Is it possible to deliver cross-platform binaries of FreePascal using only one host OS?

Question

I'm doing a little app that I want to distribute in different platforms, at least the 3 major ones.

Is it possible to use only Windows has the host OS to compile the binaries for Linux, Mac OS X and other supported platforms without resorting to virtual machines?

Or should I ask around in some community to help me compile on, well OS X, actually, since I can virtualize a Linux machine quite easy?

Answer 1

It is possible to compile from one plateform to another, it is called cross-compilation. You will find extensive informations at http://www.stack.nl/~marcov/buildfaq.pdf
The buildfaq above contains sample cross-compilation :

• from Windows to Linux,
• from FreeBSD to AMD64 Linux

The FPC download page contains :

• the i386-win32 to x86_64-win64 cross-compiler
• the i386-win32 to arm-wince cross-compiler

The FPC mailing lists are at http://www.freepascal.org/maillist.var
You will find more informations about FPC at http://www.freepascal.org/moreinfo.var

Answer 2

(I'm the author of the buildfaq document above)

There are some limitations. You can't target x86 from powerpc, because powerpc misses an "extended" type. But in generally it works.

I have generated a complete Lazarus for OS X on Windows.

Answer 3

I would virtualize Linux, as even if you can cross-compile, it means you're not testing the binaries on their native platforms. OS X is a trickier problem.

Answer 4

It is not possible to compile from one platform to another. We have a Mac and use FPC quite often. If you need some help with compiling on a mac, drop me a message.