: Partly it's long because I babble too much, partly because I've
+described as much as I could about the installation of the needed
+tools. Once the tools are installed, building is quite easy. I also
+have tried to make this instruction understandable for people with
+limited Unix experience. Cygwin is a whole new environment to some
+Windows users, why careful explanation of environment variables etc
+seemed to be in place. The short story, for the experienced and
+impatient is:
+
+* Get and install complete Cygwin (latest)
+* (Buy and) Install Microsoft Visual studio 2005 and SP1 (or higher)
+* Get and install Sun's JDK 1.4.2
+* Get and install NSIS 2.01 or higher (up to 2.30 tried and working)
+* Get and install OpenSSL 0.9.7c or higher
+* Get and unpack wxWidgets-2.8.9 or higher to /opt/local/pgm inside cygwin
+   - open /cygwin/opt/local/pgm/wxWidgets-2.8.9/build/msw/wx.dsw
+   - enable wxUSE_GLCANVAS, wxUSE_POSTSCRIPT and wxUSE_GRAPHICS_CONTEXT
+     in include/wx/msw/setup.h
+   - build all unicode release (and unicode debug) packages
+   - open /cygwin/opt/local/pgm/wxWidgets-2.8.9/contrib/build/stc/stc.dsw 
+   - build the unicode release (and unicode debug) packages
+* Get and unpack the erlang source distribution with Cygwin's tar.
+* set ERL_TOP to where you unpacked the source distribution
+* $ cd $ERL_TOP
+* Get (from http://www.erlang.org/download/tcltk85_win32_bin.tar.gz)
+and unpack the prebuilt TCL/TK binaries for windows with cygwin tar,
+standing in $ERL_TOP
+* Modify PATH and other environment variables so that all these tools
+are runnable from a bash shell. Still standing in $ERL_TOP, issue the following
+commands:
+$ eval `./otp_build env_win32`
+$ ./otp_build autoconf
+$ ./otp_build configure
+$ ./otp_build boot -a
+$ ./otp_build release -a
+$ ./otp_build installer_win32
+$ release/win32/otp_win32_<OTP version> /S
+
+Voila! "Start->Programs->Erlang OTP <OTP version>->Erlang" starts the Erlang
+Windows shell.
+
+ 
+Tools you need and their environment
+------------------------------------
+
+You need some tools to be able to build Erlang/OTP on Windows. Most
+notably you'll need Cygwin and Microsoft VC++, but you also might want
+a Java compiler, the NSIS install system and OpenSSL. Only VC++ costs
+money, but then again it costs a lot of money, I know...
+Well' here's the list:
+
+* Cygwin, the very latest is usually best. Get all the development
+tools and of course all the basic ditto. In fact getting the complete
+package might be a good idea, as you'll start to love Cygwin after a
+while if you're accustomed to Unix. Make sure to get jar and also make
+sure *not* to install a Cygwin'ish Java... The Cygwin jar command is
+used but Sun's Java compiler and virtual machine...
+
+URL: http://www.cygwin.com
+
+- get the installer from the web site and use that to install
+Cygwin. Be sure to have fair privileges. If you're on a NT domain you
+should consider running "mkpasswd -d" and "mkgroup -d" after the
+installation to get the user databases correct. See their respective
+manual pages. 
+
+When you start you first bash shell, you will get an awful prompt. You
+might also have a PATH environment variable that contains backslashes
+and such. Edit $HOME/.profile and $HOME/.bashrc to set fair prompts
+and set a correct PATH. Also do a "export SHELL" in .profile. For some
+non-obvious reason the environment variable $SHELL is not exported in
+bash. Also note that .profile is run at login time and .bashrc when
+sub shells are created. You'll need to explicitly source .bashrc from
+.profile if you want the commands there to be run at login time (like
+setting up aliases, shell functions and the like). I personally
+usually do like this at the end of .profile:
+------------------
+ENV=$HOME/.bashrc
+export ENV
+. $ENV
+----------------
+
+You might also, if you're a hard core type of person at least, want to
+setup X-windows (XFree86), that might be as easy as running startx
+from the command prompt and it might be much harder. Use Google to
+find help...
