Errors building on windows with MSYS2

[johnroper100]

I'm trying to build OLA on Windows with MSYS2. I've been following this guide:

https://wiki.openlighting.org/index.php/Building_OLA_for_Windows

The

autoreconf -i -f

and

./configure --enable-python-libs --disable-e131 --disable-karate --disable-milinst --disable-renard --disable-spi --disable-stageprofi --disable-usbpro --disable-usbdmx --disable-uart

commands worked, but when I run make, I'm getting the following errors:

In file included from ./include/ola/io/SelectServer.h:30,
                 from ./include/ola/client/ClientWrapper.h:41,
                 from examples/ola-client.cpp:27:
./include/ola/thread/Thread.h:38:40: error: 'ptw32_handle_t' does not name a type
   38 |                                  const ptw32_handle_t &handle) {
      |                                        ^~~~~~~~~~~~~~
./include/ola/thread/Thread.h: In function 'std::ostream& operator<<(std::ostream&, const int&)':
./include/ola/thread/Thread.h:39:20: error: request for member 'p' in 'handle', which is of non-class type 'const int'
   39 |   stream << handle.p;
      |                    ^

and

examples/ola-client.cpp: In function 'void ListPorts(const std::vector<_Tp>&, bool)':
examples/ola-client.cpp:116:31: error: ambiguous overload for 'operator<<' (operand types are 'std::basic_ostream<char>' and 'int')
  116 |         cout << ", priority " << static_cast<int>(port_iter->Priority());
      |         ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ^~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
      |              |                   |
      |              |                   int
      |              std::basic_ostream<char>

and

examples/ola-client.cpp:123:31: error: ambiguous overload for 'operator<<' (operand types are 'std::basic_ostream<char>' and 'int')
  123 |           cout << "override " << static_cast<int>(port_iter->Priority());
      |           ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ^~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
      |                |                 |
      |                |                 int
      |                std::basic_ostream<char>

Can anyone help with this? Thanks!

[peternewman]

Hi @johnroper100 ,

Our docs here are probably more recent:
https://github.com/OpenLightingProject/ola/blob/master/README.mingw32

However someone has also been working on updating those docs:
https://github.com/danielskeenan/ola-website/blob/master/download_and_install/_ola_on_windows_msys2.md

It sounds like @danielskeenan had the same issues you're seeing:
OpenLightingProject/website#14 (comment)

It seems like I might not have done any Win fixes since 2018, although I thought I might have tried compiling it since then (but on mingw32 still).

In file included from ./include/ola/io/SelectServer.h:30,
from ./include/ola/client/ClientWrapper.h:41,
from examples/ola-client.cpp:27:
./include/ola/thread/Thread.h:38:40: error: 'ptw32_handle_t' does not name a type
38 | const ptw32_handle_t &handle) {
| ^~~~~~~~~~~~~~
./include/ola/thread/Thread.h: In function 'std::ostream& operator<<(std::ostream&, const int&)':
./include/ola/thread/Thread.h:39:20: error: request for member 'p' in 'handle', which is of non-class type 'const int'
39 | stream << handle.p;
| ^

This looks relevant, but I'd hope we can fix it without hacking at system headers:
jtv/libpqxx#424

If you comment out those two cout lines, does it get on better with other places where we're using a static_cast? Just trying to narrow it down a bit...

[danielskeenan]

It's been a minute since I tried using ola with Windows (since post-COVID work picked up and I don't normally use Windows). I'm realize I'm at risk of derailing this thread a bit, but since ubuntu 21.10 has landed and we're back in the package repo there, I wonder if ola would work in a docker container? Would require a bit of setup (but probably less than compiling from source) to get the docker engine running, but it might be the best way to get it running on Windows.

[johnroper100]

Tried it again with the new documentation and am back at the errors I had initially:

and

[johnroper100]

Any chance there has been progress on this front?