[Geany-devel] [Win32, Build] Running build commands synchronously?

[Enrico Tröger]

Hey guys.

(For the impatient, scroll to the end of the mail.)


Some of you might that on Windows, running some commands opens an extra
console window and so capturing the program's output is not possible.
That happens e.g. when compiling, linking, or running make commands in
Geany on Windows.
There is a long story behind, IMO that should be fixed in GLib's spawn
commands but recently I read Tor, the responsibly dev, said this is not
GLib's job but instead in the app's reponsibility.
This is all ok but I and probably Nick too, won't write any code using
the Windows API and CreateProcess() just to get it working.

Some time ago, I added some code to the Windows port that creates an
additional console window on startup of Geany, this can be activated by
the "-v" command line option. This has the advantage, when running a
compiler or make or whatever, no extra console window will open and we
can capture the program's output.
But of course, it isn't nice to have always this extra console window
open. And more importantly, with this window, the Run commands
sometimes[1] don't work at all or cause weird behaviour[2].
This extra console window was also never intended for daily use, just
as a little help when testing code on Windows.


There are two ways to go:
a) fix all these problems by writing a lot new code around
Windows' CreateProcess() API and make it all working
b) run Builds commands on Windows synchronously for what we have
already that CreateProcess() code in Geany (done by Pierre Joye,
many many thanks)

Solution A would be of course the best one and desirable but it needs
someone to write the code and with the necessary knowledge and time to
do this.
So, I'd vote for solution B, attached is a quick hack on the
src/build.c with the necessary changes. Tested and seems to work.
Instead of running the Build commands asynchronously, they are run
directly. This also has disadvantages:
a) the whole Geany window freezes while the Build command is running
b) the output is "sorted", that is, first the program's stdout is put
into the Compiler window, then the program's stderr

But therefore we have the advantage that the build system on Windows
gets more usable.

###
### END ###
###
So, to not be even more boring with details, the final question is:

Are there any objections in using the attached patch and making  the
Build commands on Windows running synchronously?


[1] for some commands, only noticed while testing code, not sure why
[2] In #2723005, the user reported 100% CPU usage when using the Run
command. There was also a related issue with running Java apps on
Windows, IIRC.


Regards,
Enrico

-- 
Get my GPG key from http://www.uvena.de/pub.asc
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