Building (or trying to) GnuCash on Windows

[Geert Janssens]

Op donderdag 30 november 2017 09:47:28 CET schreef Geert Janssens:
> Op donderdag 30 november 2017 04:26:37 CET schreef Brian Davis:
> > I attempted to run the script at:
> > 
> > https://github.com/Gnucash/gnucash-on-windows
> > 
> > To create a build environment for GnuCash on Windows where it failed at:
> > 
> > Microsoft (R) Windows Script Host Version 5.812
> > Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
> > 
> > Boostrap GnuCash Development on Windows
> > ---------------------------------------
> > This script is intended for people that wish to develop GnuCash on Windows
> > It will download and install the minimal set of tools
> > to run a first build of the GnuCash sources.
> > It will install
> > - mingw-get, an msys shell and wget in c:\gcdev\mingw
> > - git in c:\gcdev\git-1.9.4
> > - a gnucash-on-windows git repository cloned from
> > 
> >   git://github.com/Gnucash/gnucash-on-windows.git
> >   into c:\gcdev\gnucash-on-windows.git
> > 
> > - a GnuCash git repository cloned from
> > 
> >   git://github.com/Gnucash/gnucash.git
> >   into c:\gcdev\gnucash.git
> > 
> > Notes:
> > * Components already found in the given locations
> > 
> >   won't be touched. Instead the available versions
> >   will be used in that case.
> > 
> > * If the proposed locations don't suit you, you can
> > 
> >   pass alternate locations as named parameters to this script.
> >   For example to use c:\soft as base directory you can run this script as
> >   bootstrap_win_dev.vbs /GLOBAL_DIR:c:\soft
> >   Which parameters you can modify can be found near the beginning of this
> > 
> > script.
> > 
> > Continue with the set up (Y/N) ? y
> > Checking c:\gcdev\mingw\bin\mingw-get.exe... Found, no need to install
> > Installing msys and wget... Success
> > Checking c:\gcdev\git-1.9.4\bin\git.exe... Found, no need to install
> > Checking if c:\gcdev\gnucash-on-windows.git
> > 
> >          is a gnucash-on-windows git repository... Most likely ok, won't
> > 
> > clone
> > Checking if c:\gcdev\gnucash.git
> > 
> >          is a GnuCash git repository... Not found
> > 
> > Set up GnuCash git repository...
> > Failed
> > 
> > *** ERROR ***
> > Failed to set up GnuCash git repository.
> > 
> > Cannot continue until this has been resolved.
> > 
> > Pres enter to continue...
> > 
> > 
> > Also FYI "Pres" is spelled "Press" also when running script with command
> > line switch:
> > 
> > c:\projects\GnuCash>bootstrap_win_dev.vbs /GLOBAL_DIR:c:\projects\GnuCash
> > 
> > Gives the impression that:
> > 
> > If the proposed locations don't suit you, you can
> > 
> >   pass alternate locations as named parameters to this script.
> >   For example to use c:\soft as base directory you can run this script as
> >   bootstrap_win_dev.vbs /GLOBAL_DIR:c:\soft
> > 
> > is a complete lie as it still installs to c:\gcdev\
> > 
> > Thoughts?
> 
> It's not a complete lie, rather incomplete. I have just tested again locally
> and apparently the GLOBAL_DIR parameter is only picked up if you run the
> command through cscript. The message mentions to do this only in case of
> unexpected errors, but it looks like it should always be done.
> 
> So, please try this instead:
> cscript.exe bootstrap_win_dev.vbs /GLOBAL_DIR:c:\projects\GnuCash
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Geert

Looking more closely at this, it turned out to be a bug in the boostrap 
script. I have committed a fix for this just now. So if you start from the 
most recent version of the script, it should work even when not explicitly 
called from cscript.

Regards,

Geert

P.S.: John's thoughts are worth considering still. Developing gnucash on 
Windows does add some complexity. And for the 2.6 series it's even cumbersome. 
The scripts for 2.7 and the upcoming 2.8 will help improve the situation. 
However depending on your skill and specific goals it's still worth 
considering to set up a virtual machine running linux instead.
More generally though I would also love to see people on Windows pick up 
gnucash development (on Windows) and in particular help improve the Windows 
situation where possible. I'm thinking of Windows specific bugs, or 
improvements to the build system to reduce the complexity gap between 
developing on Windows and linux. Not sure what could be done for the latter 
but one can hope, right ;)
If this interests you and you think you can, you're certainly welcome to 
contribute in that area too.