Ethereum Builder's Guide

With CMake and Visual Studio Express 12.0 (VS2013)

Initial configuration

Ensure you have installed:

CMake 3.0+ - The cross-platform, open-source make system.
Visual Studio Community 2013 for Windows Desktop - VS2013 for Windows Desktop is a minimum as cpp-ethereum uses languages features not supported in 2012. The Professional edition also works. (tested 10/2014)
Windows 7 SDK or Windows 8 SDK - for files like winsock2.h and gdi32.lib
Git for Windows 1.9.0+ - This for retrieving source from Github.
7-Zip - Ensure that 7z.exe has been added to the PATH.

Get the source

Execute the following step to download the latest source code

C:\> git clone https://github.com/ethereum/cpp-ethereum.git

Retrieve dependecies

Execute the following commands within a command shell to download all dependencies:

1. Getting dependencies

cd extdep 
C:\cpp-ethereum\extdep> getstuff.bat # you must run this script from extdep directory!

Note: The 'Debug'-configuration is also supported.

Build Ethereum project

Execute the following commands within a command shell to build the project:

2. Generate solution with CMake

First generate the ethereum solution and visual studio project files

cd ..
mkdir build
cd build
C:\cpp-ethereum\build> cmake -G "Visual Studio 12 Win64" .. # for cmake 2.8.12, or ...
C:\cpp-ethereum\build> cmake .. # for cmake 3.x, or ...
C:\cpp-ethereum\build> cmake -G "Visual Studio 12 2013 Win64" .. # for cmake 3.x x64 build

Note: In-source build (running cmake in root directory) is not currently supported.

3. Compile with Visual Studio

double click on ethereum.sln, open open project and then click Build, or:

compile from command line

C:\cpp-ethereum\build> msbuild ethereum.sln /p:Configuration=Release