+
+If you don't use X-windows, you might want to setup the Windows
+console window by selecting properties in the console system menu
+(upper left corner of the window, the Cygwin icon in the title
+bar). Especially setting a larger screen buffer size (lines) is useful
+as it gets you a scrollbar so you can see whatever error messages
+that might appear...
+ 
+If you want to use (t)csh instead of bash you're on your own, I
+haven't tried and know of no one that has. I expect
+that you use bash in all shell examples.
+
+* Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 SP1. Please don't skip the service
+pack! The installer might update your environment so that you can run
+the 'cl' command from the bash prompt, then again it might
+not... There is always a BAT file in VC\Bin under the installation
+directory (default C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8) called
+VCVARS32.BAT. Either add the environment settings in that file to the
+global environment settings in Windows or add the corresponding BASH
+environment settings to your .profile/.bashrc. For example, in my case
+I could add the following to .profile
+------------------------------------------------------------
+#Visual C++ Root directory as Cygwin style pathname
+VCROOT=/cygdrive/c/Program\ Files/Microsoft\ Visual\ Studio 8
+
+# Visual C++ Root directory as Windows style pathname
+WIN_VCROOT="C:\\Program Files\\Microsoft Visual Studio 8"
+
+# The PATH variable should be Cygwin'ish
+PATH=$VCROOT/Common7/IDE:$VCROOT/VC/BIN:$VCROOT/Common7/Tools:\
+$VCROOT/Common7/Tools/bin:$VCROOT/VC/PlatformSDK/bin:$VCROOT/SDK/v2.0/bin:\
+$VCROOT/VC/VCPackages:$PATH
+
+# Lib and INCLUDE should be Windows'ish
+# Note that semicolon (;) is used to separate Windows style paths but
+# colon (:) to separate Cygwin ditto!
+
+LIBPATH=$WIN_VCROOT\\VC\\ATLMFC\\LIB
+
+LIB=$WIN_VCROOT\\VC\\ATLMFC\\LIB\;$WIN_VCROOT\\VC\\LIB\;\
+$WIN_VCROOT\\VC\\PlatformSDK\\lib\;$WIN_VCROOT\\SDK\\v2.0\\lib
+
+INCLUDE=$WIN_VCROOT\\VC\\ATLMFC\\INCLUDE\;$WIN_VCROOT\\VC\\INCLUDE\;\
+$WIN_VCROOT\\VC\\PlatformSDK\\include
+
+export PATH LIB INCLUDE
+--------------------------------------------------------------
+
+Make a simple hello world and try to compile it with the 'cl' command
+from within bash. If that does not work, your environment needs
+fixing. Also remember to fix up the PATH environment, especially old
+Erlang installations might have inserted quoted paths that Cygwin does
+not understand. Remove or correct such paths. There should be no
+backslashes in your path environment variable in Cygwin bash, but LIB
+and INCLUDE should contain Windows style paths with semicolon,
+drive letters and backslashes.
+
+* Sun's Java JDK 1.5.0 or higher. Our Java code (jinterface, ic) is
+written for JDK 1.5.0. Get it for Windows and install it, the JRE is
+not enough. If you don't care about Java, you can skip this step, the
+result will be that jinterface is not built.
+
+URL: http://java.sun.com
+
+Add javac *LAST* to your path environment in bash, in my case this means:
+--------------------------------------------------------------
+PATH="$PATH:/cygdrive/c/Program Files/Java/jdk1.5.0_17/bin"
+--------------------------------------------------------------
+No CLASSPATH or anything is needed. Type "javac" at the bash prompt
+and you should get a list of available Java options. Make sure by
+typing "which java" that you use the Java you installed. Note however that
+Cygwin's jar.exe is used, that's why the JDK bin-directory should be
+added last in the PATH.
+
+* Nullsoft NSIS installer system. You need this to build the self
+installing package. It's a free open source installer that's much
+nicer to use than the commercial Wise and Install shield
+installers. This is the installer we use for commercial releases as
+well from R9C an on.
