FAQ: wintypes.h or winscard.h not found

One of the most popular search requests that bring people on my website https://pcsclite.apdu.fr/ is about wintypes.h not found.

Problem

For example you try to compile something and get the error:

smartcard/scard/helpers.c:28:10: fatal error: winscard.h: No such file or directory
 #include <winscard.h>
          ^~~~~~~~~~~~

Solution

The PC/SC header files (winscard.h, wintypes.h and some others) are provided by the development pcsclite package.

  • for Debian, Ubuntu or derivatives the package is pcsclite-dev
  • for Red Hat, Fedora and derivatives the package is pcsc-lite-devel
  • for other Unixes, use your favourite search engine 😜

You install the correct package and you try again to build your software.

Conclusion

I hope this blog article will be correctly indexed by search engines to help people find the solution.