README-windows.md

Building on Windows

1. Install gcc and gmp. We give detailed instructions below for getting these through MSYS2, but you can get it any way you like.

   1. Install MSYS2.

   2. Open the MSYS2 prompt by running the newly-created "MSYS2 MSYS" shortcut in your start menu.

   3. Inside the prompt, run pacman -Syu, then close the window when it prompts you to.

   4. Reopen the MSYS2 prompt and run:

       pacman -Syu
       pacman -S mingw-w64-x86_64-gcc mingw-w64-x86_64-gmp mingw-w64-x86_64-cmake make
      

      (Yes, you should run pacman -Syu a second time.)

   5. Modify your %Path% to include the newly-installed software. You should include these two paths:

       C:\msys64\mingw64\bin
       C:\msys64\usr\bin
      

2. Build the ElectionGuard library.

   1. Open a command prompt and navigate to the directory with the ElectionGuard-SDK-C-Implementation repo.

   2. Run the following commands:

       cmake -S . -B build -G "MSYS Makefiles" ..
       cmake --build build
      

   3. You should now have a electionguard.a or electionguard.dll (depending on the how cmake was configured).

3. (Optional) Build the api example election driver.

   1. Open a command prompt and navigate to the directory with the ElectionGuard-SDK-C-Implementation repo.

   2. Run the following commands:

       set PATH=%PATH%;C:\path\to\ElectionGuard-SDK-C-Implementation\build\
       set CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH=C:\path\to\ElectionGuard-SDK-C-Implementation\build\ElectionGuard
       cmake -S examples/api -B api_build -G "MSYS Makefiles"
       cmake --build api_build --target api
      

   3. You should now have a api.exe that simulates some random voters and generates election record artifacts.