+URL: http://www.nullsoft.com/free/nsis
+Install the lot, especially the modern user interface components, as
+it's definitely needed. Put "makensis" in your path, in my case:
+--------------------------------------------------------------
+PATH=/cygdrive/c/Program\ Files/NSIS:$PATH
+--------------------------------------------------------------
+type makensis at the bash prompt and you should get a list of options
+if everything is OK.
+
+* OpenSSL for Windows. This is if you want the SSL and crypto
+applications to compile (and run). Go to http://www.openssl.org, click
+on the "Related" link and then on the "Binaries" link (upper right
+corner of the page last time I looked), you can then reach the
+"Shining Lights Productions" Web site for Windows binaries
+distributions. Get the latest or 0.9.7c if you get trouble with the
+latest. It's a nifty installer. The rest should be handled by
+configure, you needn't put anything in the path or anything.  
+
+If you want to build openssl for windows yourself (which might be
+possible, as you wouldn't be reading this if you weren't a
+compile-it-yourself person), you either have to put the resulting
+DLL's in your path or in the windows system directory and either
+specify where you put the includes etc with the configure-parameter
+--with-ssl=<cygwin path to the root> or put your installation directly
+under c:\OpenSSL. The directory structure under the installation root
+for OpenSSL is expected to be one with subdirectories named "include",
+"bin" and "lib", possibly with a "VC" subdirectory of "lib" containing
+the actual .lib files. Note that the cygwin distributed OpenSSL cannot be
+used, it results in cygwin depending binaries and it has unix style
+archives (.a, not .lib).
+
+* Building with wxWidgets. Download wxWidgets-2.8.9 or higher patch 
+release (2.9.*  is a developer release which currently does not work 
+with wxErlang).
+Install or unpack it to DRIVE:/PATH/cygwin/opt/local/pgm
+Open from explorer (i.e. by double clicking the file) 
+C:\cygwin\opt\local\pgm\wxMSW-2.8.10\build\msw\wx.dsw
+In Microsoft Visual Studio, click File/Open/File, locate and
+open:  C:\cygwin\opt\local\pgm\wxMSW-2.8.10\include\wx\msw\setup.h
+enable wxUSE_GLCANVAS, wxUSE_POSTSCRIPT and wxUSE_GRAPHICS_CONTEXT
+Build it by clicking Build/Batch Build and select all unicode release 
+(and unicode debug) packages.
+Open C:\cygwin\opt\local\pgm\wxMSW-2.8.10\contrib/build/stc/stc.dsw
+and batch build all unicode packages.
+
+* The Erlang source distribution. The same as for Unix
+platforms. Preferably use tar from within Cygwin to unpack the source
+tar.gz (tar zxf otp_src_R13B03.tar.gz). 
+
+set the environment ERL_TOP to point to the root directory of the
+source distribution. Let's say I stood in $HOME/src and unpacked 
+otp_src_R13B03.tar.gz, I then add the following to .profile:
+--------------------------------------------------------
+ERL_TOP=$HOME/src/otp_src_R13B03
+export $ERL_TOP
+--------------------------------------------------------
+
+* The TCL/TK binaries. You could compile Tcl/Tk for windows yourself,
+but you can get a stripped down version from our website which is
+suitable to include in the final binary package. If you want to supply
+tcl/tk yourself, read the instructions about how the tcl/tk tar file
+used in the build is constructed under $ERL_TOP/lib/gs/tcl. The easy
+way is to download
+http://www.erlang.org/download/tcltk85_win32_bin.tar.gz and unpack it
+standing in the $ERL_TOP directory. This will create the file
+win32.tar.gz in $ERL_TOP/lib/gs/tcl/binaries. 
+
+One last alternative is to create a file named 'SKIP' in the
+$ERL_TOP/lib/gs/ after configure is run, but that will give you an
+erlang system without gs (which might be okay as you probably will use
+wx anyway).
