[Scons-users] Scons using msys/mingw.

[Dmitry Mikhin]

Hi Jos,

I have a fairly big and multi-lingual project
(C/C++/Fortran/Python/LaTeX/RPM or InnoSetup/etc.) built under mingw
and linux. Uses native Python on Windows.

Overall, it is not only a question whether msys Python is like the
Unix one. The MinGW SCons calls cmd.exe shell whenever using any
external program, and therefore, paths passed into the DOS shell must
conform. Also, some utilities and compilers were happy with Unix-style
paths in their arguments, while others insisted on '\\\\'. Sometimes
it was down to how the string would be used: in a shell invocation or
in Python code. Every time it was try and error. So, both converting
all arguments to Windows-style did not work, and leaving it all Unix
style did not work, at least in my case.

A brief run over the changes I had to make:
- religious use of os.path, os.sep, os.pathsep, os.path.join, and friends.
- safeguarding escapes, as in p.replace('/', '\\\\').replace('\\', '\\\\')
- for unknown reason had to use duplicate=1 in VariantDir
- adding resource files, icons, etc. on Windows
- switching between *.sh and *.bat versions of my own, in-project scripts,
- bypassing use of fifo pipes when on Windows
- switching between RPM/InnoSetup as needed
- no '-fPIC'
- adding env['PROGSUFFIX'] whenever searching with WhereIs
- selecting between 'cmp' and 'fc /b', 'copy' and 'cp', 'move' and
'mv' whenever these were invoked directly.

The main effort was in the first two items. Regrettably, there was no
common recipe with safeguarding, as explained above. Hey, it worked!

Best of luck,
Dmitry

On Sun, Feb 10, 2013 at 8:45 AM, Jos De Laender <jos at de-laender.be> wrote:

> Gents,

>

> I have a fairly common problem. Nevertheless I don't succeed finding a

> successful path ...

>

> The project is a linux project that is replicated in msys/mingw.

>

> There are some issues with the default compiler, but those I can manage with

> a little help of google.

>

> The real issue is though that I have install paths and alike that should be

> expressed in msys separators ('/') even though the os specific one is '\'.

> There I go nuts ...

> It appeared to me that building python on msys would be the way to go, but

> much to my surprise that seems far from straightforward ..

> (and no thanks, I don't want to pull in cygwin :)).

>

> Someone got this issue before ? So I'm looking for two potential resolutions

> :

> - Setting the separator, independently ...

> or

> - Building python under msys (assuming that then it will behave like a linux

> one ...)