Re: Dub packages: Best practices for windows support

[Johannes Pfau via Digitalmars-d-learn]

Am Sat, 30 Jan 2016 01:17:13 +
schrieb Mike Parker :

> On Friday, 29 January 2016 at 19:46:40 UTC, Johannes Pfau wrote:
> 
> > Now on windows, things are more complicated. First of all, I 
> > can't seem
> > to simply use "libs": ["foo"] as the linker won't find the C
> > import .lib file. Then apparently there's no way to add a 
> > library search
> > path with the MSVC linker? So I have to use the full path:
> > "libs": [$PACKAGE_DIR\\path\\foo]. Without $PACKAGE_DIR paths 
> > are
> > incorrect for applications using the library because of a dub 
> > problem.
> > And then I'll have to use different import libraries and paths 
> > for -m32,
> > -m64 and -m32mscoff.  
> 
> Now you know my motivation for creating Derelict.
> 
> 
> > All this leads to the following questions:
> > * Should cairoD copy the DLLs for all applications using 
> > cairoD? This
> >   way simply adding a dependency will work. However, if users 
> > want to
> >   use a self compiled cairo DLL with fewer dependencies there's 
> > no easy
> >   way to disable the file copying?
> > * Should cairoD link in the .lib DLL import file? This might be 
> > useful
> >   even when not copying the DLLs. But if users want to link a 
> > custom
> >   import library that would be difficult. OTOH not copying DLLs 
> > and/or
> >   not linking the import library will make dub.json much more
> >   complicated for simple applications, especially if these 
> > applications
> >   want to support -m32, -m32mscoff and -m64.  
> 
> IMO, no to both of these (for now). Including all of these 
> dependencies is going to mean that all of your users, no matter 
> the platform, will pull the down with every new version of gtkd.  
> I recommend you provide all of the precompiled DLLs and import 
> libraries as a separate download and let the user do the 
> configuration needed to get it to link. Most Windows developers 
> are used to it. You can provide instructions for those who aren't.


Thanks for the detailed answer. Thinking about this some more, copying
the DLLs automatically is really a bad idea. The cairo dll depends on
Freetype, so I'd have to ship a Freetype dll as well. But cairoD
depends on DerelictFT and if DerelictFT then decided to also install
DLLs automatically anything could happen. So even in this simple case
installing DLLs for the user is not a good idea.

Re: Dub packages: Best practices for windows support

[Guillaume Piolat via Digitalmars-d-learn]

On Saturday, 30 January 2016 at 01:17:13 UTC, Mike Parker wrote:

On Friday, 29 January 2016 at 19:46:40 UTC, Johannes Pfau wrote:

Now on windows, things are more complicated. First of all, I 
can't seem

to simply use "libs": ["foo"] as the linker won't find the C
import .lib file. Then apparently there's no way to add a 
library search

path with the MSVC linker? So I have to use the full path:
"libs": [$PACKAGE_DIR\\path\\foo]. Without $PACKAGE_DIR paths 
are
incorrect for applications using the library because of a dub 
problem.
And then I'll have to use different import libraries and paths 
for -m32,

-m64 and -m32mscoff.


Now you know my motivation for creating Derelict.



+1, make a Derelict-style binding and never deal with import 
library ever again.

Re: Dub packages: Best practices for windows support

[Mike Parker via Digitalmars-d-learn]

On Friday, 29 January 2016 at 19:46:40 UTC, Johannes Pfau wrote:

Now on windows, things are more complicated. First of all, I 
can't seem

to simply use "libs": ["foo"] as the linker won't find the C
import .lib file. Then apparently there's no way to add a 
library search

path with the MSVC linker? So I have to use the full path:
"libs": [$PACKAGE_DIR\\path\\foo]. Without $PACKAGE_DIR paths 
are
incorrect for applications using the library because of a dub 
problem.
And then I'll have to use different import libraries and paths 
for -m32,

-m64 and -m32mscoff.


Now you know my motivation for creating Derelict.



All this leads to the following questions:
* Should cairoD copy the DLLs for all applications using 
cairoD? This
  way simply adding a dependency will work. However, if users 
want to
  use a self compiled cairo DLL with fewer dependencies there's 
no easy

  way to disable the file copying?
* Should cairoD link in the .lib DLL import file? This might be 
useful
  even when not copying the DLLs. But if users want to link a 
custom
  import library that would be difficult. OTOH not copying DLLs 
and/or

  not linking the import library will make dub.json much more
  complicated for simple applications, especially if these 
applications

  want to support -m32, -m32mscoff and -m64.


IMO, no to both of these (for now). Including all of these 
dependencies is going to mean that all of your users, no matter 
the platform, will pull the down with every new version of gtkd.  
I recommend you provide all of the precompiled DLLs and import 
libraries as a separate download and let the user do the 
configuration needed to get it to link. Most Windows developers 
are used to it. You can provide instructions for those who aren't.


Hopefully one day dub will have the ability to pull down library 
dependencies on demand, or based on the current platform and 
architecture by default, then this problem goes away.