+
+The shell environment
+---------------------
+
+So, if you have followed the instructions above, when you start a bash
+shell, you should have an INCLUDE environment with a Windows style
+path, a LIB environment variable also in Windows style, and finally a
+PATH that let's you reach cl, makensis, javac etc from the
+command prompt (use "which cl" etc to verify from bash).
+
+You should also have an ERL_TOP environment variable that is *Cygwin
+style*, and points to a directory containing, among other files, the
+script "otp_build".
+
+A final massage of the environment is needed, and that is done by
+the script $ERL_TOP/otp_build. Start bash and do the following, note
+the "back-ticks" (`), can be quite hard to get on some keyboards, but
+pressing the back-tick key followed by the space bar might do it...
+
+------------------------
+$ cd $ERL_TOP
+$ eval `./otp_build env_win32`
+------------------------
+If you're unable to produce back-ticks on your keyboard, you can use
+the ksh variant:
+------------------------
+$ cd $ERL_TOP
+$ eval $(./otp_build env_win32)
+------------------------
+
+This should do the final touch to the environment and building should
+be easy after this. You could run "./otp_build env_win32" without
+"eval" just to see what it does, and to see that the environment it
+sets seems OK. The path is cleaned of spaces if possible (using DOS
+style short names instead), the variables OVERRIDE_TARGET, CC, CXX, AR
+and RANLIB are set to their respective wrappers and the directories
+$ERL_TOP/erts/etc/win32/cygwin_tools/vc and
+$ERL_TOP/erts/etc/win32/cygwin_tool are added first in the PATH.
+
+Try now a "which erlc". That should result in the erlc wrapper script
+(which does not have the .sh extension, for reasons best kept
+untold...). It should reside in $ERL_TOP/erts/etc/win32/cygwin_tools.
+You could also try "which cc.sh", which "ar.sh" etc. 
+
+Now you're ready to build...
+
+
+Building and installing
+-----------------------
+Now it's assumed that you have executed "eval `./otp_build env_win32`"
+for this particular shell...
+
+Building is easiest using the otp_build script. That script takes care
+of running configure, bootstrapping etc on Windows in a simple
+way. The otp_build script is the utility we use ourselves to build on
+different platforms and it therefore contains code for all sorts of
+platforms. The principle is, however, that for non-Unix platforms, one
+uses "./otp_build env_<target>" to set up environment and then the
+script knows how to build on the platform "by itself". You've already
+run "./otp_build env_win32" in the step above, so now it's mostly like
+we build on any platform. OK, here are then steps; Assuming you will
+want to build a full installation executable with NSIS, you can omit
+<installation directory> and the release will be copied to
+$ERL_TOP/release/win32: and there is where the packed self installing
+executable will reside too.
+
+$ ./otp_build autoconf # Ignore the warning blob about versions of autoconf
+$ ./otp_build configure <optional configure options>
+$ ./otp_build boot -a
+$ ./otp_build release -a <installation directory>
+$ ./otp_build installer_win32 <installation directory> # optional
+
+Now you will have a file called otp_win32_R12B.exe in the <installation
+directory>, i.e. $ERL_TOP/release/win32.
+
+Lets get into more detail:
+
+$ ./otp_build autoconf - This step rebuilds the configure scripts to
+work correctly in the cygwin environment. In an ideal world, this
+would not be needed, but alas, we have encountered several
+incompatibilities between our distributed configure scripts (generated
+on a Linux platform) and the cygwin environment over the
+years. Running autoconf on cygwin ensures that the configure scripts
+are generated in a cygwin-compatible way and that they will work well
+in the next step.
+
+$ ./otp_build configure - This runs the newly generated configure scripts
+with options making configure behave nicely. The target machine type is
+plainly "win32", so a lot of the configure-scripts recognize this
+awkward target name and behave accordingly. The CC variable also makes
+the compiler be cc.sh, which wraps MSVC++, so all configure tests
+regarding the C compiler gets to run the right compiler. A lot of the
+tests are not needed on Windows, but I thought it best to run the
+whole configure anyway. The only configure option you might want to
+supply is --with-ssl, which might be needed if you have built your own
+openssl distribution. The Shining Lights distribution should be found
+automatically by configure, if that fails, add a --with-ssl=<dir> that
+specifies the root directory of your OpenSSL installation.
