Write Windows batch script version of 'miri' script?

[JOE1994]

With my Windows PC, I've been running the miri bash script by running
ex. sh miri run tests/run-pass/env.rs.

It's been working because I had Git for Windows installed (which comes with bash.exe & sh.exe)
and I had the sh.exe added in my Path.

Running cargo miri works in Windows, but the miri bash script itself does not work out-of-the-box in Windows. The current method I'm using is more of a workaround, rather than proper support for Windows developers.

I think it'd be nice to have a batch script version of miri script that Windows users can use out-of-the-box, without workarounds.

p.s. if there is already proper support for Windows users to run the miri script, please let me know 😉

[RalfJung]

I should preface that I have not done any development on Windows for at least 15 years, so I have no idea at all what is considered a normal development environment on that platform.^^

That said, if there is a way to use the shell script we have, that seems like the best option to me. That shell script is maintained as Miri changes, and it is used by our CI, so it should just always work. Sharing code across platforms is better than re-writing things for each platform. Currently, Windows CI (via AppVeyor) does not use it; if you could help use it there that would be great. :D

I suspect most devs will have git installed on their Windows box so your method will work for them?

However, if you want to submit and maintain a Windows variant of that script, I'll happily review those patches. I just want to avoid having an outdated Windows-only script in the repository that nobody in the Miri team can fix or test.

[eddyb]

Why is there a script? Rust executables are far more portable.
Anyway, if you wanted a Windows equivalent, you'd probably use PowerShell.
"Batch files" are woefully outdated and underpowered.

[RalfJung]

@eddyb well go read it yourself if you want to know what it does. ;)

Note that the rustup distribution contains no script. The script is just for development. It handles building the Miri sysroot (usually done by cargo-miri, but during development you often want to work directly with the miri driver), working around rust-lang/rust#58343, things like that.

[eddyb]

@eddyb well go read it yourself if you want to know what it does. ;)

I have, it looks like the kind of thing a Rust project would write in Rust :P.

Note that the rustup distribution contains no script.

Okay so this isn't as bad as it could be.

[RalfJung]

it looks like the kind of thing a Rust project would write in Rust :P.

Fair. ;) I'm somehow still reaching for shell/Python first for such things...

It's not entirely trivial though, since this sets flags for the build it would have to at least be an entirely separate crate from the main thing. And workspaces always seemed too complicated for me...^^

[eddyb]

And workspaces always seemed too complicated for me...^^

Every cargo package is at most one lib crate and any number of bin crates, so you wouldn't need a workspace probably - or wait, whoops, do you mean it'd need to be a separate package?

[RalfJung]

do you mean it'd need to be a separate package?

Yes. In particular it should have an independent set of dependencies. After all this sets RUSTFLAGS for the main compilation.

Now, moving to a workspace would also help with #418, but still... so far I couldn't be bothered.^^

[JOE1994]

That said, if there is a way to use the shell script we have, that seems like the best option to me. That shell script is maintained as Miri changes, and it is used by our CI, so it should just always work. Sharing code across platforms is better than re-writing things for each platform.

I agree with your point 😺

I've just learned that the Windows Build environment of Travis CI also uses Git Bash to run builds.
I guess there isn't much motivation to write and maintain a separate batch script.

Adding a single line - windows to .travis.yml should probably suffice to make Travis CI test the build in its Windows Build environment.

miri/.travis.yml

Lines 10 to 12 in acdddc7

	os:
	- linux
	- osx

Thank you for your feedback! I'm closing the issue now 😅

[RalfJung]

We've experimented with using Travis for Windows CI in the past and it didn't really work. Maybe it got better since then.

[RalfJung]

With #1407, we are now using bash miri for our Windows CI, and it actually Just Works (TM). So this should also be an option for developing on Windows (since bash comes with git, I assume most developers will have it available).