[Note: this page has been adapted from contrib/win32/win32-build.txt found in Mercurial's source tree]

The standalone Windows installer for Mercurial is built in a somewhat jury-rigged fashion.

Prerequisites

It has the following prerequisites, at least as I build it:

Python for Windows

MinGW

Python for Windows Extensions

mfc71.dll (just download, don't install)

patch.exe (from the gnuwin32 project or any other alternative)

The py2exe distutils extension

Inno Setup

ISTool (optional)

add_path (you need only add_path.exe in the zip file)

And, of course, Mercurial itself

Building Installer

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.

Open a command prompt window on C:\hg\hg-release, then build a standalone copy of the hg.exe program:

python setup.py build -c mingw32 
python setup.py py2exe -b 1

Note: the previously suggested combined command of "python setup.py build -c mingw32 py2exe -b 1" doesn't work correctly anymore as it doesn't include the extensions in the mercurial subdirectory.

Alternatively, you can create a file named setup.cfg in the root of the repository (C:\hg\hg-release) with the following contents:

[build]
compiler=mingw32

which would allow you to skip the first build step and just run:

python setup.py py2exe -b 1

Copy mfc71.dll and add_path.exe into the dist directory that just got created.

If Inno Setup is in your path you can run:

iscc contrib\win32\mercurial.iss

Or you can run ISTool, and open the C:\hg\hg-release\contrib\win32\mercurial.iss file. In ISTool, type Ctrl-F9 to compile the installer file.

The actual installer will be in the C:\hg\hg-release\Output directory.

To automate the steps above you may want to create a batchfile based on the following:

  echo [build] > setup.cfg
  echo compiler=mingw32 >> setup.cfg
  python setup.py py2exe -b 1
  iscc contrib\win32\mercurial.iss

and run it from the root of the hg repository (C:\hg\hg-release).