mkoctfile in Octave for Windows cannot find liboctave and other Octave-standard libraries

[E. Joshua Rigler]

I am attempting to compile mex files using the command-line mkoctfile
from the MINGW32 version of Octave for Windows. I get the following
errors:

$ mkoctfile.exe -mex fits_read_image.c
-L/f/Octave4Windows/Octave3.4.3_gcc4.5.2/lib -lcfitsio
-I/f/Octave4Windows/Octave3.4.3_gcc4.5.2/include/octave-3.4.3/octave
-I/f/Octave4Windows/Octave3.4.3_gcc4.5.2/include
f:/octave4windows/octave3.4.3_gcc4.5.2/mingw32/bin/../lib/gcc/mingw32/4.5.2/../../../../mingw32/bin/ld.exe:
cannot find -loctinterp
f:/octave4windows/octave3.4.3_gcc4.5.2/mingw32/bin/../lib/gcc/mingw32/4.5.2/../../../../mingw32/bin/ld.exe:
cannot find -loctave
f:/octave4windows/octave3.4.3_gcc4.5.2/mingw32/bin/../lib/gcc/mingw32/4.5.2/../../../../mingw32/bin/ld.exe:
cannot find -lcruft
collect2: ld returned 1 exit status

Note 1: I am doing this after calling msys.bat, and mounting the
mingw32 directory as /mingw
Note 2: manually specifying the path for the libcfitsio.a library
seems to make ld.exe happy. It is what I would consider the Octave
standard libraries (i.e., liboctinterp, liboctave, libcruft) that
ld.exe cannot find when called from mkoctfile. What's worse, this
mkoctfile.exe file is some kind of binary file, not a script like I am
accustomed to, so I can't even read it to see what is happening.

Any help would be appreciated, or just confirmation that it is
currently impossible to compile mex files in Octave for Windows so I
can stop wasting my time.

-EJR