+
+$ ./otp_build boot -a - This uses the bootstrap directory (shipped
+with the source, $ERL_TOP/bootstrap) to build a complete OTP
+system. It first builds an emulator and sets up a minimal OTP system
+under $ERL_TOP/bootstrap, then starts to compile the different OTP
+compilers to make the $ERL_TOP/bootstrap system potent enough to be
+able to compile all Erlang code in OTP. Then, all Erlang and C code
+under $ERL_TOP/lib is built using the bootstrap system, giving a
+complete OTP system (although not installed). When this is done, one
+can run Erlang from within the source tree, just type $ERL_TOP/bin/erl
+and you should have a prompt. If you omit the -a flag, you'll get a
+smaller system, that might be useful during development. Now 
+exit from Erlang and start making a release of the thing:
+
+$ ./otp_build release -a - Builds a commercial release tree from the
+source tree, default is to put it in $ERL_TOP/release/win32, you can
+give any directory as parameter (Cygwin style), but it doesn't really matter
+if you're going to build a self extracting installer too. You could of
+course build release to the final directory and then run ./Install.exe
+standing in the directory where the release was put, that will create
+a fully functional OTP installation. But let's make the nifty
+installer:
+
+$ ./otp_build installer_win32 - Create the self extracting installer
+executable. The executable otp_win32_<OTP version>.exe will be placed
+in the top directory of the release created in the previous step. If
+no release directory is specified, the release is expected to have
+been built to $ERL_TOP/release/win32, which also will be the place
+where the installer executable will be placed. If you specified some
+other directory for the release (i.e. 
+./otp_build release -a /tmp/erl_release), you're expected to give the
+same parameter here, (i.e. ./otp_build installer_win32 /tmp/erl_release).
+You need to have a full NSIS installation and makensis.exe in your
+path for this to work of course. Once you have created the installer,
+you can run it to install Erlang/OTP in the regular way, just run the
+executable and follow the steps in the installation wizard. To get all
+default settings in the installation without any questions asked, you
+run the executable with the parameter "/S" (capital S). like in:
+------------------------------------------------------
+$ cd $ERL_TOP
+$ release/win32/otp_win32_R13B03 /S
+.....
+------------------------------------------------------
+- and after a while Erlang will have been installed in 
+C:\Program Files\erl5.7.4, with shortcuts in the menu etc.
+
+*NOTE* Beginning with R9C, the Windows installer does *not* add Erlang
+to the system wide path. If one wants to have Erlang in the path, one
+has to add it by hand.
+
+The necessary setup of an Erlang installation is actually done by the
+program Install.exe, which resides in the release top. That program
+creates ".ini-files" and copies the correct boot scripts. If one has
+the correct directory tree (like after a ./otp_build release -a), only
+the running of Install.exe is necessary to get a fully functional
+OTP. What the self extracting installer adds is (of course) the
+possibility to distribute the binary easily, together with adding
+shortcuts to the Windows start menu. There is also some adding of
+entries in the registry, to associate .erl and .beam files with Erlang
+and get nifty icons, but that's not something you'll really need to
+run Erlang. The registry is also used to store uninstall information,
+but if one has not used the self extracting installer, one cannot
+(need not) do any uninstall, one just scratches the release directory
+and everything is gone. Erlang/OTP does not *need* to put anything
+in the Windows registry at all, and does not if you don't use the self
+extracting installer. In other words the installer is pure cosmetics.
+
+
+Development
+-----------
+
+Once the system is built, you might want to change it. Having a test
+release in some nice directory might be useful, but you also can run
+Erlang from within the source tree. The target 'local_setup', makes
+the program $ERL_TOP/bin/erl.exe usable and it also uses all the OTP
+libraries in the source tree.
