# Building on Windows **URL:** https://forums.foundationdb.org/t/building-on-windows/404 **Category:** Development **Created:** [May 12, 2018, 1:32pm UTC](https://forums.foundationdb.org/t/building-on-windows/404 "2018-05-12T13:32:26Z") **Posts on this page:** 10 **Page:** 1
### Author: ![KrzysFR](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/foundationdb/user_avatar/forums.foundationdb.org/krzysfr/32/43_2.png) [@KrzysFR](https://forums.foundationdb.org/u/KrzysFR) #### Post date: [May 12, 2018, 1:32pm UTC](https://forums.foundationdb.org/t/building-on-windows/404/1 "2018-05-12T13:32:26Z")
I was not able to find a place that specifically address the build process on Windows, so here are my quick notes. _These are from the perspective of a non-C++ developper, so some of these may seem obvious for seasoned C++ devs 🙂_ I’m using Visual Studio 2017 (15.7) on Win10. 1. Need to install **Boost** - download the **1.52.0**.7z or .zip archive from [https://sourceforge.net/projects/boost/files/boost/1.52.0/](https://sourceforge.net/projects/boost/files/boost/1.52.0/) - unzip it and copy it in **`C:\Program Files\boost_1_52_0\`**. Please note that the [Boost documentation](https://www.boost.org/doc/libs/1_52_0/more/getting_started/windows.html) says to copy them to `C:\Program Files\boost\boost_1_52_0\` but the .vcxproj in fdb ommit the “\boost” middle folder ! - if you still get errors about boost includes, double check the path is correct! Also you need Boost **v1.52** , _not_ 1.55 or later ! 1. Need to install **Python 2.7** - Download the Windows x86-64 MSI installed for [Python 2.7.x for Windows](https://www.python.org/downloads/windows/) - It must be installed to the default location of `C:\Python27\` 1. Need to install **WiX ToolSet** for the MSIInstaller project - if you don’t care about building the MSI installer, just unload the project from the solution explorer. - if VS does not want to open the project, you may need to reinstall WiX - download latest from [http://wixtoolset.org/releases/](http://wixtoolset.org/releases/) - you may also need to install the “Wix Toolset Visual Studio 2017 Extension” (or 2015) if you get warning about project type not supported. 1. Need to install **Java JDK 8** - If you don’t care about building the java binding, just unload the project from the solution explorer. - _note: You may need to sell your soul to Oracle to accept the agreement, which I was not willing to do._ 1. For **syntax highlighting** : - To have syntax highlighting of the flow keywords, you need to copy the `usertype.dat` file located in `flow/actorcompiler/` in your Visual Studio installation dir, following the instructions at [https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/zy61y8b8.aspx](https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/zy61y8b8.aspx) - ReSharper C++ does not understand the flow/actor syntax by default (as of version 2018.1) so you may need to disable Resharper when working on the code. First build (in Debug) can be slow (several minutes on a fast machine). Next builds should be faster. Build output is in the bin\Debug or bin\Release folder. Quick sanity check: start the `fdbcli.exe` in the build output folder. If you get `"WARNING: One or more of the processes in the cluster is incompatible with this version of fdbcli."` this is still a success, it just means that it is connected to your existing installed cluster which is probably a lower version. ---
### Author: ![KrzysFR](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/foundationdb/user_avatar/forums.foundationdb.org/krzysfr/32/43_2.png) [@KrzysFR](https://forums.foundationdb.org/u/KrzysFR) #### Post date: [May 14, 2018, 12:21pm UTC](https://forums.foundationdb.org/t/building-on-windows/404/2 "2018-05-14T12:21:10Z")
Both Visual Studio and ReSharper are a bit confused by the custom flow syntax (`ACTOR`, `wait ..`). The build works fine, but the code is filled with red squigglies and the “find all reference” code gets confused a lot, which makes exploring the code a bit more difficult. **Update** : the issue comes from Resharper C++ which must be disabled _Example of the intellisense going berserk on the code when Resharper is enabled:_ ![image](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/foundationdb/original/1X/5d1e8aeb25388101fe28d06619eb90f0c6999e88.png) How have you solved this for your day-to-day coding? What are you doing to have highlighting and auto completion for code that uses Actors at the IDE level? ---
