Update Windows build batch scripts

[zware]

BPO	21907
Nosy	@loewis, @db3l, @tjguk, @jkloth, @zware, @zooba
Files	better_bats.diff devguide_update.diff fix_pgo_vcvarsall.diff fix_pgo_vcvarsall_rightway.diff test.bat

^{Note: these values reflect the state of the issue at the time it was migrated and might not reflect the current state.}

Show more details

GitHub fields:

assignee = 'https://github.com/zware'
closed_at = <Date 2014-10-13.16:40:48.392>
created_at = <Date 2014-07-02.19:16:42.240>
labels = ['type-feature', 'OS-windows', 'build']
title = 'Update Windows build batch scripts'
updated_at = <Date 2015-06-10.06:18:00.594>
user = 'https://github.com/zware'

bugs.python.org fields:

activity = <Date 2015-06-10.06:18:00.594>
actor = 'python-dev'
assignee = 'zach.ware'
closed = True
closed_date = <Date 2014-10-13.16:40:48.392>
closer = 'zach.ware'
components = ['Build', 'Windows']
creation = <Date 2014-07-02.19:16:42.240>
creator = 'zach.ware'
dependencies = []
files = ['35831', '35832', '35985', '35986', '36540']
hgrepos = []
issue_num = 21907
keywords = ['patch', 'buildbot']
message_count = 26.0
messages = ['222118', '222119', '222123', '222436', '222469', '222496', '222497', '222510', '222564', '222566', '222574', '222575', '222592', '222621', '223351', '223355', '223363', '223473', '224467', '224468', '226387', '229060', '229218', '229252', '229491', '245116']
nosy_count = 9.0
nosy_names = ['loewis', 'db3l', 'tim.golden', 'jkloth', 'BreamoreBoy', 'python-dev', 'zach.ware', 'steve.dower', 'ibecker']
pr_nums = []
priority = 'normal'
resolution = 'fixed'
stage = 'resolved'
status = 'closed'
superseder = None
type = 'enhancement'
url = 'https://bugs.python.org/issue21907'
versions = ['Python 3.5']

[zware]

I am aware of a few open issues with the build scripts provided for Windows (both the Tools/buildbot scripts and the .bat files provided in PCbuild), such as bpo-9973 and bpo-9822, and there are some other issues that bother me but that I haven't opened issues for. Here's a patch which takes care of all of the issues I'm aware of, by almost completely rewriting most of the scripts.

An overview of the changes:

• Tools/buildbot/external*.bat are dead, replaced by PCbuild/get_externals.bat. Since those scripts have been suggested for use by normal users by PCbuild/readme.txt and the devguide, stubs for Tools/buildbot/external.bat and external-amd64.bat still exist, which display a message suggesting PCbuild/get_externals.bat and then pass all arguments on to that script.

• PCbuild/get_externals.bat is a complete rewrite of Tools/buildbot/external-common.bat, and is written for users rather than buildbots. It takes '-c/--clean' or '--clean-only' options, which will gently remove^W^W nuke from orbit all existing external library sources.

• PCbuild/build.bat has been updated to set up the environment itself, and to allow arguments to be passed to MSbuild, such as "/m" (though anything containing [ =,] (and possibly other characters) will require quotes to pass through properly, due to batch's wonderful argument handling abilities). It has also grown an '-e' option, to pull in external libs using get_externals.bat.

• Tools/buildbot/build.bat has been updated to use PCbuild/build.bat, and Tool/buildbot/build-amd64.bat has been updated to use Tools/buildbot/build.bat.

• PCbuild/env.bat has been updated to allow for non-standard VS install locations, but really, it's obsolete with build.bat setting the environment itself. I would prefer to eliminate PCbuild/build_env.bat and PCbuild/env.bat, but I don't know whether they're an integral part of other people's workflow and don't want to mess that up if they are. There doesn't seem to be any harm from running the build with the environment set up twice.

• Tools/buildbot/clean.bat has been updated as I suggested in bpo-9973, it has a set list of kill_python exes to try if they exist, then uses hg purge to clean everything out. Tools/buildbot/clean-amd64.bat is now just a stub calling Tools/buildbot/clean.bat.

• Tools/buildbot/buildmsi.bat has a few updates, but I can't properly test them (having not yet managed to get an MSI built at all). The script is currently unused anyway, as far as I know.

