Windows Support

[daviddias]

More and more users have been trying to use js-ipfs on Windows and seeing their experiments fail. This happens because, in fact, js-ipfs doesn't have Windows support at the moment.

Reported issues:

• node js ipfs on windows  #861
• Win10 64b - binding.fcntl is not a function #1016

We welcome a captain to develop Windows support for js-ipfs. It should be really close and mostly be an issue with pathing and native deps.

[Beanow]

*cough* what about this? https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/commandline/wsl/install_guide

[victorb]

Did a look into this as I have a windows machine close by.

First discover was that fs-ext does not like windows, and gives a "binding.fcntl is not a function" error (as in #1016)

The only module that uses fs-ext is lock-me (https://github.com/dignifiedquire/lock-me) which is supposed to work on Windows but does not for some reason, it crashes instead of using javascript version of fs-ext.

However, fs-ext is a optional dependency, and removing it from lock-me makes both portable and unix tests on lock-me to pass.

Also, removing js-ext from node_modules in js-ipfs, makes me able to run the daemon successfully at least. Have not yet tried to add/get files though.

Code I tested with:

const ipfs = require('./src/code/index.js')
const node = new ipfs()
node.once('ready', () => console.log('ready'))
node.on('error', (err) => console.log(err))

As I usually don't develop on windows, I didn't have a dev env setup. But I found that windows-build-tools is a very useful module for setting up everything required for it to work. So after installing nodejs, running npm install --global --production windows-build-tools installs python and any .NET Framework stuff needed to develop.

[JonasDev17]

C:\Program Files\nodejs\node.exe" "C:\Program Files\nodejs\node_modules\npm\bin\npm-cli.js" install ipfs

Standard error:
npm WARN deprecated ipld-eth-star@1.4.1: deprecated in favor of js-ipld-ethereum https://github.com/ipld/js-ipld-ethereum
npm WARN deprecated babel-preset-es2015@6.24.1: 🙌 Thanks for using Babel: we recommend using babel-preset-env now: please read babeljs.io/env to update!
npm WARN lifecycle npm is using C:\Program Files\nodejs\node.exe but there is no node binary in the current PATH. Use the --scripts-prepend-node-path option to include the path for the node binary npm was executed with.
'node' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.
'node' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.
'node' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.
'node' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.
'node' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.
'node' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.
npm WARN optional SKIPPING OPTIONAL DEPENDENCY: fs-ext@1.0.0 (node_modules\fs-ext):
npm WARN optional SKIPPING OPTIONAL DEPENDENCY: fs-ext@1.0.0 install: node-gyp configure build
npm WARN optional SKIPPING OPTIONAL DEPENDENCY: Exit status 1
npm WARN optional SKIPPING OPTIONAL DEPENDENCY: gc-stats@1.0.2 (node_modules\gc-stats):
npm WARN optional SKIPPING OPTIONAL DEPENDENCY: gc-stats@1.0.2 install: node-pre-gyp install --fallback-to-build
npm WARN optional SKIPPING OPTIONAL DEPENDENCY: Exit status 1

npm ERR! code ELIFECYCLE
npm ERR! errno 1
npm ERR! leveldown@1.9.0 install: prebuild-install || node-gyp rebuild
npm ERR! Exit status 1
npm ERR!
npm ERR! Failed at the leveldown@1.9.0 install script.
npm ERR! This is probably not a problem with npm. There is likely additional logging output above.

npm ERR! A complete log of this run can be found in:
npm ERR! C:\Users...\AppData\Roaming\npm-cache_logs\2017-10-11T15_58_12_138Z-debug.log

Standard output:

fs-ext@1.0.0 install C:\Users\Jonas\WebstormProjects\untitled\node_modules\fs-ext
node-gyp configure build

C:\Users...\WebstormProjects\untitled\node_modules\fs-ext>if not defined npm_config_node_gyp (node "C:\Program Files\nodejs\node_modules\npm\bin\node-gyp-bin\....\node_modules\node-gyp\bin\node-gyp.js" configure build ) else (node "" configure build )

gc-stats@1.0.2 install C:\Users...\WebstormProjects\untitled\node_modules\gc-stats
node-pre-gyp install --fallback-to-build

keccak@1.3.0 install C:\Users\Jonas\WebstormProjects\untitled\node_modules\keccak
prebuild-install || node-gyp rebuild || echo "Keccak bindings compilation fail. Pure JS implementation will be used."

C:\Users...\WebstormProjects\untitled\node_modules\keccak>if not defined npm_config_node_gyp (node "C:\Program Files\nodejs\node_modules\npm\bin\node-gyp-bin\....\node_modules\node-gyp\bin\node-gyp.js" rebuild ) else (node "" rebuild )
"Keccak bindings compilation fail. Pure JS implementation will be used."

leveldown@1.9.0 install C:\Users...\WebstormProjects\untitled\node_modules\leveldown
prebuild-install || node-gyp rebuild

C:\Users...\WebstormProjects\untitled\node_modules\leveldown>if not defined npm_config_node_gyp (node "C:\Program Files\nodejs\node_modules\npm\bin\node-gyp-bin\....\node_modules\node-gyp\bin\node-gyp.js" rebuild ) else (node "" rebuild )

Process finished with exit code 1

[victorb]

 npm WARN lifecycle npm is using C:\Program Files\nodejs\node.exe but there is no node binary in the current PATH. Use the --scripts-prepend-node-path option to include the path for the node binary npm was executed with.

and

'node' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.

makes me believe that you have not installed node correctly. You should make sure the node binary is in your $PATH variable. You can find how to do that here: https://stackoverflow.com/a/27864253/360186

[mkg20001]

I finally got a windows VM setup and did some tests what works:
The gateway works after doing "jsipfs init" which crashes with Error: Invalid key: /CIQGKXXGEEETAXRWRSFJYDYW5VSDR5YLCWWGVI6N4KJ2Y6MYMKNDG6I (but "jsipfs daemon" still works fine).
After a peer connects and initializes the /ipfs/bitswap/ protocol the daemon crashes with the same error.

I suspect this error is occuring because \ or / is used in paths or path splitting where it shouldn't be used on windows. (Most likely it tries to split some string that has / with \)

I would really like help getting jsipfs to run on windows, but I don't think that I could work on that so much.

[richardschneider]

@dryajov I'm willing to spend some time on getting this to work on Windows. What would you like me to look at.

[richardschneider]

I tried installing, npm install js-ipfs, and got errors on fs-ext. It turns out that my node version (5.7.0) is the culprit. Updating it to version 8.8.1 resolved the issues and js-ipfs now installs without an error.

You can download the latest node for windows at https://nodejs.org/en/download/current/

Unfortunately, as @mkg20001 reported, I now get an Invalid Key error.