Thread: Trying to build x86 version on windows using meson

Hi,

On 2024-03-20 16:14:23 -0400, Dave Cramer wrote:
> I am getting the following error
> 
> meson.build:1479:17: ERROR: Can not run test applications in this cross
> environment.
> 
> Have configured for amd64_x86
> 
> Running `meson setup --wipe build --prefix=c:\postgres86`

This is not enough information to debug anything. At the very least we need
the exact steps performed to set up the build and meson-logs/meson-log.txt


> The docs say it is possible to build postgres for x86. Are there specific
> instructions ?

It should work.

Greetings,

Andres Freund

Hi,

On 2024-03-20 17:49:14 -0400, Dave Cramer wrote:
> On Wed, 20 Mar 2024 at 17:11, Andres Freund <andres@anarazel.de> wrote:
> > On 2024-03-20 16:14:23 -0400, Dave Cramer wrote:
> > > I am getting the following error
> > >
> > > meson.build:1479:17: ERROR: Can not run test applications in this cross
> > > environment.
> > >
> > > Have configured for amd64_x86
> > >
> > > Running `meson setup --wipe build --prefix=c:\postgres86`
> >
> > This is not enough information to debug anything. At the very least we need
> > the exact steps performed to set up the build and meson-logs/meson-log.txt
> >
> First off this is on an ARM64 machine

Uh, that's a fairly crucial bit - you're actually trying to cross compile
then.  I don't know much about cross compiling on windows, so it's certainly
possible there's still some gaps there.


> 
> The last error from meson-log.txt is
> 
> ...
> Checking if "c99" compiles: YES
> 
> meson.build:1479:17: ERROR: Can not run test applications in this cross
> environment.
> ...

That's not the meson-log.txt that you attached though?

Greetings,

Andres Freund

On Thu, 21 Mar 2024 at 11:00, Andres Freund <andres@anarazel.de> wrote:
>
> On 2024-03-20 17:49:14 -0400, Dave Cramer wrote:
> > First off this is on an ARM64 machine
>
> Uh, that's a fairly crucial bit - you're actually trying to cross compile
> then.  I don't know much about cross compiling on windows, so it's certainly
> possible there's still some gaps there.

How would initdb.exe / pg_regress.exe even run on the x86 build
machine if it's compiled for ARM?

David

Hi,

On 2024-03-21 11:02:27 +1300, David Rowley wrote:
> On Thu, 21 Mar 2024 at 11:00, Andres Freund <andres@anarazel.de> wrote:
> >
> > On 2024-03-20 17:49:14 -0400, Dave Cramer wrote:
> > > First off this is on an ARM64 machine
> >
> > Uh, that's a fairly crucial bit - you're actually trying to cross compile
> > then.  I don't know much about cross compiling on windows, so it's certainly
> > possible there's still some gaps there.
> 
> How would initdb.exe / pg_regress.exe even run on the x86 build
> machine if it's compiled for ARM?

I think this is building on an ARM64 host, targeting 32bit x86.

Obviously tests can't run in that environment, but building should be
possible. I can e.g. build postgres for x86-64 windows on my linux machine,
but can't run the tests (in theory they could be run with wine, but wine isn't
complete enough to run postgres).

Greetings,

Andres Freund

On 20.03.24 22:49, Dave Cramer wrote:
> 
> 
> 
> On Wed, 20 Mar 2024 at 17:11, Andres Freund <andres@anarazel.de 
> <mailto:andres@anarazel.de>> wrote:
> 
>     Hi,
> 
>     On 2024-03-20 16:14:23 -0400, Dave Cramer wrote:
>      > I am getting the following error
>      >
>      > meson.build:1479:17: ERROR: Can not run test applications in this
>     cross
>      > environment.
>      >
>      > Have configured for amd64_x86
>      >
>      > Running `meson setup --wipe build --prefix=c:\postgres86`
> 
>     This is not enough information to debug anything. At the very least
>     we need
>     the exact steps performed to set up the build and
>     meson-logs/meson-log.txt
> 
> First off this is on an ARM64 machine
> 
> The last error from meson-log.txt is
> 
> ...
> Checking if "c99" compiles: YES
> 
> meson.build:1479:17: ERROR: Can not run test applications in this cross 
> environment.
> ...

I have never tried this, but there are instructions for cross-compiling 
with meson: https://mesonbuild.com/Cross-compilation.html

Hi,

On 2024-03-21 07:11:23 -0400, Dave Cramer wrote:
> It seems that attempting to cross-compile on an ARM machine might be asking
> too much as the use cases are pretty limited.

It for sure is if you don't even provide the precise commands and logs of a
failed run...


