Current Windows Build/Testing process

[wiredfool]

What is the current best practices for building and testing Pillow on Windows?

• What compiler works with the precompiled official python releases?
• What versions of the dependencies -- the official tar/zipballs, or installerified versions, or something from cygwin?
• Does buildout or something similar work?
• Are there prebuild images (on azure or aws) that already have the appropriate version of VS installed (assuming that it's the correct compiler)?

@cgohlke?

[aclark4life]

You can compile on Windows if you download the appropriate SDK: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/dn369240.aspx

And configure these settings:

C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v7.0>set DISTUTILS_USE_SDK=1
C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v7.0>setenv /x64 /release

[cgohlke]

What compiler works with the precompiled official python releases?

The same compilers used to build the official CPython binaries, i.e. Visual Studio Pro 2008 for versions 2.6 to 3.2 and Visual Studio Pro 2010 for versions 3.3 and 3.4. The compilers are also part of the Microsoft Windows SDK for Windows 7 and .NET Framework 4 and 3.5 SP1.
Mingw32/64 might work but might require patching Python distutils, creating missing link libraries, and additional build flags.

http://hg.python.org/cpython/file/95fff5a6a276/PCbuild/readme.txt
http://hg.python.org/cpython/file/df2dbeef46da/PCbuild/readme.txt
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=3138
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=8279

What versions of the dependencies -- the official tar/zipballs, or installerified versions, or something from cygwin?

Build from source using the official source tar/zipballs and compiler settings compatible with the ones used by Python distutils (/MD, Release)

Does buildout or something similar work?
Are there prebuild images (on azure or aws) that already have the appropriate version of VS installed (assuming that it's the correct compiler)?

Don't know.

[wiredfool]

I was somewhat worried that would be the compiler answer. @cgohlke, I assume that you've got a MSDN or academic license to VS?

It appears that the VS Expresses can compile the 32 bit versions, but unfortunately, 2008 doesn't appear to be available anymore.

[cgohlke]

I am almost certain that Pillow and all its C dependencies can be built with the free (and available) Windows SDKs. Visual Studio's IDE is not needed.
This might help: matplotlib/matplotlib#1717 (comment)

[wiredfool]

That's a very helpful thread. When I first looked at the SDKs, it looked like they required VS, but now I see that they do include the compilers. I'll give that a shot.

[wiredfool]

I've made some progress following these directions. So far, I've build for 2.7/x64, just to make sure that I'm getting the build process working end to end for one of the pillow iterations before I bury the poor machine for an hour.

I'm running on Windows server 2012 x64, the base AMI on amazon EC2, with the 2 sdks installed. Also installed are emacs, setuptools, pip, virtualenv, 4 pythons so far and the github client. The plan is to be able to build/install/test in a virtualenv, or do a windows bdist if desired.

• lcms2 isn't building, the .sln is coming back as being the wrong version on 2.5 and 2.6.
• I haven't tried webp yet.
• some BMP tests are failing, and shouldn't be
• the ghostscript test is failing, and shouldn't be. (it should be skipped)
• cffi, numpy, and the webp tests are skipped due to missing dependencies.

[danielniccoli]

Hey guys, I am on Windows 8.1 Pro and I have severe difficulties getting it to work.

So I downloaded the Windows SDK für Windows 8.1 and installed it with the following settings to C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\8.1

I searched the folder and there is no vcvarsall.bat, let alone any .bat file. 😖

[wiredfool]

The SDK you need depends on which python you're compiling with, not the OS you're running.

Python 2.6, 2.7, and 3.2 require Win7 + .NET 3.5, 3.3 requires the Win7 + .NET 4.
I haven't checked on 3.4 yet.

[wiredfool]

Looks like 3.4 takes the VC2010 SDK, which is Win7 + .NET 4: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=8279