### Author: ![ajbeamon](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/foundationdb/user_avatar/forums.foundationdb.org/ajbeamon/32/13_2.png) [@ajbeamon](https://forums.foundationdb.org/u/ajbeamon) #### Post date: [May 14, 2018, 4:08pm UTC](https://forums.foundationdb.org/t/building-on-windows/404/3 "2018-05-14T16:08:57Z")
There’s a file flow/actorcompiler.h that gets included which provides some fake definitions for the flow keywords that make visual studio happy: > You can see it’s included here in the file you had open: > Perhaps there’s something going on with the inclusion of that file or the definitions that it contains? We also have a file that can be used to define user types for Visual Studio for purposes of syntax highlighting. The file is located [here](https://github.com/apple/foundationdb/blob/master/flow/actorcompiler/usertype.dat), and can be applied using the instructions from [here](https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/zy61y8b8.aspx). ---
### Author: ![KrzysFR](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/foundationdb/user_avatar/forums.foundationdb.org/krzysfr/32/43_2.png) [@KrzysFR](https://forums.foundationdb.org/u/KrzysFR) #### Post date: [May 14, 2018, 4:11pm UTC](https://forums.foundationdb.org/t/building-on-windows/404/4 "2018-05-14T16:11:26Z")
> [@ajbeamon](#): > > Perhaps there’s something going on with the inclusion of that file or the definitions that it contains? It was in fact Resharper that does not understand the code. If I disable R#, the warnings go away. Maybe their C++ parser is not able to recognize the custom macro definitions. I’ll try open a ticket with them about that. ---
### Author: ![KrzysFR](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/foundationdb/user_avatar/forums.foundationdb.org/krzysfr/32/43_2.png) [@KrzysFR](https://forums.foundationdb.org/u/KrzysFR) #### Post date: [May 14, 2018, 8:24pm UTC](https://forums.foundationdb.org/t/building-on-windows/404/5 "2018-05-14T20:24:07Z")
I missed the fact that you needed to install Pythong 2.7 to build the fdbclient (it was already installed on my other dev box). Updated the top comment. ---
### Author: ![wolfspider](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/foundationdb/user_avatar/forums.foundationdb.org/wolfspider/32/206_2.png) [@wolfspider](https://forums.foundationdb.org/u/wolfspider) #### Post date: [May 16, 2018, 7:14pm UTC](https://forums.foundationdb.org/t/building-on-windows/404/6 "2018-05-16T19:14:55Z")
This is just C++ for VS I’m assuming but curious to see if the new LLVM and/or MinGW can also handle these builds on Windows. If you are able to build this without switching the compiler on Windows that’s pretty cool. ---
### Author: ![KrzysFR](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/foundationdb/user_avatar/forums.foundationdb.org/krzysfr/32/43_2.png) [@KrzysFR](https://forums.foundationdb.org/u/KrzysFR) #### Post date: [May 28, 2018, 8:42pm UTC](https://forums.foundationdb.org/t/building-on-windows/404/7 "2018-05-28T20:42:15Z")
Looks like Resharper 2018.1.1 has some fixes for C++ that solve the intellisense issues: ![image](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/foundationdb/original/1X/ba3834f4594ba056a7e1671ed2a6381735793e8b.png) Now all that remains are a few similar errors that I’m not sure I understand. One example is in NativeAPI.actor.cpp: > ```auto Severity Code Description Project File Line Suppression State Detail Description Error (active) E0308 more than one instance of overloaded function "getValue" matches the argument list: fdbclient c:\DATA\Git\GitHub\foundationdb\fdbclient\NativeAPI.actor.cpp 998 function "getValue(const Future &version, const Key &key, const Database &cx, const TransactionInfo &info, const Reference &trLogInfo)" function "getValue(Future version, Key key, Database cx, TransactionInfo info, Reference trLogInfo)" argument types are: (Future, const Key, Database, TransactionInfo, Reference) ``` The issue for R# C++ seems to be that `getValue` is first defined line 995 with all arguments as `const&`, but then later its implementation in line 1163 does not have `const&`. Visual Studio seems ok with this, but R# c++ thinks that they are two different methods, and so `getValue(...)` appears ambigous. In turn, this trips up the `wait(....)` over getValue as a side effect. ![image](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/foundationdb/original/1X/831a04a5d4d5041c53be2dc59b33427a8660e939.png) Removing the `const&` line 995 does make the error go away. Are they needed? ---
