perl issue when building on windows

[doums]

Hi, we are trying to build a Rust project having indirect dependencies to openssl-sys.
When building on Microsoft Windows Server 2022 (github runner), we get the following perl error:

 error: failed to run custom build command for `openssl-sys v0.9.98`

Caused by:
  process didn't exit successfully: `D:\a\nym-vpn-client\nym-vpn-client\nym-vpn-desktop\src-tauri\target\release\build\openssl-sys-510aba73a2dc2d15\build-script-main` (exit code: 101)
  --- stdout
  cargo:rerun-if-env-changed=X86_64_PC_WINDOWS_MSVC_OPENSSL_NO_VENDOR
  X86_64_PC_WINDOWS_MSVC_OPENSSL_NO_VENDOR unset
  cargo:rerun-if-env-changed=OPENSSL_NO_VENDOR
  OPENSSL_NO_VENDOR unset
  openssl-src: Enable the assembly language routines in building OpenSSL.
  running "perl" "./Configure" "--prefix=D:/a/nym-vpn-client/nym-vpn-client/nym-vpn-desktop/src-tauri/target/release/build/openssl-sys-e3460947fbbdac1d/out/openssl-build/install" "--openssldir=SYS$MANAGER:[OPENSSL]" "no-dso" "no-shared" "no-ssl3" "no-tests" "no-comp" "no-zlib" "no-zlib-dynamic" "--libdir=lib" "no-md2" "no-rc5" "no-weak-ssl-ciphers" "no-camellia" "no-idea" "no-seed" "no-capieng" "VC-WIN64A"

  --- stderr
Error:   Can't locate Locale/Maketext/Simple.pm in @INC (you may need to install the Locale::Maketext::Simple module) (@INC contains: /d/a/nym-vpn-client/nym-vpn-client/nym-vpn-desktop/src-tauri/target/release/build/openssl-sys-e3460947fbbdac1d/out/openssl-build/build/src/util/perl D \a\nym-vpn-client\nym-vpn-client\local\lib\perl5;D \a\nym-vpn-client\nym-vpn-client\local\lib\perl5\MSWin32-x64-multi-thread;D \a\_actions\shogo82148\actions-setup-perl\v1\scripts\lib /usr/lib/perl5/site_perl /usr/share/perl5/site_perl /usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl /usr/share/perl5/vendor_perl /usr/lib/perl5/core_perl /usr/share/perl5/core_perl /d/a/nym-vpn-client/nym-vpn-client/nym-vpn-desktop/src-tauri/target/release/build/openssl-sys-e3460947fbbdac1d/out/openssl-build/build/src/external/perl/Text-Template-1.56/lib) at /usr/share/perl5/core_perl/Params/Check.pm line 6.
Error:   BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at /usr/share/perl5/core_perl/Params/Check.pm line 6.
Error:   Compilation failed in require at /usr/share/perl5/core_perl/IPC/Cmd.pm line 59.
Error:   BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at /usr/share/perl5/core_perl/IPC/Cmd.pm line 59.
Error:   Compilation failed in require at /d/a/nym-vpn-client/nym-vpn-client/nym-vpn-desktop/src-tauri/target/release/build/openssl-sys-e3460947fbbdac1d/out/openssl-build/build/src/util/perl/OpenSSL/config.pm line 19.
Error:   BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at /d/a/nym-vpn-client/nym-vpn-client/nym-vpn-desktop/src-tauri/target/release/build/openssl-sys-e3460947fbbdac1d/out/openssl-build/build/src/util/perl/OpenSSL/config.pm line 19.
Error:   Compilation failed in require at ./Configure line 23.
Error:   BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at ./Configure line 23.
  thread 'main' panicked at C:\Users\runneradmin\.cargo\registry\src\index.crates.io-6f17d22bba15001f\openssl-src-300.2.1+3.2.0\src\lib.rs:611:9:

I tried to setup Perl in the workflow before rust build

perl-version: '5.38'
distribution: strawberry

But it does not fix the issue.
Any help would be appreciated.

[sfackler]

(you may need to install the Locale::Maketext::Simple module)

[Qix-]

According to our CI, it is up to date when running cpan Locale::Maketext::Simple on a Windows github actions runner. So it is indeed already installed. Something else must be up.

[Qix-]

The issue is when you're building on windows using shell: bash. That puts the runner under MSYS/MINGW (not sure which one), which comes with its own /usr/bin/perl. @doums see https://github.com/nymtech/nym-vpn-client/pull/54/files#diff-7a42dc8739297053550b8882b7bf3fcc770725f51365f7b273ed5a7d9d91c329R151.

The giveaway was the @INC dirs that it outputs when erroring (broken out into lines for visibility:

(@INC contains:
/d/a/nym-vpn-client/nym-vpn-client/nym-vpn-desktop/src-tauri/target/release/build/openssl-sys-e3460947fbbdac1d/out/openssl-build/build/src/util/perl
D
\a\nym-vpn-client\nym-vpn-client\local\lib\perl5;D \a\nym-vpn-client\nym-vpn-client\local\lib\perl5\MSWin32-x64-multi-thread;D 
\a\_actions\shogo82148\actions-setup-perl\v1\scripts\lib
/usr/lib/perl5/site_perl
/usr/share/perl5/site_perl /usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl
...

Linux uses : as a path separator, but windows uses ; as its separator. Thus, you see the ; retained in the list, whereas the : from D:\ gets removed and is treated as a new path. That's what tipped me off as to what was happening (that, and the obvious linux-style paths).

Instead, you want the Windows perl. The openssl-src crate, which openssl-sys uses to build, allows you to override either PERL or OPENSSL_SRC_PERL. Run this as its own step prior to doing any builds:

      - name: Set Perl environment variables
        if: runner.os == 'Windows'
        run: |
          echo "PERL=$((where.exe perl)[0])" | Out-File -FilePath $env:GITHUB_ENV -Append -Encoding utf8
          echo "OPENSSL_SRC_PERL=$((where.exe perl)[0])" | Out-File -FilePath $env:GITHUB_ENV -Append -Encoding utf8

The trick is to not specify shell: bash in this step so that which.exe queries the Windows PATH and not MinGW's/MSYS's. The (...)[0] takes the first from where.exe since unlike Linux the Powershell version outputs all hits from the path. Then you stick them into the special file at $GITHUB_ENV which is used to populate default environment variables in all subsequent runs.

openssl-sys then started to build correctly for us.

Hope this helps :)