To install libtap on a unix-like system: $ make $ make check $ make install Note that `make check` runs a perl unit test. It makes use of diff(1), so if you run it, make sure you have those tools installed first. To compile with gcc -ansi, run $ make ANSI=1 To install to a different directory than /usr/local, supply the PREFIX variable to make: $ make PREFIX=/usr install On Windows, the library can be created by first setting up the correct development environment variables. Usually this is done by running vcvars32.bat included in the visual studio distribution. You should also install gnu make which can be found at http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/packages/make.htm. And you should have perl to run the tests although this isnt absolutely necessary. Once this is done, you should be able to run the following: > make -f Makefile.win > make check Alternatively, you might want to use the visual studio project file included by Alexander Kahl (e-user). If you want to use it directly in another project, you can copy tap.c and tap.h there and it shouldn't have a problem compiling. $ ls tap.c tap.h test.c $ cat test.c #include "tap.h" int main () { plan(1); ok(50 + 5, "foo %s", "bar"); done_testing(); } $ gcc test.c tap.c $ a.out 1..1 ok 1 - foo bar