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Windows PECL build machine died

php.internals

Christoph Becker

4 years ago

Hi all,

bad news: the Windows PECL build machine died!  Is there anybody
interested in sponsoring a successor?  That (virtual) machine would need
to run 24/7, and to be configured to run php/web-rmtools, basically
listening for new PECL releases, and to build them as soon as possible.
It should run on Windows 10 Professional, or on some Windows Server 2019
(or maybe Windows 11/Windows Server 2022); I don't think there are
special requirements regarding the hardware.

Anyhow, many thanks to Alex Schoenmaker who sponsored the old PECL build
machine for many years!

--
Christoph M. Becker

Ayesh - PHP.Watch

4 years ago

With php-src's recently starting to Github Actions, would it be
possible for PECL builds to use Github Actions with Windows. It
supports Windows server 2016, 2019, and even 2022 (IIRC).

On Fri, Apr 8, 2022 at 5:17 PM Christoph M. Becker <cmbecker69@gmx.de> wrote:

Calvin Buckley

4 years ago

This might be interesting. I've set up Actions builds for extensions,
and the Windows part was pretty easy (thanks to Christoph's action for
setting up a PHP build environment on Windows). If I could set up a
workflow that when I tag a release, it pushes a full matrix to PECL,
that would be great.

On Fri, 2022-04-08 at 17:25 +0530, Ayesh Karunaratne wrote:

James Titcumb

4 years ago

Hi folks

On Fri, 8 Apr 2022 at 15:29, Calvin Buckley <calvin@cmpct.info> wrote:

> If I could set up a workflow that when I tag a release, it pushes a full
> matrix to PECL, that would be great.
>

Any info on whether this is possible, or may be possible in the future? I
too have set up a pipeline to build all supported PHP versions for
scoutapm, on nts/ts, x86/x64 (big thanks to cmb!). Would be nice if that
build matrix could also upload the DLLs built in GitHub Actions to PECL,
but I have no idea what the steps to do that (starting from a built DLL)
would be.

Thanks
James

Christoph Becker

4 years ago

On 11.07.2022 at 09:27, James Titcumb wrote:

> On Fri, 8 Apr 2022 at 15:29, Calvin Buckley <calvin@cmpct.info> wrote:
>
>> If I could set up a workflow that when I tag a release, it pushes a full
>> matrix to PECL, that would be great.
>
> Any info on whether this is possible, or may be possible in the future? I
> too have set up a pipeline to build all supported PHP versions for
> scoutapm, on nts/ts, x86/x64 (big thanks to cmb!). Would be nice if that
> build matrix could also upload the DLLs built in GitHub Actions to PECL,
> but I have no idea what the steps to do that (starting from a built DLL)
> would be.

This is unlikely to be possible even in the future.  For once, the FTP
server is configured to only accept uploads from an IP whitelist.  But
maybe more importantly, we need to avoid DLL hell and ABI breaks for
users, so especially if there are libraries involved, we need to make
sure that these are the same version, or at least compatible, between
different extensions.

I'm hoping that <https://github.com/cmb69/php-ftw> can serve as a base
for doing the official Windows builds of PECL extensions, but there is
still a lot of work to do (most notably regarding the PECL dependency
libraries[1], which are not yet properly versioned[2]).

[1] <https://windows.php.net/downloads/pecl/deps/>
[2] <https://windows.php.net/downloads/php-sdk/deps/series/>

--
Christoph M. Becker

Hans Henrik Bergan

4 years ago

Do you mean it is unlikely that Github Actions will suffice? because that
would definitely be a great solution if it was possible/feasible .

Anyway, with regards to "I don't think there are special requirements
regarding the hardware", can you give a rough estimate on RAM/disk space
requirements?

Christoph Becker

4 years ago

On 11.07.2022 at 17:41, Hans Henrik Bergan wrote:

> Do you mean it is unlikely that Github Actions will suffice? because that
> would definitely be a great solution if it was possible/feasible .

No.  It is only unlikely that automated uploads to window.php.net will
ever be possible using GH actions.

> Anyway, with regards to "I don't think there are special requirements
> regarding the hardware", can you give a rough estimate on RAM/disk space
> requirements?

The old machine had something like 4 or 8 GB RAM, and a 128 GB hard disk.

Hans Henrik Bergan

4 years ago

Is there any SSH public key associated with the Windows php developers? Or
with CMB?

On Mon, 11 Jul 2022 at 18:25, Christoph M. Becker <cmbecker69@gmx.de> wrote:

Christoph Becker

4 years ago

On 11.07.2022 at 18:53, Hans Henrik Bergan wrote:

> Is there any SSH public key associated with the Windows php developers? Or
> with CMB?

No.  At least not regarding windows.php.net.

Hans Henrik Bergan

4 years ago

Any of you windows.php.net guys familiar with SSH? Can one be created?

On Mon, 11 Jul 2022 at 19:52, Christoph M. Becker <cmbecker69@gmx.de> wrote:

Bruno CHALOPIN

3 years ago

Hi

On 11/07/2022 18:25, Christoph M. Becker wrote:

> On 11.07.2022 at 17:41, Hans Henrik Bergan wrote:
>
>> Do you mean it is unlikely that Github Actions will suffice? because that
>> would definitely be a great solution if it was possible/feasible .
>
> No.  It is only unlikely that automated uploads to window.php.net will
> ever be possible using GH actions.
>
>> Anyway, with regards to "I don't think there are special requirements
>> regarding the hardware", can you give a rough estimate on RAM/disk space
>> requirements?
>
> The old machine had something like 4 or 8 GB RAM, and a 128 GB hard disk.