• Tools/buildbot/test[-amd64].bat have been updated to use Tools/scripts/run_tests.py, just like the UNIX buildbots. run_tests.py has been updated to use subprocess.call instead of os.execv on Windows.

• All scripts have been made cwd-agnostic, by which I mean they should run the same way no matter where they are called from. Also, every effort is made to not pollute the environment (even with VS setup). They should also be a bit more robust against paths with spaces, but I make no guarantees about that.

• PCbuild/readme.txt has been updated to suggest PCbuild/get_externals.bat instead of Tools/buildbot/external*.bat, and has an added "Quick Start Guide" at the top. A patch for the devguide will follow.

I think these changes make things simpler, with fewer places to update when options are changed, compilers upgraded, libraries updated, etc. With this change, the simplest way to build on Windows becomes "PCbuild\build.bat -e" (or add "-d" for debug). This is still not exactly what I want eventually (see bpo-16895, which is now long out of date :), but is a solid step in that direction.

Most of these changes could be backported to 3.4, and at least a good portion of those to 2.7. I'm not exactly sure how worth it that would be, though.

Thoughts?

[zware]

Here's the devguide patch.

[zooba]

Looks pretty good. I'm happy to see more move into PCBuild - ideally, people building a Python release should never have to look anywhere else.

buildmsi.bat can probably go away completely if the buildbots aren't using it. 3.5 will eventually have a .wixproj to build the MSI and there'll be a buildrelease.bat or similar under tools/ to keep the single entry point.

As part of the VC14 change there'll be changes to the batch files, but as far as entry points go they'll still be there. I want to move most of the functionality into an MSBuild script (currently pcbuild.proj in my sandbox) since that is generally more flexible than cmd.exe, but until then this looks like a great improvement. Not quite the 'make' equivalent you have in bpo-16895, but that will be easy to write when "make (\w+)" translates into "msbuild pcbuild.proj /t:\1".

I don't see any value in backporting to 2.7. I've got my own scripts for that which make doing a release very straightforward, and I'm happy to keep it that way. That said, the easier we make it for people to build from source, the sooner we can stop doing binary releases for 2.7.

Consider me +0.5 on taking this change, but it's only less than +1 because I'm already working on the next major iteration and so *I* don't need them.

[loewis]

All fine with me. As for buildmsi.bat: note that we used to have a "daily msi" builder that was using the script. It took too much effort to keep it running.

[zware]

With a vote and a half in favor, I'll go ahead with this probably later today. There is one change needed to the clean script; the hg purge call should ignore Lib/test/data to avoid downloading the codecmaps test files every time. I may backport to 3.4 and/or 2.7 later on, but will not do so until default has been happy with it for a while.

I'll leave buildmsi.bat in place for now; I'm interested in trying to resurrect the daily MSI builder some day. Possibly not before Steve converts us to WIX :)

[python-dev]

New changeset c3022e2606df by Zachary Ware in branch 'default':
Issue bpo-21907: Improved the batch scripts provided for building Python.
http://hg.python.org/cpython/rev/c3022e2606df

[python-dev]

New changeset ed3fa77804f8 by Zachary Ware in branch 'default':
Issue bpo-21907: Update the instructions for building on Windows
http://hg.python.org/devguide/rev/ed3fa77804f8

[python-dev]

New changeset f0a5be139717 by Zachary Ware in branch 'default':
Issue bpo-21907: Exit with the correct return code
http://hg.python.org/cpython/rev/f0a5be139717

[python-dev]

New changeset 06589e81fd56 by Zachary Ware in branch 'default':
Issue bpo-21907: Make the buildbot clean script always return 0.
http://hg.python.org/cpython/rev/06589e81fd56

[zware]

The XP buildbot seems to have choked on this change, I suspect because of the 'clean' script exiting with a non-zero error code. I'm not certain why it can't recover, though. David, can you tell what's going on with it?

[db3l]

Interesting - it's got a "Visual Studio Just-In-Time Debugger" dialog on the screen for an unhandled win32 exception in the compiler (cl.exe).

That's a dialog my pop-up AutoIt script wasn't expecting, so I've added it to the other (RTL error) checks, and it'll clear automatically going forward. But I'm not sure what triggered the error.

-- David