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SQLite ICU MinGW

Four different variants of SQLite source code are available from the downloads and repository readme pages. The variant incorporating a snapshot of the SQLite source tree is the “master” distribution. It includes all individual source files for the engine core and extensions. Individual extensions can be built independently from their source files and loaded at runtime. The “master” snapshot can be used to generate other source code variants. The so-called “amalgamation” is a single combined C source code file. This file incorporates both the engine core and select extensions (both C and header files) and yields a single integrated library file. While the simplest way to compile SQLite is probably using the “amalgamation” source code as described on the official how-to page, the “master” release is more convenient for custom building, and it also provides additional insights. Thus, for this tutorial, the “master” release will be used.

Start a MinGW shell and issue commands:

#!/bin/bash

cd /tmp
SQLite_URL="https://www.sqlite.org/src/tarball/sqlite.tar.gz?r=release"
wget -c "${SQLite_URL}" --no-check-certificate -O sqlite.tar.gz
tar xzf ./sqlite.tar.gz

The source folder (./sqlite) contains three “make” files:

  • “Makefile.in” is a template used by the configure/make GNU toolchain;
  • “main.mk” is a GNU Make script designed to be called from a parent make file that assigns toolchain variables;
  • “Makefile.msc” is used by the Microsoft nmake.

Building workflows under MinGW and MSVC environments are similar, except that MinGW uses a configure script generated Makefile, whereas MSVC uses its Makefile included in the SQLite source distribution. The building process includes three preliminary stages. First, several utils used by the building process are generated. Second, the source files are copied from various folders in the distribution folder to a single tsrc subfolder created in the build folder. Finally, TCL scripts are used to generate the amalgamation source (sqlite3.c - sqlite/tool/mksqlite3c.tcl), the header file (sqlite3.h - sqlite/tool/mksqlite3h.tcl), and the SQLite shell tool (shell.c - sqlite/tool/mkshellc.tcl). Correspondingly, the building process can be customized by patching the Makefile, the TCL scripts, and the source files in the tsrc folder before the TCL scripts are executed.

When I started digging into the SQLite build process on Windows, I was particularly interested in two features: enabling the ICU extension and enabling the “__stdcall” (see also Calling convention). The Microsoft nmake script supports both features. The GNU Make script is compatible with MSYS2/MinGW toolchain, but it supports neither feature (patching is necessary to make these features available).