Is there recent development about the situation of the windows pecl
build machine ?

How can we help ?

Regards,

Bruno CHALOPIN

Bruno CHALOPIN

3 years ago

Hi

On 11/07/2022 18:25, Christoph M. Becker wrote:

> On 11.07.2022 at 17:41, Hans Henrik Bergan wrote:
>
>> Do you mean it is unlikely that Github Actions will suffice? because that
>> would definitely be a great solution if it was possible/feasible .
>
> No.  It is only unlikely that automated uploads to window.php.net will
> ever be possible using GH actions.
>
>> Anyway, with regards to "I don't think there are special requirements
>> regarding the hardware", can you give a rough estimate on RAM/disk space
>> requirements?
>
> The old machine had something like 4 or 8 GB RAM, and a 128 GB hard disk.

Is there recent development about the situation of the windows pecl
build machine ?

How can we help ?

Regards,

Bruno CHALOPIN

Casper Langemeijer

3 years ago

Nothing seems to happen on this front, and our Windows users like to move to PHP 8.2 too.

The windows.php.net site states: "This is because the Windows PECL build machine died, and the team is still working on the long term plan of building DLLs for PECL extensions with a new CI process."

We are 1 year since the machine died. 6 month since the statement on the website. From the point of view of our users nothing has changed, and are questioning if the windows project is still alive.

I'd like to ask: Is re-inventing the building process really a smart thing to do if it means we'll be out-of-service for more than a year?

"We're doing our best to finish that as soon as possible, and keep you up to date."

I'm not questioning intentions, but I hate to think this is 'our best'. We should at least have and share a more concrete plan, possibly share a rough timeframe and share if we hit a blocking problem. If help is needed, we should ask.

Greetings, Casper

Matthew Weier O'Phinney

3 years ago

On Sun, Apr 23, 2023, 3:33 PM Casper Langemeijer <langemeijer@php.net>
wrote:

> Nothing seems to happen on this front, and our Windows users like to move
> to PHP 8.2 too.
>
> The windows.php.net site states: "This is because the Windows PECL build
> machine died, and the team is still working on the long term plan of
> building DLLs for PECL extensions with a new CI process."
>
> We are 1 year since the machine died. 6 month since the statement on the
> website. From the point of view of our users nothing has changed, and are
> questioning if the windows project is still alive.
>
> I'd like to ask: Is re-inventing the building process really a smart thing
> to do if it means we'll be out-of-service for more than a year?
>
> "We're doing our best to finish that as soon as possible, and keep you up
> to date."
>
> I'm not questioning intentions, but I hate to think this is 'our best'. We
> should at least have and share a more concrete plan, possibly share a rough
> timeframe and share if we hit a blocking problem. If help is needed, we
> should ask.
>

Just as an FYI, for anybody in this situation, we (Zend) are doing Windows
builds of PHP; these have an E2E testing pipeline they pass before release.
Current community-supported versions can be downloaded for free, and we
provide LTS versions commercially. We support around 60 PECL extensions as
well.

Install instructions here:
https://help.zend.com/zendphp/current/content/installation/windows_installation.htm

Supported extensions list:
https://help.zend.com/zendphp/current/content/installation/php_pecl%20extensions.htm

Derick Rethans

2 years ago

Hi,

To revive this ancient thread. We have made some progress getting these
builds made for Windows again.

Shivam has been working on an extension builder for Windows
(https://github.com/php/php-windows-builder?tab=readme-ov-file#build-a-php-extension)
— GHA actions to build your DLLs on release.

He's tried that on Xdebug:
https://github.com/shivammathur/xdebug/blob/master/.github/workflows/release.yml

This is still pre-release, so please don't rely on this yet!

We are also looking at buliding some specific PECL extensions for
Windows, and uploading them to the downloads server.

PECL DLLs are no longer served from the windows.php.net server either,
but instead from downloads.php.net/~windows :
https://pecl.php.net/package/ssh2/1.3.1/windows

Uploading built DLLs to this server can not be done automatically due to
2FA requirements, but we'll think on how to improve that.

cheers,
Derick



On Sun, 23 Apr 2023, Casper Langemeijer wrote:

> Nothing seems to happen on this front, and our Windows users like to move to PHP 8.2 too.
>
> The windows.php.net site states: "This is because the Windows PECL build machine died, and the team is still working on the long term plan of building DLLs for PECL extensions with a new CI process."
>
> We are 1 year since the machine died. 6 month since the statement on the website. From the point of view of our users nothing has changed, and are questioning if the windows project is still alive.
>
> I'd like to ask: Is re-inventing the building process really a smart thing to do if it means we'll be out-of-service for more than a year?
>
> "We're doing our best to finish that as soon as possible, and keep you up to date."
>
> I'm not questioning intentions, but I hate to think this is 'our best'. We should at least have and share a more concrete plan, possibly share a rough timeframe and share if we hit a blocking problem. If help is needed, we should ask.
>
> Greetings, Casper

--
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