* What's the best way to support all of -m32, -m32mscoff and 
-m64? I've
  got working import libraries and DLLs for all configurations, 
but how
  to support this in dub.json? I think the best way would be to 
have
  -ms32coff as a special architecture or flag for dub, but I 
can't seem
  to find any documentation about that. -m64 can be detected by 
x86_64

  in platforms, but how to detect -m32 vs -m32mscoff?

  Alternatively I could simply let users choose the 
configurations

  manually. But adding dflags: ["-m32mscoff"] does not build the
  Derelict dependencies with the m32mscoff flag so linking will 
fail...


  DFLAGS="-m32mscoff" doesn't work with dub test as the dub test
  command ignores the DFLAGS variable. I'd have to check 
whether it
  works for applications, but then there's still no way to use 
the

  correct cairo import library in cairoDs dub.json


There's an issue for this at [1]. Until support for -m32mscoff is 
baked in, distributing any libraries with a dub project will be 
problematic.

Re: Dub packages: Best practices for windows support

[Mike Parker via Digitalmars-d-learn]

On Saturday, 30 January 2016 at 01:17:13 UTC, Mike Parker wrote:

There's an issue for this at [1]. Until support for -m32mscoff 
is baked in, distributing any libraries with a dub project will 
be problematic.


[1] https://github.com/D-Programming-Language/dub/issues/628

Re: Dub packages: Best practices for windows support

[Mike Parker via Digitalmars-d-learn]

On Saturday, 30 January 2016 at 01:17:13 UTC, Mike Parker wrote:

Hopefully one day dub will have the ability to pull down 
library dependencies on demand, or based on the current 
platform and architecture by default, then this problem goes 
away.



I should say "precompiled library dependencies".

Dub packages: Best practices for windows support

[Johannes Pfau via Digitalmars-d-learn]

I want to add proper windows support to the cairoD dub package. cairoD
is a wrapper for the [cairo](http://cairographics.org/) C library. As
it can be difficult to obtain cairo DLLs on windows I want to ship
these DLLs with cairoD. It is also possible to enable or disable
additional cairo features. I want to use the DLLs from the [MSYS2
project](http://msys2.github.io/) which enable all relevant features.
Because of that, the MSYS2 cairo DLL depends on _13_ other DLLs.

On linux it would be common practice to simply have a "libs": ["foo"]
entry in the dub configuration for cairoD. This way applications using
the library won't have to manually link the C library. And everything
(dub run, dub test) will just work.

Now on windows, things are more complicated. First of all, I can't seem
to simply use "libs": ["foo"] as the linker won't find the C
import .lib file. Then apparently there's no way to add a library search
path with the MSVC linker? So I have to use the full path:
"libs": [$PACKAGE_DIR\\path\\foo]. Without $PACKAGE_DIR paths are
incorrect for applications using the library because of a dub problem.
And then I'll have to use different import libraries and paths for -m32,
-m64 and -m32mscoff.

Additionally, applications can't run without the DLLs in the same
directory as the target application executable. So dub run and dub test
won't work. As a solution it is possible to do this in the cairoD dub
configuration:
"copyFiles": ["lib\\dmc32\\*.dll"]
The path again depends on -m32 vs -m64 and -m32mscoff



All this leads to the following questions:
* Should cairoD copy the DLLs for all applications using cairoD? This
  way simply adding a dependency will work. However, if users want to
  use a self compiled cairo DLL with fewer dependencies there's no easy
  way to disable the file copying?
* Should cairoD link in the .lib DLL import file? This might be useful
  even when not copying the DLLs. But if users want to link a custom
  import library that would be difficult. OTOH not copying DLLs and/or
  not linking the import library will make dub.json much more
  complicated for simple applications, especially if these applications
  want to support -m32, -m32mscoff and -m64.
* What's the best way to support all of -m32, -m32mscoff and -m64? I've
  got working import libraries and DLLs for all configurations, but how
  to support this in dub.json? I think the best way would be to have
  -ms32coff as a special architecture or flag for dub, but I can't seem
  to find any documentation about that. -m64 can be detected by x86_64
  in platforms, but how to detect -m32 vs -m32mscoff?

  Alternatively I could simply let users choose the configurations
  manually. But adding dflags: ["-m32mscoff"] does not build the
  Derelict dependencies with the m32mscoff flag so linking will fail...

  DFLAGS="-m32mscoff" doesn't work with dub test as the dub test
  command ignores the DFLAGS variable. I'd have to check whether it
  works for applications, but then there's still no way to use the
  correct cairo import library in cairoDs dub.json

Re: Dub packages: Best practices for windows support

[Johannes Pfau via Digitalmars-d-learn]

Am Fri, 29 Jan 2016 20:46:40 +0100
schrieb Johannes Pfau :

>   DFLAGS="-m32mscoff" doesn't work with dub test as the dub test
>   command ignores the DFLAGS variable. I'd have to check whether it
>   works for applications, but then there's still no way to use the
>   correct cairo import library in cairoDs dub.json

Should have mentioned DFLAGS is an environment in that example, e.g
using dub like this:

DFLAGS="-m32mscoff" dub run
DFLAGS="-m32mscoff" dub test