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Cross-compile FileZilla Server 1.10.3+ on Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL1)

Guide is based on FileZilla Server at v1.10.3 and libfilezilla v0.50 (r47) in the SVN - all attempts will be made to keep guide relatively current. Some dependencies are version specific based on the SVN revision of FileZilla and libfilezilla - recommended to follow versions as noted.

  • REQUIRES Windows 10 r1607 or higher
  • The filezilla-project recommends Debian 12 (bookworm) for cross-compile so it will be used here.
  • All parts of this guide assume that your Program Files (x86) folder is located on drive C:
    You may need to adjust certain paths in these guides as needed to accomodate differences.
  • RECOMMENDED (but not required) to install a clean WSL userspace for this process.
    • Importing a clean userspace into WSL defaults that userspace to the root user. This means sudo and other permissions requirements are generally not encountered.
    • A TL;DR guide to installing a clean WSL userspace can be found here.
    • There are known issues upgrading a WSL-1 Debian 11 (bullseye) installation to Debian 12 (bookworm). A work-around can be found here that gets through the upgrade process.
  • This guide assumes you have knowledge of linux permissions and usage of sudo elevation as necessary.

Prepare Build Environment

(in Windows) Download and install NSIS from SourceForge
https://sourceforge.net/projects/nsis/files/NSIS%203/3.11/nsis-3.11-setup.exe/download

You also need the "Access Control" plugin for NSIS:

Copy the AccessControl.dll from inside the zip at Plugins/i386-unicode to your NSIS plugins folder ( usually at C:\Program Files (x86)\NSIS\Plugins\x86-unicode ) or NSIS will fail when packaging FileZilla Server.

https://nsis.sourceforge.io/mediawiki/images/4/4a/AccessControl.zip

You also need the "ExecDos" Plugin for NSIS:
https://nsis.sourceforge.io/mediawiki/images/0/0f/ExecDos.zip

Copy the ExecDos.dll from inside the zip at Plugins/i386-unicode to your NSIS plugins folder ( usually at C:\Program Files (x86)\NSIS\Plugins\x86-unicode ) or NSIS will fail when packaging FileZilla Server.

Launch WSL

Add 32bit architecture for compiling Windows shell extension:

dpkg --add-architecture i386

RECOMMENDED: Update the userspace prior to proceeding.

apt-get update
apt-get upgrade

Install required packages:

apt-get install wget git subversion \
    gettext lzip automake autoconf autogen autopoint \
    libtool make pkg-config wx-common \
    mingw-w64 mingw-w64-tools build-essential unbound-anchor gtk-doc-tools

Install optional colormake package (better visibility of any compile errors):

apt-get install colormake

Setup some paths:

mkdir /sources && mkdir /builds && mkdir /builds/filezilla && mkdir /builds/filezilla/server

Configure environment variables

export TPFX="/builds/filezilla/server"
export THOST="x86_64-w64-mingw32"
export TBLD="x86_64-pc-linux"
export PATH="$TPFX/bin:$PATH"
export CPPFLAGS="-I$TPFX/include"
export LDFLAGS="-L$TPFX/lib"
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH="-L$TPFX/lib"
export PKG_CONFIG_PATH="$TPFX/lib/pkgconfig:$PKG_CONFIG_PATH"

Create unbound-anchor root.key

GnuTLS looks for this key during configuration.

unbound-anchor -4 -a "$TPFX/bin/unbound/root.key"

Download/Unpack Sources

Change to /sources folder before continuing.

Dependencies

GMP

wget https://gmplib.org/download/gmp/gmp-6.3.0.tar.lz
tar xvf gmp-6.3.0.tar.lz

Nettle

wget https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/nettle/nettle-3.10.1.tar.gz
tar xvf nettle-3.10.1.tar.gz

zlib

wget http://zlib.net/zlib-1.3.1.tar.gz
tar xf zlib-1.3.1.tar.gz

gnuTLS

wget https://www.gnupg.org/ftp/gcrypt/gnutls/v3.8/gnutls-3.8.9.tar.xz
tar xvf gnutls-3.8.9.tar.xz

sqlite

wget https://www.sqlite.org/2025/sqlite-autoconf-3490100.tar.gz
tar xvf sqlite-autoconf-3490100.tar.gz

wxWidgets
(latest 3.2 branch stable):

wget https://github.com/wxWidgets/wxWidgets/releases/download/v3.2.7/wxWidgets-3.2.7.tar.bz2
tar xjvf wxWidgets-3.2.7.tar.bz2
mv wxWidgets-3.2.7 wxWidgets-3.2.x

(latest 3.2 branch development):

git clone --branch 3.2 --single-branch https://github.com/wxWidgets/wxWidgets.git wxWidgets-3.2.x

libfilezilla
(latest stable - 0.50.0 as of this guide against FileZilla Server v1.10.3):

svn co -r 11252 https://svn.filezilla-project.org/svn/libfilezilla/trunk libfilezilla

(latest development):

svn co https://svn.filezilla-project.org/svn/libfilezilla/trunk libfilezilla

FileZilla Server
(latest stable - 1.10.3+ as of this guide against libfilezilla 0.50):

