🔮 SBCL Setup with MSYS2 on Windows

1. Download and Install MSYS2

Visit the official MSYS2 website at https://www.msys2.org/ and download the latest installer.
Run the downloaded installer and follow the on-screen instructions to install MSYS2. The default installation path (C:\msys64) is recommended.
After installation, open MSYS2 using the shortcut created in the Start Menu.
Update the package database and base packages by running the following commands in the terminal: pacman -Syu
Close the terminal if prompted, then reopen it and complete the update process with: pacman -Su

In the MSYS2 terminal, install the build essentials for the UCRT64 environment by executing: pacman -S --needed base-devel mingw-w64-ucrt-x86_64-toolchain
This command installs the necessary compilers and tools to build software using the UCRT64 environment.

Go to the SBCL website at http://www.sbcl.org/ and download the latest Windows binary available.
Run the installer and follow the prompts to install SBCL. Note the installation directory (e.g., C:\Program Files\Steel Bank Common Lisp).

Open the MSYS2 terminal and clone the SBCL repository to the ~/sbcl directory with: git clone git://git.code.sf.net/p/sbcl/sbcl ~/sbcl

Open the UCRT64 MSYS2 terminal as administrator. You can do this by right-clicking the UCRT64 shortcut and selecting “Run as administrator.”
Change the directory to the cloned SBCL source with: cd ~/sbcl
Checkout the latest tagged version (e.g., 2.4.1) with: git checkout sbcl-2.4.1

Add the Windows SBCL binary to your PATH by executing:export PATH=$PATH:’c/Program Files/Steel Bank Common Lisp’
In the UCRT64 terminal (still as administrator), navigate to the ~/sbcl directory and start the build process with: sh make.sh --fancy
This process may take some time, depending on your system’s capabilities.

After the build completes successfully, install SBCL by running: sh install.sh
Follow any on-screen prompts to complete the installation.

SBCL depends on libzstd.dll to run. Download the DLL from the latest release at https://github.com/facebook/zstd/releases.
After downloading, place libzstd.dll in a directory that is part of your PATH environment variable, or add the directory where you placed libzstd.dll to your PATH. This can be done by:
- Searching for “Environment Variables” in Windows search, opening the dialog.
- In the “System Properties” window, click on “Environment Variables”.
- In the “System Variables” section, find the Path variable and select “Edit”.
- Add the path to the directory containing libzstd.dll.
- Click “OK” to close each dialog and apply the changes.