### Author: ![ajbeamon](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/foundationdb/user_avatar/forums.foundationdb.org/ajbeamon/32/13_2.png) [@ajbeamon](https://forums.foundationdb.org/u/ajbeamon) #### Post date: [May 29, 2018, 2:25pm UTC](https://forums.foundationdb.org/t/building-on-windows/404/8 "2018-05-29T14:25:03Z")
> [@KrzysFR](#): > > Removing the `const&` line 995 does make the error go away. Are they needed? The flow actor compiler generates methods with `const&` for all of its arguments, so to forward declare an actor method you must include `const&`. I also believe it doesn’t allow you to pass arguments by reference to an `ACTOR`, so you won’t be able to add` const&` at 1163 either. ---
### Author: ![rishabh](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/foundationdb/user_avatar/forums.foundationdb.org/rishabh/32/540_2.png) [@rishabh](https://forums.foundationdb.org/u/rishabh) #### Post date: [October 13, 2019, 7:32pm UTC](https://forums.foundationdb.org/t/building-on-windows/404/9 "2019-10-13T19:32:03Z")
I am following this post and fdb’s readme to setup foundationdb on Visual Studio 2019 and I am getting an error while building. This is probably some error in my build setup, but googling is not helping me right now, hence posting the error here. Steps taken: - Downloaded and unzipped boost to C:\Program Files\boost\_1\_67\_0 - Installed mono - I don’t need bindings or MSI of fdb, so didn’t follow anything related to them - Using visual sutio, cloned (github) and setup a new project for fdb - Added CMakeSettings.json in project directory with below contents ![Capture](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/foundationdb/original/1X/f2211aaf820bebc2266cbfc8e9bf73ac8acac2a9.jpeg) When I build the project, I get below output: ` 1> CMake generation started for configuration: ‘x64-Debug’. 1> Command line: “cmd.exe” /c ““C:\PROGRAM FILES (X86)\MICROSOFT VISUAL STUDIO\2019\COMMUNITY\COMMON7\IDE\COMMONEXTENSIONS\MICROSOFT\CMAKE\CMake\bin\cmake.exe” -G “Visual Studio 16 2019” -A x64 -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX:PATH=“C:\Users\Rishabh\Source\Repos\foundationdb\out\install\x64-Debug” -DBOOST_ROOT:STRING=“C:/Program Files/boost_1_67_0” -DCMAKE_CONFIGURATION_TYPES=“Debug” “C:\Users\Rishabh\Source\Repos\foundationdb” 2>&1” 1> Working directory: C:\Users\Rishabh\Source\Repos\foundationdb\out\build\x64-Debug 1> [CMake] – Selecting Windows SDK version 10.0.18362.0 to target Windows 10.0.17134. 1> [CMake] – The C compiler identification is MSVC 19.23.28106.4 1> [CMake] – The CXX compiler identification is MSVC 19.23.28106.4 1> [CMake] – The ASM compiler identification is MSVC 1> [CMake] – Found assembler: C:/Program Files (x86)/Microsoft Visual Studio/2019/Community/VC/Tools/MSVC/14.23.28105/bin/Hostx64/x64/cl.exe 1> [CMake] – Check for working C compiler: C:/Program Files (x86)/Microsoft Visual Studio/2019/Community/VC/Tools/MSVC/14.23.28105/bin/Hostx64/x64/cl.exe 1> [CMake] – Check for working C compiler: C:/Program Files (x86)/Microsoft Visual Studio/2019/Community/VC/Tools/MSVC/14.23.28105/bin/Hostx64/x64/cl.exe – works 1> [CMake] – Detecting C compiler ABI info 1> [CMake] – Detecting C compiler ABI info - done 1> [CMake] – Detecting C compile features 1> [CMake] – Detecting C compile features - done 1> [CMake] – Check for working CXX compiler: C:/Program Files (x86)/Microsoft Visual Studio/2019/Community/VC/Tools/MSVC/14.23.28105/bin/Hostx64/x64/cl.exe 1> [CMake] – Check for working CXX compiler: C:/Program Files (x86)/Microsoft Visual Studio/2019/Community/VC/Tools/MSVC/14.23.28105/bin/Hostx64/x64/cl.exe – works 1> [CMake] – Detecting CXX compiler ABI info 1> [CMake] – Detecting CXX compiler ABI info - done 1> [CMake] – Detecting CXX compile features 1> [CMake] – Detecting CXX compile features - done 1> [CMake] – C:/Users/Rishabh/source/repos/foundationdb C:/Users/Rishabh/source/repos/foundationdb/out/build/x64-Debug 