Build the Viewer on Windows

Visual Studio 2013 - Second Life Developer set up

This "Minimum Requirements recipe" listed below works for both local machines and VMs such as VMWare Fusion.
This document is mostly complete (see Todo sections below and has been tested a number of times on bare metal systems. It is expected (and hoped) that developers will improve and refine this process over time - there are still some rough edges and things will change as new versions of software become available.

Some Gotchas before we start

• The external package versions and bit-widths listed below have carefully been selected and tested. If you decide to install a different version of a given package (even a minor update), you are on your own
• This recipe, by design, only covers development using the Cygwin shell - some commands will have to be modified if you want to use the Windows Command Prompt instead.
• You will need at the very least, these items from before you begin:
  • An installer for Windows 7 Pro 64bit
  • A valid Windows Product key
  • An installer for Visual Studio 2013
  • A valid license for Visual Studio 2013
• Every effort has been made to make this recipe work with the Cygwin shell only. Currently, the "Set up Autobuild and Python" section only works inside the Windows Command Prompt. If you figure out a way to make this work with Cygwin, please let us know.
• The combination of Cygwin and Tortoise Hg means it is not possible to check out or check into a repository that requires you to enter login credentials. Currently, to do this, you must switch to a Windows Command Prompt. Again, if you know how to fix this or have a suggestion for a better package to use, please let us know.

"Minimum Requirements" recipe

Windows

• Install Windows 7 Pro 64bit using your own product key

• When the Windows installer asks for the default username, use sldev and no password. Note: these instructions are trying to be as generic as possible - for local installs on your own machine, you can of course use any username you like.

• Keep running Windows Update (Start Menu -> All Programs -> Windows Update) until clicking on "Check for Updates" there tells you everything is up to date. Depending on the age of the install media you started with, this could take a really long time and many, many iterations.

Microsoft Visual Studio 2013 Pro

• Install VS 2013 Pro
• Note: If you don't own a copy of VS 2013 Pro, you might consider installing the the Community Version
  • Run the installer as Administrator (right click, "Run as administrator")
  • Uncheck all the "Optional features to install:" - they are not required

• Download and install VS2013 Service Packs and updates
  • VS 2013 Update 5.2, January 26, 2015 is the most recent at time of writing (2015-01)
  • Run the installer as Administrator (right click, "Run as administrator")

DirectX SDK

• Download and install DirectX SDK (June 2010)
  • Run the installer as Administrator (right click, "Run as administrator")
  • At the Installation Options screen, set everything except the DirectX Headers and Libs to "This feature will not be installed"

Tortoise Hg

• Download and install TortoiseHg 3.2.3 (64bit)
  • Note: No option available to install as Administrator
  • Use default options (path, components etc.)

CMake

• Download and install CMake 3.1.0 (32bit is only option)
  • Run the installer as Administrator (right click, "Run as administrator")
  • At the "Install options" screen, select "Add CMake to the system PATH for all users"
  • For everything else, use the default options (path, etc.)

Cygwin

• Download and install Cygwin 64 (64bit)
  • Run the installer as Administrator (right click, "Run as administrator")
  • Use default options (path, components etc.) *until* you get to the "Select Packages" screen
  • Add additional packages:
    • Devel/bison
    • Devel/flex
    • Devel/patch
  • Use default options for everything else

Python

• Download and install Python 2.7.8 (32bit) (Do not install version 2.7.9 - it doesn't work for our setup currently])
  • Note: No option available to install as Administrator
  • Use default options (path, components etc.) *until* you get to the "Customize Python" screen
  • Change "Add python.exe to Path" to "Will be installed on local hard drive"

Intermediate check

Confirm things are installed properly so far Open a Cygwin terminal and type: bison --version cmake --version flex --version hg --version python --version If they all report sensible values and not "Command not found" errors, then you are in good shape

Set up Autobuild and Python

• Bootstrap pip
  • Download (Save As) get-pip.py and copy to a temp folder
  • Open Windows Command Prompt
  • Switch to that temp folder and execute it python get-pip.py
  • Pip will be installed
• Bootstrap easy_install
  • Download (Save As) ez_setup.py and copy to a temp folder
  • Remain in Windows Command Prompt
  • Switch to that temp folder and execute it python ez_setup.py
  • easy_install will be installed
• Install Autobuild
  • Remain in Windows Command Prompt
  • Change to the Python Scripts folder that was just created
  • Typically cd \Python27\Scripts
  • Run pip install hg+http://bitbucket.org/oz_linden/autobuild-metadata#egg=autobuild
  • Autobuild will be installed
• Update system PATH
  • Add Python Scripts folder to PATH environment variable via the Control Panel
  • Typically C:\Python27\Scripts

NSIS (Unicode)

• You must install the Unicode version here and not the one from the NSIS page
• Not strictly required for developers (although it's useful)

Test build of the Second Life Viewer

Open a Cygwin shell and create a folder to hold your work

cd /cygdrive/c
mkdir work
cd work

Check out a branch from Mercurial

Currently this has to be Viewer Tools Update but eventually will apply to Viewer Release too.

hg clone https://bitbucket.org/lindenlab/viewer-tools-update

Switch to the directory you just checked out and run Autobuild Configure

cd viewer-tools-update
autobuild configure -c RelWithDebInfoOS|ReleaseOS

TBD we need a description here or somewhere on optional configuration switches

When that completes, open the VS 2013 solution file that gets created

cygstart build-vc120/SecondLife.sln

Right-click on "secondlife-bin" in the Solution Explorer and select "Build"

wait...

When the build completes (hopefully without errors) run it by pressing Control-F5

Note: At some point, this recipe will include steps that facilitate command line builds - for the moment, only option is to use the VS 2013 IDE

Additional Tools & Settings you might need

• Tools
  • Install and set up hg hooks using instructions

    This arguably should be in the "minimum Requirements" section as it's way to easy to accidentally check in files with Windows line endings. Strongly suggested you install this.

  • Install a Visual Studio helper like WholeTomato Visual Assist for VS2013 or Workspace Whiz

    These extensions to Visual Studio add many great features. Pretty much essential for serious work.

  • Install a decent merge tool like Araxis Merge

    Many free alternatives out there but Araxis is the best (and most expensive)