building pyDevSup on Windows machine

[phbran]

Hi Michael,
I have a working Epics7 installation on a Windows machine with Anaconda installed and tried to build pyDevSup as module, but didn't succeed so far. I also tried it on an Ubuntu machine, and there it works fine. First, I had some issues that numpy from the Anaconda installation was not found, but this is solved. No, I get the following output:

(base) C:\opt\epics\modules\pyDevSup>gmake
gmake -C ./configure install
gmake[1]: Entering directory 'C:/opt/epics/modules/pyDevSup/configure'
perl -CSD C:/opt/epics/base/bin/windows-x64-static/makeMakefile.pl O.windows-x64-static ../..
perl -CSD -MExtUtils::Command -e mkpath O.Common
gmake -C O.windows-x64-static -f ../Makefile TOP=../.. \
    T_A=windows-x64-static install
gmake[2]: Entering directory 'C:/opt/epics/modules/pyDevSup/configure/O.windows-x64-static'
perl -CSD C:/opt/epics/base/bin/windows-x64-static/convertRelease.pl checkRelease
C:\ProgramData\Anaconda3\python.exe ../../makehelper.py os/CONFIG_PY.Common.windows-x64-static
"Installing config file ../../configure/os/CONFIG_PY.Common.windows-x64-static"
gmake[2]: Leaving directory 'C:/opt/epics/modules/pyDevSup/configure/O.windows-x64-static'
gmake[1]: Leaving directory 'C:/opt/epics/modules/pyDevSup/configure'
gmake -C ./archApp install
gmake[1]: Entering directory 'C:/opt/epics/modules/pyDevSup/archApp'
perl -CSD C:/opt/epics/base/bin/windows-x64-static/makeMakefile.pl O.windows-x64-static ../..
perl -CSD -MExtUtils::Command -e mkpath O.Common
gmake -C O.windows-x64-static -f ../Makefile TOP=../.. \
    T_A=windows-x64-static install
gmake[2]: Entering directory 'C:/opt/epics/modules/pyDevSup/archApp/O.windows-x64-static'
'[' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.
'install' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.
gmake[2]: *** [../../configure/RULES_PY:10: ../../python39/windows-x64-static/bplreport.py] Error 1
gmake[2]: Leaving directory 'C:/opt/epics/modules/pyDevSup/archApp/O.windows-x64-static'
gmake[1]: *** [/opt/epics/base/configure/RULES_ARCHS:58: install.windows-x64-static] Error 2
gmake[1]: Leaving directory 'C:/opt/epics/modules/pyDevSup/archApp'
gmake: *** [/opt/epics/base/configure/RULES_DIRS:85: archApp.install] Error 2

Do you have any experience about building pyDevSup on Windows (with Anaconda)?

Thanks
Philipp

[mdavidsaver]

Do you have any experience about building pyDevSup on Windows (with Anaconda)?

I know that it does not work at the moment. I believe @pheest did get it working, although he replaced all of the Makefiles to do so. I did a little work in this direction, which I have pushed up as #32. However, this is incomplete.

[pheest]

I can confirm the issue that Philip is raising. (I'm not using Anaconda, as it happens.)

You may be aware that I usually work on Windows with my VS project files (that don't use the EPICS build system makefiles at all).
I have succeeded in building pyDevSup on Windows using the makefiles, but only by means of a horrible hack workaround that doesn't work on Linux.

I lack the skill with makefiles to resolve this issue properly.

A separate point to be aware of is that static build won't create a working system - it has to be DLL build.

[phbran]

Thank you for your response. It is unfortunate to hear, because I would really like to to write device support in python, but then we probably need to use standard C++ device support.

If you make progress with a solution for Windows, we would really like to test it.

Best regards
Philipp

[pheest]

I am working on it.

[pheest]

OK, I have it working.

Tested on Windows with Python 3.10
Tested on Red Hat with Python 3.6

[phbran]

That sounds great. Is this already available somewhere for a test?

[pheest]

https://github.com/pheest/pyDevSup is my fork.

[phbran]

Thanks a lot, I will have a look, as soon as I find time for it.

