INSTALL file for the Windows9x/2k version of vlc, the VideoLAN Client

Running VideoLAN
================

If you have already built vlc (see below) or are using a binary release,
just run 'vlc.exe'.

You can also run vlc from a dos command box, in which case you'll be able
to use the command line arguments. You can obtain a list of these command
line arguments by typing 'vlc --help'.
It is also sometimes useful to display vlc's debug console. You can do so
by running 'vlc -v'.
To store a debug log of the current vlc session, you can use
'vlc -vvv --stdout=debug.txt'.

If you want to play a DVD, run vlc and click on the Disc option in the
interface. You then have to type your drive letter in the 'Device name'
box (eg. 'D:' if your dvdrom drive is assigned the letter 'D').
(Warning: you have to be in administrator mode (for now) on Win2k)


Building VideoLAN from source code
==================================

If you want to do the tricky job of building vlc from source, follow
these instructions:
( WARNING: the win32 build process is not yet really stable, so you may have
  to hack manually the MAKEFILES )

Getting the right tools
=======================

You can build the win32 vlc port in two ways:
- natively on Windows
- or on Linux, using cross-compiling

All these tools can be found on the libSDL web page:
http://www.libsdl.org/Xmingw32/

Configuring VideoLAN
====================

A typical way to configure vlc is:

   ./configure --disable-x11 --disable-xvideo --disable-dsp --without-sdl \
      --with-directx=/usr/local/cross-compile/i386-mingw32msvc

See `./configure --help' for more information.

To cross-compile for the Win32 platform using mingw32:

   make distclean ; CC=i586-mingw32msvc-gcc CFLAGS=-I/usr/i586-mingw32msvc \
     RANLIB=i586-mingw32msvc-ranlib WINDRES=i586-mingw32msvc-windres \
     ./configure --host=i386-mingw32msvc \
     --target=i386-mingw32msvc --build=i386-linux --disable-dsp \
     --disable-x11 --disable-xvideo


Building VideoLAN
=================

Have a look at the generated Makefile.opts file, you may want to choose
which modules will be compiled as plugins, and which ones will remain in
the core application. The configure script tries to guess for you.

Once configured, run `make' to build vlc.








