[dbohdan] 2016-12-04: This is a step-by-step guide on how to build native Tcl/Tk binaries for [Windows] on Windows. I found it the most convenient to do with MSYS2. The result of following this guide will be a complete Tcl/Tk installation that is portable from one Windows machine to another. The instructions have been tested with Tcl 8.6.6.

1. Install https://msys2.github.io/%|%MSYS2%|% by following the instructions on its webpage. Prefer the 64-bit version if you have 64-bit Windows. You will be able to build 32-bit and 64-bit binaries from the 64-bit version.

2. Start "MSYS2 MingGW 32-bit" from the "MSYS2 64bit" folder in the Start menu.

3. Install the build dependencies by running the following commands in the shell.

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$ pacman -Syuu make mingw-w64-i686-gcc tar wget
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4. Download and extract the latest source code release of Tcl. The GitHub mirror is convenient for this because it does not require authentication. Build and install Tcl.

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$ cd ~
$ wget -O tcl-release.tar.gz https://github.com/tcltk/tcl/archive/release.tar.gz
$ tar xvf tcl-release.tar.gz
$ cd tcl-release/win/
$ ./configure --prefix=/c/tcltk/
$ make
$ make install
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6. (Optional) Build and install [Tk].

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$ cd ~
$ wget -O tk-release.tar.gz https://github.com/tcltk/tk/archive/release.tar.gz
$ tar xvf tk-release.tar.gz
$ cd tk-release/win/
$ ./configure --prefix=/c/tcltk/ --with-tcl=../../tcl-release/win/
$ make
$ make install
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7. (Optional) Install [Tcllib].

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$ cd ~
$ wget -O tcllib-release.tar.gz https://github.com/tcltk/tcllib/archive/release.tar.gz
$ tar xvf tcllib-release.tar.gz
$ cd tcllib-release/
$ ./configure --prefix=/c/tcltk/
$ make install
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You'll find your Tcl/Tk installation in `C:\tcltk\`.

To build a 64-bit version run "MSYS2 MingGW 64-bit" instead of "MSYS2 MingGW 32-bit" in step 2 and install `mingw-w64-x86_64-gcc` instead of `mingw-w64-i686-gcc` in step 3.

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