Can not start IOC on Windows 10, MSYS2 MINGW64, EPICS 7.0.4.1

[keale]

Dear Kevin,
I would like to play around with motorVMC on Windows 10. I have modules:

ASYN=c:/Users/AlexK/work/epics/Modules/asyn
SNCSEQ=c:/user/AlexK/work/epics/Module/seq-2.2.9
MOTORVMC=c:/Users/AlexK/work/epics/Module/motorVMC
MOTOR=c:/user/AlexK/work/epics/Module/Motor
EPICS_BASE=c:/Users/AlexK/work/epics/base-R7.0.4.1

Modules without version were cloned from the current github repos.
The make finished without error, but I can't find the vmc.exe. Could you check the make on Windows?

With kind regards,
Alexander

P.S. thanks to @tboegi for giving starting help!

[tboegi]

As a first step, I added the creation of a binary:
#21

However, more improvements are needed, either in the README and/or with more
example files.

[kmpeters]

Adding dllPath.bat to the Makefile, which I suggested here isn't enough to solve the problem. The dllPath.bat that is created is intended to be run in cmd.exe, not the Msys2 bash shell:

$ more dllPath.bat
@ECHO OFF
SET "PATH=/d/epics/motor-devel/testing/motorVMC/iocs/vmcIOC/bin/windows-x64-mingw;/d/epics/motor-devel/testing/motor/bin/windows-x64-mingw;D:/epics/motor-devel/support/asyn-R4-42/bin/windows-x64-mingw;D:/epics/mot
or-devel/support/seq-2-2-9/bin/windows-x64-mingw;D:/epics/motor-devel/support/busy-R1-7-3/bin/windows-x64-mingw;D:/epics/motor-devel/support/lua-R3-0-2/bin/windows-x64-mingw;D:/epics/motor-devel/support/modbus-R3-
2/bin/windows-x64-mingw;D:/epics/base-7.0.6.1/bin/windows-x64-mingw;/d/epics/motor-devel/testing/motorVMC/bin/windows-x64-mingw;%PATH%"

But there is definitely a need for a dllPath.bat-like-solution for bash:

$ ldd ../../bin/windows-x64-mingw/vmc.exe
        ntdll.dll => /c/WINDOWS/SYSTEM32/ntdll.dll (0x7ff825e50000)
        KERNEL32.DLL => /c/WINDOWS/System32/KERNEL32.DLL (0x7ff824950000)
        KERNELBASE.dll => /c/WINDOWS/System32/KERNELBASE.dll (0x7ff823530000)
        msvcrt.dll => /c/WINDOWS/System32/msvcrt.dll (0x7ff825720000)
        Com.dll => not found
        dbCore.dll => not found
        dbRecStd.dll => not found
        asyn.dll => not found
        motor.dll => not found
        vmc.dll => not found

[kmpeters]

The Makefile in the startup directory can create a relPaths.sh file instead of dllPath.bat:

$ cat relPaths.sh
export PATH="/d/epics/motor-devel/testing/motorVMC/iocs/vmcIOC/bin/windows-x64-mingw:/d/epics/motor-devel/testing/motor/bin/windows-x64-mingw:D:/epics/motor-devel/support/asyn-R4-42/bin/windows-x64-mingw:D:/epics/motor-devel/support/seq-2-2-9/bin/windows-x64-mingw:D:/epics/motor-devel/support/busy-R1-7-3/bin/windows-x64-mingw:D:/epics/motor-devel/support/lua-R3-0-2/bin/windows-x64-mingw:D:/epics/motor-devel/support/modbus-R3-2/bin/windows-x64-mingw:D:/epics/base-7.0.6.1/bin/windows-x64-mingw:/d/epics/motor-devel/testing/motorVMC/bin/windows-x64-mingw:$PATH"

The one it created for my IOC has some incorrect paths in it (D:/ vs /d/). The envPaths file has the same problem, so I'll need to look into that.

[kmpeters]

I don't see a way to make this work without having to edit files manually. The EPICS build system is happy to use Windows-style paths (C:/), but paths that get automatically created by the build system default to MSYS2-style paths (/c/).

The envPaths file is broken because it contains MSYS2-style paths, which the running IOC doesn't understand:

epicsEnvSet("IOC","iocvmc")
epicsEnvSet("TOP","/d/epics/motor-devel/testing/motorVMC/iocs/vmcIOC")
epicsEnvSet("MOTOR","/d/epics/motor-devel/testing/motor")
epicsEnvSet("ASYN","D:/epics/motor-devel/support/asyn-R4-42")
epicsEnvSet("SNCSEQ","D:/epics/motor-devel/support/seq-2-2-9")
epicsEnvSet("BUSY","D:/epics/motor-devel/support/busy-R1-7-3")
epicsEnvSet("LUA","D:/epics/motor-devel/support/lua-R3-0-2")
epicsEnvSet("MODBUS","D:/epics/motor-devel/support/modbus-R3-2")
epicsEnvSet("EPICS_BASE","D:/epics/base-7.0.6.1")
epicsEnvSet("SUPPORT","D:/epics/motor-devel/support")
epicsEnvSet("MOTOR_VMC","D:/epics/motor-devel/testing/motorVMC")

The relPaths.sh file is also broken. The Windows-style paths don't work on the MSYS2 bash shell and the MSYS2-style paths don't work on cmd.exe

export PATH="/d/epics/motor-devel/testing/motorVMC/iocs/vmcIOC/bin/windows-x64-mingw:/d/epics/motor-devel/testing/motor/bin/windows-x64-mingw:D:/epics/motor-devel/support/asyn-R4-42/bin/windows-x64-mingw:D:/epics/motor-devel/support/seq-2-2-9/bin/windows-x64-mingw:D:/epics/motor-devel/support/busy-R1-7-3/bin/windows-x64-mingw:D:/epics/motor-devel/support/lua-R3-0-2/bin/windows-x64-mingw:D:/epics/motor-devel/support/modbus-R3-2/bin/windows-x64-mingw:D:/epics/base-7.0.6.1/bin/windows-x64-mingw:D:/epics/motor-devel/testing/motorVMC/bin/windows-x64-mingw:$PATH"

[keale]

What are correct paths? C:/ or /c/... ?
The gettings started testIoc runs in my case only with C:/

[tboegi]

C:/ (This work with both native applications under Windows and MINGW applications)

[keale]

But it seems /c/... is also used...

Warning: IOC is booting with TOP = "c:/Users/AlexK/work/epics/Modules/motorVMC"
          but was built with TOP = "/c/Users/AlexK/work/epics/Modules/motorVMC"

[tboegi]

That warning can be ignored, kind of.

If you want to get rid of it, replace /c/ with C:/ in all the files under the
configure/ directories
(or should we agree on c:/ (lowercase) ? I dunno

[kmpeters]

I don't see a way to make this work without having to edit files manually. The EPICS build system is happy to use Windows-style paths (C:/), but paths that get automatically created by the build system default to MSYS2-style paths (/c/).

The install documentation includes instructions for manually correcting paths in the envPaths files:

"Open the envPaths file and change the MSYS2 relative paths to full Windows paths"

So that is not something I need to solve to resolve this issue.