+
+If you hack the emulator, you can then build the emulator executable
+by standing in $ERL_TOP/erts/emulator and do a simple 
+
+$ make opt
+
+Note that you need to have run (cd $ERL_TOP && eval `./otp_build env_win32`)
+in the particular shell before building anything on Windows. After
+doing a make opt you can test your result by running $ERL_TOP/bin/erl.
+If you want to copy the result to a release directory (say
+/tmp/erl_release), you do this (still in  $ERL_TOP/erts/emulator)
+
+$ make TESTROOT=/tmp/erl_release release
+
+That will copy the emulator executables.
+
+To make a debug build of the emulator, you need to recompile both
+beam.dll (the actual runtime system) and erlexec.dll. Do like this
+
+$ cd $ERL_TOP
+$ rm bin/win32/erlexec.dll
+$ cd erts/emulator
+$ make debug
+$ cd ../etc
+$ make debug
+
+- and sometimes
+
+$ cd $ERL_TOP
+$ make local_setup
+
+So now when you run $ERL_TOP/erl.exe, you should have a debug compiled
+emulator, which you will see if you do a:
+
+1> erlang:system_info(system_version).
+
+- in the erlang shell. If the returned string contains "[debug]", you
+got a debug compiled emulator.
+
+To hack the erlang libraries, you simply do a "make opt" in the
+specific "applications" directory, like:
+
+$ cd $ERL_TOP/lib/stdlib
+$ make opt
+
+- or even in the source directory...
+
+$ cd $ERL_TOP/lib/stdlib/src
+$ make opt
+
+Note that you're expected o have a fresh Erlang in your path when
+doing this, preferably the plain R13B03 you have built in the previous
+steps. You could also add $ERL_TOP/bootstrap/bin to your PATH before
+rebuilding specific libraries, that would give you a good enough
+Erlang system to compile any OTP erlang code.  Setting up the path
+correctly is a little bit tricky, you still need to have
+$ERL_TOP/erts/etc/win32/cygwin_tools/vc and
+$ERL_TOP/erts/etc/win32/cygwin_tools *before* the actual emulator
+in the path. A typical setting of the path for using the bootstrap
+compiler would be:
+
+$ export PATH=$ERL_TOP/erts/etc/win32/cygwin_tools/vc:$ERL_TOP/erts/etc/win32/cygwin_tools:$ERL_TOP/bootstrap/bin:$PATH
+
+That should make it possible to rebuild any library without hassle...
+
+If you want to copy a library (an application) newly built, to a
+release area, you do like with the emulator:
+
+$ cd $ERL_TOP/lib/stdlib
+$ make TESTROOT=/tmp/erlang_release release
+
+Remember that:
+
+- Windows specific C-code goes in the
+$ERL_TOP/erts/emulator/sys/win32, $ERL_TOP/erts/emulator/drivers/win32
+or  $ERL_TOP/erts/etc/win32.
+
+- Windows specific erlang code should be used conditionally and the
+host OS tested in *runtime*, the exactly same beam files should be
+distributed for every platform! So write code like:
+
+case os:type() of
+	{win32,_} ->
+		do_windows_specific();
+	Other ->
+		do_fallback_or_exit()
+end,
+
+That's basically all you need to get going.
+
+Final words
+-----------
+My hope is that the possibility to build the whole system on Windows
+will open up for free development on this platform too. There are many
+things one might want to do better in the Windows version, like the
+window-style command prompt as well as pure Cygwin porting. Although i
+realize it's a much larger step to start building on Windows (with all
+the software you need) than for instance on Linux, I sincerely hope
+that some of you will make the effort and start submitting Windows
+friendly patches.
+
+The first build system for Erlang using Cygwin on Windows was created
+by Per Bergkvist. I haven't used his build system, but it's rumored to
+be good. The idea to do this came from his work, so credit is well
+deserved. 
+
+Of course this would have been completely impossible without the
+excellent Cygwin package. The guys at Cygnus solutions and Redhat
+deserves a huge THANKS! as well as all the other people in the free
+software community who have helped in creating the magnificent
+software that constitutes Cygwin.
+
+Good luck and Happy Hacking,
+Patrik, OTP