OpenOBEX on Win32

The question wether/how OpenOBEX compiles/runs on win32 pops up now and then. Here is a general overview and a short checklist.

Please note: There is a complete prebuild win32 package available. See ObexDownloads

Does OpenOBEX compile on win32?

Yes. It has been tested with (at least) mingw32 as native- and cross-compiler. For a quick guide see the steps below.

A patch set for win32 is available but still in review. You are on your own with that.

Your options include:

• cross-compiling (with MinGW32), tested
• MinGW32, tested
• Cygwin, should work /not needed
• Visual C (and other commercial suites): Due to the build system, It would be necessary to create custom Visual Studio project files.

However, you can link VC++ program to the mingw32 libs.

Does OpenOBEX run on win32? Is it useable?

OpenOBEX requires backends for each transport. Your options include:

• USB: libusb-win32, works
• BT: MS BT stack, should work (Windows XP SP2)
• IrDA: native winsock2, should work
• Tcp/Ip?: native winsock2 , should work (IPv6-only on Windows XP, IPv4/IPv6 with Windows Vista)
• Serial: native, custom transport code needed

Quick guide to compile OpenOBEX native on win32

• Install MinGW32
• Install MSYS
• Install libusb-win32
• Install the Platform SDK
• Get OpenOBEX from SVN (release 1.3 will not work)
• Apply the win32 patch set ⁽¹⁾⁽²⁾
• Read the INSTALL.Win32​ that comes with the win32 patch set

⁽¹⁾ required for practically all transports except custom transports
⁽²⁾ only use the static lib if not applying this or you may get linking errors depending on the linker