Note about wxWidgets-3.2.10.tar.gz download

[Carl Godkin]

Hi,

It seems that the wx community prefers to distribute source files .tar.bz2 .

However, I happened to download the .tar.gz file at the end of the
long list of assets at the bottom of this page:

https://github.com/wxWidgets/wxWidgets/releases/tag/v3.2.10

It doesn't contain everything and, if you try using cmake to build
from there, you get this error :

CMake Error at build/cmake/functions.cmake:719 (message):
wxregex file does not exist:
"D:/build/wxWidgets-3.2.10/3rdparty/pcre/src/pcre2_auto_possess.c". Make
sure you checkout the git submodules.
Call Stack (most recent call first):
build/cmake/lib/regex.cmake:24 (wx_add_builtin_library)
build/cmake/lib/CMakeLists.txt:29 (include)

I think that the two "Source code" assets at the end of the list might
be auto generated by GitHub without the submodules.

It might save someone some frustration if these could be deleted or
suppressed.

Thanks,
carl

[Vadim Zeitlin]

On Wed, 15 Apr 2026 15:40:38 -0700 Carl Godkin wrote:

CG> It seems that the wx community prefers to distribute source files .tar.bz2 .

They're much smaller compared to gzip-compressed files, so yes.

CG> However, I happened to download the .tar.gz file at the end of the
CG> long list of assets at the bottom of this page:
CG>
CG> https://github.com/wxWidgets/wxWidgets/releases/tag/v3.2.10
CG>
CG> It doesn't contain everything and, if you try using cmake to build
CG> from there, you get this error :
CG>
CG> CMake Error at build/cmake/functions.cmake:719 (message):
CG> wxregex file does not exist:
CG> "D:/build/wxWidgets-3.2.10/3rdparty/pcre/src/pcre2_auto_possess.c". Make
CG> sure you checkout the git submodules.
CG> Call Stack (most recent call first):
CG> build/cmake/lib/regex.cmake:24 (wx_add_builtin_library)
CG> build/cmake/lib/CMakeLists.txt:29 (include)
CG>
CG> I think that the two "Source code" assets at the end of the list might
CG> be auto generated by GitHub without the submodules.

Yes. We prominently mention this in the README on the downloads page and
warn people not to use these files.

CG> It might save someone some frustration if these could be deleted or
CG> suppressed.

I don't know how to do it, if anybody does, please let me know. Otherwise
we'll have to continue to rely on people reading the README.

Regards,
VZ

--
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https://www.tt-solutions.com/

[Carl Godkin]

Oops, I read the actual Downloads page but didn't read the GitHub
release page notices obviously. Sorry about that!

carl

[Richard]

In article <Mahogany-0.68.0-398...@dark.tt-solutions.com>,

Vadim Zeitlin <va...@wxwidgets.org> writes:

> CG> I think that the two "Source code" assets at the end of the list might
> CG> be auto generated by GitHub without the submodules.
>
> Yes. We prominently mention this in the README on the downloads page and
> warn people not to use these files.

Maybe a check in the top-level CMake script that validates the
presence of submodules and if not present issues a diagnostic?

It's also easy to clone the git repository and forget to update and
initialize submodules (oh, how many times I've done that, LOL).
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