This is not the libtool you are looking for. GNU libtool is a generic library support package. Libtool hides the complexity of using shared libraries behind a consistent, portable interface. Libtool requires the use of Autoconf. This msys port of libtool has been modified specifically for the MSYS System Builder (msys-dvlpr) environment; that is, it is intended to be used only when producing binary packages for the MSYS subsystem. If you intend to produce executables for the native "mingw32" subsystem (that is, applications that should work on Microsoft Windows installations without the MSYS dll), then you should install the mingw32-libtool-* package instead. msys-libtool provides the development files and utilities for managing the creation and use of shared libraries in a platform independent manner. The associated msys-libltdl package provides the runtime library and development files for using a pre-built version of libtool's dlopen replacement library. This is not the libtool you are looking for. GNU libtool is a generic library support package. Libtool hides the complexity of using shared libraries behind a consistent, portable interface. Libtool requires the use of Autoconf. This msys port of libtool has been modified specifically for the MSYS System Builder (msys-dvlpr) environment; that is, it is intended to be used only when producing binary packages for the MSYS subsystem. If you intend to produce executables for the native "mingw32" subsystem (that is, applications that should work on Microsoft Windows installations without the MSYS dll), then you should install the mingw32-libtool-* package instead. msys-libltdl provides the runtime library and development files for using a pre-built version of libtool's dlopen replacement library. The associated msys-libtool package provides the development files and utilities for managing the creation and use of shared libraries in a platform independent manner.