1> [CMake] – Looking for pthread.h 1> [CMake] – Looking for pthread.h - not found 1> [CMake] – Found Threads: TRUE 1> [CMake] – Could NOT find LibreSSL, try to set the path to LibreSSL root folder in the system variable LibreSSL_ROOT (missing: LIBRESSL_CRYPTO_LIBRARY LIBRESSL_SSL_LIBRARY LIBRESSL_TLS_LIBRARY LIBRESSL_INCLUDE_DIR) 1> [CMake] – LibreSSL NOT Found - Will compile without TLS Support 1> [CMake] – You can set LibreSSL_ROOT to the LibreSSL install directory to help cmake find it 1> [CMake] – Found JNI: C:/Program Files/Java/jdk1.8.0_25/lib/jawt.lib (Required is at least version “1.8”) 1> [CMake] – Found Java: C:/Program Files/Java/jdk1.8.0_25/bin/java.exe (found suitable version “1.8.0.25”, minimum required is “1.8”) found components: Development 1> [CMake] – Found Python: C:/Python27/python.exe (found version “2.7.6”) found components: Interpreter 1> [CMake] – Could NOT find Virtualenv (missing: VIRTUALENV_EXE) 1> [CMake] – Current git version 3bb0c12ce9c18ce7b334d6fed349d5e39f2c7d60 1> [CMake] – FDB version is 7.0.0 1> [CMake] – FDB package name is 7.0 1> [CMake] – The CSharp compiler identification is Microsoft unknown 9999 1> [CMake] – The CSharp compiler version is 3.3.1 1> [CMake] – Check for working C# compiler: C:/Program Files (x86)/Microsoft Visual Studio/2019/Community/MSBuild/Current/Bin/Roslyn/csc.exe 1> [CMake] – Check for working C# compiler: C:/Program Files (x86)/Microsoft Visual Studio/2019/Community/MSBuild/Current/Bin/Roslyn/csc.exe – works 1> [CMake] – Found Boost: C:/Program Files/boost_1_67_0 (found suitable version “1.67.0”, minimum required is “1.67”) 1> [CMake] – Check versions.h on flow_actors 1> [CMake] – Check versions.h on fdbrpc_actors 1> [CMake] – Check versions.h on fdbclient_actors 1> [CMake] – Check versions.h on fdbserver_actors 1> [CMake] – Check versions.h on fdbcli_actors 1> [CMake] – The ASM_MASM compiler identification is MSVC 1> [CMake] – Found assembler: C:/Program Files (x86)/Microsoft Visual Studio/2019/Community/VC/Tools/MSVC/14.23.28105/bin/Hostx64/x64/ml64.exe 1> [CMake] – Check versions.h on fdb_flow_actors 1> [CMake] – Check versions.h on fdb_flow_tester_actors 1> [CMake] – Building fat jar to C:/Users/Rishabh/source/repos/foundationdb/out/build/x64-Debug/packages 1> [CMake] – Check versions.h on fdbbackup_actors 1> [CMake] – Use old fdb at C:/Program Files/foundationdb/bin/fdbserver.exe 1> [CMake] – ADDING SIMULATOR TEST 0 SimpleExternalTest …Skipped lines… 1> [CMake] – ADDING SIMULATOR TEST 109 status/single_process_too_many_config_params 1> [CMake] – Could not find WIX installation - try setting WIX_ROOT or the WIX environment variable (missing: WIX_CANDLE WIX_LIGHT) 1> [CMake] CMake Warning at packaging/msi/CMakeLists.txt:43 (message): 1> [CMake] Could NOT find WIX - will not build installer 1> [CMake] 1> [CMake] 1> [CMake] – ========================================= 1> [CMake] – Components Build Overview 1> [CMake] – ========================================= 1> [CMake] – Build Java Bindings: ON 1> [CMake] – Build with TLS support: OFF 1> [CMake] – Build Go bindings: OFF 1> [CMake] – Build Ruby bindings: OFF 1> [CMake] – Build Python sdist (make package): ON 1> [CMake] – Build Documentation (make html): OFF 1> [CMake] – ========================================= 1> [CMake] – CPACK_COMPONENTS_ALL 1> [CMake] – Configuring done 1> [CMake] – Generating done 1> [CMake] – Build files have been written to: C:/Users/Rishabh/source/repos/foundationdb/out/build/x64-Debug 1> [CMake] 1> Extracted includes paths. 1> Extracted CMake variables. 1> Extracted source files and headers. 1> Extracted code model. 1> Error: Object reference not set to an instance of an object. ` Contents of CMakeError.log are: ` …Skipped lines… Copyright © Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.