[phbran]

Unfortunately, it still does not work for me. The problem seems to be the Anaconda installation. It does not find the file "python310.lib" in the Anaconda directory. Can i somewhere specify the path to these libs?

gmake[1]: Entering directory 'C:/opt/epics/modules/pyDevSup/devsupApp'
gmake -C ./src install
gmake[2]: Entering directory 'C:/opt/epics/modules/pyDevSup/devsupApp/src'
gmake -C O.windows-x64-static -f ../Makefile TOP=../../.. \
    T_A=windows-x64-static install
gmake[3]: Entering directory 'C:/opt/epics/modules/pyDevSup/devsupApp/src/O.windows-x64-static'
link -nologo -subsystem:windows -dll  -incremental:no -opt:ref -release  -MACHINE:X64      -out:_dbapi.pyd -implib:_dbapi.lib    dbapi.obj dbrec.obj dbfield.obj dbdset.obj utest.obj pyDevSupCommon_registerRecordDeviceDriver.obj      C:/opt/epics/base/lib/windows-x64-static/dbRecStd.lib  C:/opt/epics/base/lib/windows-x64-static/dbCore.lib  C:/opt/epics/base/lib/windows-x64-static/ca.lib  C:/opt/epics/base/lib/windows-x64-static/Com.lib  python310.lib ws2_32.lib Advapi32.lib Dbghelp.lib
LINK : fatal error LNK1181: Eingabedatei "python310.lib" kann nicht geöffnet werden.
gmake[3]: *** [C:/opt/epics/base/configure/RULES_BUILD:329: _dbapi.pyd] Error 1181
gmake[3]: Leaving directory 'C:/opt/epics/modules/pyDevSup/devsupApp/src/O.windows-x64-static'
gmake[2]: *** [C:/opt/epics/base/configure/RULES_ARCHS:58: install.windows-x64-static] Error 2
gmake[2]: Leaving directory 'C:/opt/epics/modules/pyDevSup/devsupApp/src'
gmake[1]: *** [C:/opt/epics/base/configure/RULES_DIRS:85: src.install] Error 2
gmake[1]: Leaving directory 'C:/opt/epics/modules/pyDevSup/devsupApp'
gmake: *** [C:/opt/epics/base/configure/RULES_DIRS:85: devsupApp.install] Error 2

[pheest]

Which version of Python do you have? You mentioned Anaconda.
It is looking for the Python3.10 (I'm using 3.10 on Windows) library.
There should be an auto-generated file pyDevSup\configure\osCONFIG_PY.Common.windows-x64 that should contain the Python library version and location to use. What does it say?

Also, I did mention that you can't use static build with pyDevSup - it does have to be DLL configuration.

[phbran]

Hi, I also use python3.10 installed via anaconda. This is the content of the mentioned file:

TARGET_CFLAGS +=
TARGET_CXXFLAGS +=
PY_VER := 310
PY_LD_VER := 310
PY_INCDIRS := C:\Anaconda3\lib\site-packages\numpy\core\include C:\Anaconda3\include
PY_LIBDIRS := C:\Anaconda3\Lib\site-packages
PY_LDLIBS :=
HAVE_NUMPY := YES
HAVE_ASYNCIO := YES
HAVE_COTHREAD := NO
PY_OK := YES

But, then I will try to build it with DLL configuration. I missed that point.

[phbran]

Now, I built epics base with DLL configuration and tried to build pyDevSup but I still get the error, that the python310.lib is not found. I also tried to add the path to that file to the Path variable, but also that does not help.

[phbran]

Ok, it seems that I had to add the path to LIB. I was now able to built the module.

[phbran]

I now also created the IOC including pyDevSup and compiled it. Everything seemed to work. But when I now execute the .exe it gives an error, that says that it does not find the pyDevSup.dll. Since there is only a pyDevSup.lib, I would assume that I am stll building it statically (sorry I have not so much knowledge of it)?

I completely rebuilt epics base and therefore changed the host_architecture in the windows.bat startup file from "set _epics_host_arch=windows-x64-static" to "set _epics_host_arch=windows-x64". Is this all I need to do? Or did I miss anything. I would assume that executing gmake should then produce .dll files in the lib directory, but I only get .lib files.

[pheest]

I have pyDevSup310.dll and softIocPy310.exe in C:\epics\support\pyDevSup\bin\windows-x64.
I also have pyDevSup310.lib in C:\epics\support\pyDevSup\lib\windows-x64

You need to set module paths (including to pyDevSup) for your IOC in (your IOC module)\configure\RELEASE or preferably RELEASE.windows-x64.common (which overrides RELEASE when using Windows).