FileZilla Server Source archives are available here:
https://download.filezilla-project.org/server/

Nightly source can be retrieved here by replacing the {braces data} with actual values:
https://filezilla-project.org/nightlies_server/{YYYY-MM-DD}/FileZilla_Server_snapshot_{YYYYMMDD}_src.tar.xz
ex: https://filezilla-project.org/nightlies_server/2023-09-17/FileZilla_Server_snapshot_20230917_src.tar.xz

You can access paths outside WSL via the /mnt/ folder to move your source download into WSL and unpack:

cp /mnt/c/path-to-your-download/FileZilla_Server_1.10.3_src.tar.xz /sources
tar xvf FileZilla_Server_1.10.3_src.tar.xz

Build Dependencies

Most modern hardware is multi-core enabled. When running make parallel builds can speed up compilation. All make commands below assume usage of a parallel build via -jN parameter where N = totalCoresAvailable - 1.
Example (quad core): make -j3.

Change to /sources folder before continuing.

COMPILE GMP

cd gmp-6.3.0

CC_FOR_BUILD=gcc ./configure --host=$THOST --prefix="$TPFX" --disable-static --enable-shared --enable-fat CFLAGS="-Wno-attributes"

make -jN && make install

cd ..

COMPILE NETTLE

cd nettle-3.10.1

./configure --host=$THOST --prefix="$TPFX" --enable-shared --disable-static --enable-fat 

make -jN && make install

cd ..

COMPILE ZLIB

cd zlib-1.3.1

CHOST=$THOST SHAREDLIB=zlib1.dll IMPLIB=zlib1.dll.a ./configure --prefix="$TPFX" 

make -jN && make install

cd ..

COMPILE GNUTLS

cd gnutls-3.8.9

autoreconf -f -i

./configure \
--build=$TBLD \
--host=$THOST \
--prefix="$TPFX" \
--enable-shared \
--disable-static \
--without-p11-kit \
--with-included-libtasn1 \
--with-included-unistring \
--disable-srp-authentication \
--disable-dtls-srtp-support \
--disable-heartbeat-support \
--disable-psk-authentication \
--disable-anon-authentication \
--disable-openssl-compatibility \
--without-tpm \
--without-tpm2 \
--without-idn \
--disable-cxx \
--disable-doc \
--disable-gtk-doc \
--disable-gtk-doc-html \
--disable-gtk-doc-pdf \
--without-zstd \
--without-brotli \
--disable-maintainer-mode \
--disable-libdane \
--enable-threads=windows \
--disable-tools \
--with-unbound-root-key-file="$TPFX/bin/unbound/root.key" \
ARFLAGS="cr" \
CFLAGS="-Wno-unused-function -Wno-unused-variable -Wno-unused-macros"

make -jN && make install

cd ..

COMPILE SQLITE

cd sqlite-autoconf-3430000

./configure --host=$THOST --prefix="$TPFX" --enable-shared --disable-static --disable-load-extension LDFLAGS=

make -jN && make install

cd ..

COMPILE WXWIDGETS

cd wxWidgets-3.2.x

./configure --host=$THOST --build=$TBLD --prefix="$TPFX" --enable-shared --disable-gtktest --disable-sdltest --enable-vendor=mingw32 --disable-compat28

make -jN && make install

cd ..

COMPILE LIBFILEZILLA

cd libfilezilla

autoreconf -f -i
./configure --host=$THOST --build=$TBLD --prefix="$TPFX" --enable-shared --disable-static ARFLAGS=cr

make -jN && make install

cd ..

COMPILE FILEZILLA SERVER

Under WSL, path issues cause GCC's objdump to pull in too many DLLs for export. A .patch file is available here that resolves this issue against v1.7.3 and up of the code so that DLLs are properly dumped for linking, as well as collecting for the installer package. Patch must be applied before autoreconf. File to patch: ./pkg/windows/Makefile.am

WARNING: verify patch against local file before applying - updates to filezilla server source may affect patch. Visual here: https://github.com/iam-sysop/make-filezilla/blob/main/patches/patch-filezilla-server-pkg-Makefile.am.patch

In this version, I ran into a ton of warnings from a redefined name against a wxWidgets library function. I patched it out in my build and haven't seen an issue yet. The issue stems from some form of function compatibility in wxWidgets and MinGW builds. A patch file is available here that accomplishes this. File to patch: ./src/gui/windows/Makefile.am

Your mileage may vary - so use at your own discretion: [PATCH] [RAW VIEW]

cd filezilla-server-1.10.3

autoreconf -f -i
./configure --host=$THOST --build=$TBLD --prefix="$TPFX" --enable-shared --disable-static --with-pugixml=builtin --with-wx-config="$TPFX/bin/wx-config" --with-makensis="/mnt/c/Program Files (x86)/NSIS/makensis.exe"

make -jN && make pkg-exe-strip && make pkg-exe

FileZilla Server is now compiled.
There should now be a FileZilla_Server_1.10.3_win64-setup.exe located in /sources/filezilla-server-1.10.3/pkg/windows