` Microsoft ® C/C++ Optimizing Compiler Version 19.23.28106.4 for x64 CheckIncludeFile.c Copyright © Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. cl /c /Zi /W3 /WX- /diagnostics:column /Od /Ob0 /D WIN32 /D \_WINDOWS /D “CMAKE\_INTDIR=“Debug”” /D \_MBCS /Gm- /RTC1 /MDd /GS /fp:precise /Zc:wchar\_t /Zc:forScope /Zc:inline /Fo"cmTC\_d2c10.dir\Debug\" /Fd"cmTC\_d2c10.dir\Debug\vc142.pdb" /Gd /TC /errorReport:queue “C:\Users\Rishabh\source\repos\foundationdb\out\build\x64-Debug\CMakeFiles\CMakeTmp\CheckIncludeFile.c” C:\Users\Rishabh\source\repos\foundationdb\out\build\x64-Debug\CMakeFiles\CMakeTmp\CheckIncludeFile.c(1,10): **fatal error C1083: Cannot open include file: ‘pthread.h’: No such file or directory** [C:\Users\Rishabh\source\repos\foundationdb\out\build\x64-Debug\CMakeFiles\CMakeTmp\cmTC\_d2c10.vcxproj] The CSharp compiler identification could not be found in “C:/Users/Rishabh/source/repos/foundationdb/out/build/x64-Debug/CMakeFiles/3.15.19080502-MSVC\_2/CompilerIdCSharp/CompilerIdCSharp.csproj” Checking whether the ASM\_MASM compiler is GNU using “–version” did not match “(GNU assembler)|(GCC)|(Free Software Foundation)”: Microsoft ® Macro Assembler (x64) Version 14.23.28106.4 Copyright © Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. MASM : warning A4018:invalid command-line option : --version MASM : fatal error A1017:missing source filename Checking whether the ASM\_MASM compiler is Clang using “–version” did not match “(clang version)”: Microsoft ® Macro Assembler (x64) Version 14.23.28106.4 Copyright © Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. MASM : warning A4018:invalid command-line option : --version MASM : fatal error A1017:missing source filename Checking whether the ASM\_MASM compiler is AppleClang using “–version” did not match “(Apple LLVM version)”: Microsoft ® Macro Assembler (x64) Version 14.23.28106.4 Copyright © Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. MASM : warning A4018:invalid command-line option : --version MASM : fatal error A1017:missing source filename Checking whether the ASM\_MASM compiler is ARMClang using “–version” did not match “armclang”: Microsoft ® Macro Assembler (x64) Version 14.23.28106.4 Copyright © Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. MASM : warning A4018:invalid command-line option : --version MASM : fatal error A1017:missing source filename Checking whether the ASM\_MASM compiler is HP using “-V” did not match “HP C”: Microsoft ® Macro Assembler (x64) Version 14.23.28106.4 Copyright © Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. MASM : warning A4018:invalid command-line option : -V MASM : fatal error A1017:missing source filename Checking whether the ASM\_MASM compiler is Intel using “–version” did not match “(ICC)”: Microsoft ® Macro Assembler (x64) Version 14.23.28106.4 Copyright © Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. MASM : warning A4018:invalid command-line option : --version MASM : fatal error A1017:missing source filename Checking whether the ASM\_MASM compiler is SunPro using “-V” did not match “Sun C”: Microsoft ® Macro Assembler (x64) Version 14.23.28106.4 Copyright © Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. MASM : warning A4018:invalid command-line option : -V MASM : fatal error A1017:missing source filename Checking whether the ASM\_MASM compiler is XL using “-qversion” did not match “XL C”: Microsoft ® Macro Assembler (x64) Version 14.23.28106.4 Copyright © Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. MASM : warning A4018:invalid command-line option : -qversion MASM : fatal error A1017:missing source filename Am I doing something wrong in my boost setup because of which **pthread.h** is not recognized? Or is this error because of some different reason and boost setup is actually fine? ---
### Author: ![alexmiller](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/foundationdb/user_avatar/forums.foundationdb.org/alexmiller/32/326_2.png) [@alexmiller](https://forums.foundationdb.org/u/alexmiller) #### Post date: [October 13, 2019, 8:08pm UTC](https://forums.foundationdb.org/t/building-on-windows/404/10 "2019-10-13T20:08:10Z")
`CheckIncludeFile.c` is CMake’s `CHECK_INCLUDE_FILE`, which looks like it’s internally used by `find_package(Threads)` to detect if pthreads is supported. You can see it running, failing, and then detecting a valid (win32) threads implementation instead. > [@rishabh](#): > > **1\> [CMake] – Looking for pthread.h** > **1\> [CMake] – Looking for pthread.h - not found** > **1\> [CMake] – Found Threads: TRUE** This would make it seem to me like it wouldn’t be your actual issue. > [@rishabh](#): > > `1> Error: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.` This line has hits on google that seem to all point to a variety of issues across various versions of Visual Studio. I’d probably suggest starting from there?