Just a quick recap because I’m sure this will be helpful to make things more clear:
– We did this port since we use OpenSSH on Windows. We also ship a SSHD in the Enterprise servers.
– While the code is exactly the same, we build using a custom-developed build system where autotools and pkgconfig are part of a bigger whole, with higher level scripts taking care of the differences between configurations and platforms. This custom build system required a considerable amount of work and is one of the most valuable assets of our company, therefore we decided to keep it for us.
– We put somebody at creating the instructions to build OpenSSH in the average Windows environment of the average user, but we DID NOT test it in every environment and in every configuration and have no intention to do so because we just care to build it in OUR environment (where it obviously builds perfectly).
– We released this code upstream to OpenSSH and we’ll of course continue to provide any development or bug fix that would arise as part of using OpenSSH in the NoMachine product family. At the same time we don’t want to maintain a “Windows port” ourselves. In fact this is the exact reason why generally people make ports and then release them upstream.
– AFAIK, in 3 years or more, we never heard from OpenSSH, neither to confirm they have seen the code or to report build problems. That’s not a problem. We needed the code and made it, but, as you can imagine, we have lost some interest.
– We obviously have no interest in dealing with all possible build environments, Windows versions, GCC versions, Cygwin versions, MinGW versions, library dependencies, accessory packages needed, etc. etc. We tell what we used and what was the exact configuration, so that everybody can audit the code in the same conditions and make builds that are repeatable across different machines.
That said, let me add that I’m very sorry about the problems you are having. We’ll get the developer who made the configuration and build script to check what may have gone wrong, but if he didn’t even list the version of the compiler used or the various library versions, I agree with you that he didn’t do a good job. If you have other hints on how the documentation can be improved, we’ll be glad to follow your suggestions.