The standalone Windows installer for Mercurial is built in a somewhat
jury-rigged fashion.
It has the following prerequisites, at least as I build it:
Python 2.6 for Windows
http://www.python.org/download/releases/
A compiler:
either MinGW
http://www.mingw.org/
or Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 SP1 Express Edition
http://www.microsoft.com/express/Downloads/Download-2008.aspx
Python for Windows Extensions
http://sourceforge.net/projects/pywin32/
mfc71.dll (just download, don't install; not needed for Python 2.6)
http://starship.python.net/crew/mhammond/win32/
Visual C++ 2008 SP1 redistributable package (needed for >= Python 2.6 or if you compile with MSVC)
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=A5C84275-3B97-4AB7-A40D-3802B2AF5FC2
The py2exe distutils extension
http://sourceforge.net/projects/py2exe/
GnuWin32 gettext utility (if you want to build translations)
http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/packages/gettext.htm
Inno Setup
http://www.jrsoftware.org/isdl.php#qsp
Get and install ispack-5.3.10.exe which includes Inno Setup Processor,
which is necessary to package Mercurial.
ISTool - optional
http://www.istool.org/default.aspx/
add_path (you need only add_path.exe in the zip file)
http://www.barisione.org/apps.html#add_path
Docutils
http://docutils.sourceforge.net/
And, of course, Mercurial itself.
Once you have all this installed and built, clone a copy of the
Mercurial repository you want to package, and name the repo
C:\hg\hg-release.
In a shell, build a standalone copy of the hg.exe program.
Building instructions for MinGW:
python setup.py build -c mingw32
python setup.py py2exe -b 2
Note: the previously suggested combined command of "python setup.py build -c
mingw32 py2exe -b 2" doesn't work correctly anymore as it doesn't include the
extensions in the mercurial subdirectory.
If you want to create a file named setup.cfg with the contents:
[build]
compiler=mingw32
you can skip the first build step.
Building instructions with MSVC 2008 SP1 Express Edition:
python setup.py py2exe -b 2
Copy add_path.exe into the dist directory that just got created.
If you are using Python up to version 2.5.4, copy mfc71.dll into the dist
directory that just got created.
If you are using Python 2.6 or later, or if you are using MSVC 2008 to compile
mercurial, you must include the C runtime libraries in the installer. To do so,
install the Visual C++ 2008 SP1 redistributable package. Then in your
windows\winsxs folder, locate the folder containing the dlls version 9.0.30729.
For x86, it should be named like x86_Microsoft.VC90.CRT_(...)_9.0.30729(...).
Copy the files named msvcm90.dll, msvcp90.dll and msvcr90.dll into the dist
directory.
Then in the windows\winsxs\manifests folder, locate the corresponding manifest
file (x86_Microsoft.VC90.CRT_(...)_9.0.30729(...).manifest for x86), copy it in
the dist directory and rename it to Microsoft.VC90.CRT.manifest.
Before building the installer, you have to build Mercurial HTML documentation
(or fix mercurial.iss to not reference the doc directory):
cd doc
mingw32-make html
cd ..
If you use ISTool, you open the C:\hg\hg-release\contrib\win32\mercurial.iss
file and type Ctrl-F9 to compile the installer file.
Otherwise you run the Inno Setup compiler. Assuming it's in the path
you should execute:
iscc contrib\win32\mercurial.iss /dVERSION=foo
Where 'foo' is the version number you would like to see in the
'Add/Remove Applications' tool. The installer will be placed into
a directory named Output/ at the root of your repository.
If the /dVERSION=foo parameter is not given in the command line, the
installer will retrieve the version information from the __version__.py file.
To automate the steps above you may want to create a batchfile based on the
following (MinGW build chain):
echo [build] > setup.cfg
echo compiler=mingw32 >> setup.cfg
python setup.py py2exe -b 2
cd doc
mingw32-make html
cd ..
iscc contrib\win32\mercurial.iss /dVERSION=snapshot
and run it from the root of the hg repository (c:\hg\hg-release).