Although this page remains valid, the MinGW team have decided to no longer promote mingwPORT distributions. Therefore the information below is for your own use only. The latest way to share build information for packages is with mgwport .
The mingwPORTs provide an automated and repeatable method of creating and building libraries and applications from source. By using a build script such as the mingwPORT files, developers can easily share the steps it takes to create an executable or library on their particular operating system with a specific compiler. The mingwPORT script files are designed for the standard GNU style build tools and a standard shell such as the bash shell. They automate the usual ./configure, make, make install process. The mingwPORT scripts can be customized for non-standard builds such as those that require patches in order to work.