OpenFST port for Windows

OpenFst is a library for constructing, combining, optimizing, and searching weighted finite-state transducers (FSTs), maintained by Google and released under the Apache 2.0 license. The home page for the library is located at http://openfst.org/. Check the original README file for the current version, as we are not updating this file with the current release version. Make sure also to check the NEWS file for the latest changes. This file is part of the original distribution.

Bugs And Limitations

Refer to BUGS.md for known issues.

Releases

We track original releases of the library, and try to keep ours in step. Sometimes we may skip a release, but we strive for that to be rather an exception. With each release, we drop a set of pre-built .exe files compiled for the x64 architecture and optimized for execution speed. We use the latest Microsoft compilers for it, so you may find you need to download and install the latest Microsoft C runtime. See Microsoft KB2977003 for instructions.

We do not release pre-built libraries, however, because Microsoft compiler ABI changes between versions, and is different for Debug and Release builds. You must build a library matching your toolset on your own.

Build

There are two build options: Visual Studio and CMake. We maintain a set of build scripts for both. You will need a recent enough Visual Studio for either build flavor. Microsoft provides an option to download the free Visual Studio Community Edition, which is adequate.

Visual Studio

Open openfst.sln, then read the comments in files under the "READ ME BEFORE BUILD" solution folder. Generally, you may just hit Build and get the libraries, unless you need fine-tuning, such as selecting a different toolset, or want to build with MSBuild from command line. The solutions builds only static libraries, with debug information embedded in C7 format for the simplicity of use. Set the platform to x86 or x64 to build a respective 32- or 64-bit version of the library and tools.

The bin project builds multiple executable files by invoking itself recursively once for each executable. All .vcxproj files have been scripted and are maintained by hand. It takes a long time to build in Release mode. If you only need the libfst library, build it alone from the Project Explorer.

All build outputs are placed into the build_output directory under the solution root.

CMake

Follow the normal CMake build procedure to generate build files. With CMake you have an option of building dynamic libraries shared by the executables.

Structure of the repository and tagging

The original branch contains only imported original OpenFST files, with one exception of .gitignore file added. Tags of the form orig/1.6.9.1 specify the version and revision number of the library. Every commit on the orignal branch contains the source URL for the tarball release of OpenFST that was committed. The last version point corresponds to the revision of OpenFST version. Most (but not all) of the versions has had only one revision, and therefore end in .1. The winport branch contains the port, with corresponding tags of the form win/1.6.9.1.

Bug fix releases are marked with a + following a sequential number, for example, win/1.7.2.1+01

You can review the changes to source code only with the git command e. g.

git diff orig/1.6.9.1..win/1.6.9.1 -- "*.cc" "*.h"

The GitHub interface does not provide filtering by extension, so you will see all CMakefiles and MSBuild files added, but it may be useful if you want to examine changes in a particular file.

We try to keep changes to an absolute minimum. Most of them are due to incompatibilities between the gcc and cl compilers, and only a minor portion is due to the differences between the Linux and Windows platforms.

Maintainers

The repository is maintained by @kkm000 and @jtrmal.

Open an issue to let us know if you discover a problem with the port. We react to them promptly. Be sure to include a problem description, error text id any, and the compiler or Visual Studio version (and CMake version, if you use it). Do not hesitate to ask questions. We will try to help you.

Since we do not (by the definition of port) extend the OpenFST library itself, please contact its authors with questions and suggestions related to the original library. If in doubt, contact both teams.

Also let us know if you have a related development that you believe should be linked to from this file.

mariuszmaximus/openfst