> So the impetus for this is that folks require 32bit versions of psqlODBC.
> Unfortunately EDB is no longer distributing a 32 bit windows version.
>
> All I really need is a 32bit libpq. This seems like a much smaller lift.
> Suggestions ?

FWIW, I can cross compile postgres from linux to 32bit windows without an
issue. If you really just need a 32bit libpq, that might actually be easier.

cd /tmp/ && rm -rf /tmp/meson-w32 && m setup --buildtype debug -Dcassert=true -Db_pch=true --cross-file
~/src/meson/cross/linux-mingw-w64-32bit.txt/tmp/meson-w32 ~/src/postgresql && cd /tmp/meson-w32 && ninja
 

file src/interfaces/libpq/libpq.dll
src/interfaces/libpq/libpq.dll: PE32 executable (DLL) (console) Intel 80386, for MS Windows, 19 sections

You'd need a windows openssl to actually have a useful libpq, but that should
be fairly simple.


There are two warnings that I think point to us doing something wrong, but they're not affecting libpq:

[1585/1945 42  81%] Linking target src/bin/pgevent/pgevent.dll
/usr/bin/i686-w64-mingw32-ld: warning: resolving _DllRegisterServer by linking to _DllRegisterServer@0
Use --enable-stdcall-fixup to disable these warnings
Use --disable-stdcall-fixup to disable these fixups
/usr/bin/i686-w64-mingw32-ld: warning: resolving _DllUnregisterServer by linking to _DllUnregisterServer@0


Greetings,

Andres Freund

Hi,

On 2024-03-21 13:17:44 -0400, Dave Cramer wrote:
> Attached correct log file

Hm. So there's something a bit odd:


> Build started at 2024-03-21T13:07:08.707715
> Main binary: C:\Program Files\Meson\meson.exe
> Build Options: '-Dextra_include_dirs=c:\Program Files\OpenSSL-Win64\include' -Derrorlogs=True
'-Dextra_lib_dirs=c:\ProgramFiles\OpenSSL-win64' '-Dprefix=c:\postgres86'
 
> Python system: Windows
> The Meson build system
> Version: 1.3.1
> Source dir: C:\Users\davec\projects\postgresql
> Build dir: C:\Users\davec\projects\postgresql\build
> Build type: native build

So meson thinks this is a native build, not a cross build. But then later
realizes that generated binaries and the current platform aren't the same. And
thus errors out.

The line numbers don't match my tree, but I think what's failing is the
sizeof() check. Which has support for cross builds, but it only uses that
(slower) path if it knows that a cross build is being used.


I suggest actually telling meson to cross compile. I don't quite know what
properties you're going to need, but something like the following (put it in a
file, point meson to it wity --cross-file) might give you a start:


[properties]
needs_exe_wrapper = false

[binaries]
c = 'cl'
cpp = 'cl'
ar = 'lib'
windres = 'rc'

[host_machine]
system = 'windows'
cpu_family = 'x86_64'
cpu = 'x86_64'
endian = 'little'

Greetings,

Andres Freund

On Thu, Mar 21, 2024 at 11:21 AM Andres Freund <andres@anarazel.de> wrote:
> Obviously tests can't run in that environment, but building should be
> possible. I can e.g. build postgres for x86-64 windows on my linux machine,
> but can't run the tests (in theory they could be run with wine, but wine isn't
> complete enough to run postgres).

For anyone interested in that, the most apparent reason why WINE
currently can't run a cross-build of psql.exe or postgres.exe on a
Linux/FreeBSD/macOS host is now on their bug list[1] and just needs
someone to write an easy patch.  I dimly recall there were more subtle
things that broke here and there before the relevant change of ours
went in, and it would be pretty cool if we could make a list and
report 'em...

[1] https://bugs.winehq.org/show_bug.cgi?id=56951

On Mon, Jul 22, 2024 at 12:20 AM Thomas Munro <thomas.munro@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Thu, Mar 21, 2024 at 11:21 AM Andres Freund <andres@anarazel.de> wrote:
> > Obviously tests can't run in that environment, but building should be
> > possible. I can e.g. build postgres for x86-64 windows on my linux machine,
> > but can't run the tests (in theory they could be run with wine, but wine isn't
> > complete enough to run postgres).
>
> For anyone interested in that, the most apparent reason why WINE
> currently can't run a cross-build of psql.exe or postgres.exe on a
> Linux/FreeBSD/macOS host is now on their bug list[1] and just needs
> someone to write an easy patch.  I dimly recall there were more subtle
> things that broke here and there before the relevant change of ours
> went in, and it would be pretty cool if we could make a list and
> report 'em...
>
> [1] https://bugs.winehq.org/show_bug.cgi?id=56951

Just for the record, apparently they fixed that one.