Re: Simplify documentation related to Windows builds

Hi,

On Tue, 30 Jan 2024 at 11:02, Michael Paquier <michael(at)paquier(dot)xyz> wrote:
>
> On Fri, Jan 19, 2024 at 06:11:40AM -0500, Andrew Dunstan wrote:
> > FYI Strawberry was a bit stuck for a while at 5.32, but they are now up to
> > 5.38. See <https://strawberryperl.com/releases.html>
> >
> > I agree we shouldn't be recommending any particular perl distro, especially
> > not ASPerl which now has annoying license issues.
>
> The more I think about this thread, the more I'd tend to wipe out most
> of "windows-requirements" for the sole reason that it is the far-west
> regarding the various ways it is possible to get the dependencies we
> need for the build and at runtime. We could keep it minimal with the
> set of requirements we are listing under meson in terms of versions:
> https://www.postgresql.org/docs/devel/install-requirements.html
>
> Then we could have one sentence recommending one, at most two
> facilities used the buildfarm, like https://www.msys2.org/ or
> chocolatey as these group basically all the dependencies we need for a
> meson build (right?) while linking back to the meson page about the
> version requirements.

I tested both msys2 and chocolatey on the fresh Windows containers and
I confirm that Postgres can be built using these. I tested the
dependencies that are required to build and run Postgres. If more
dependencies are required to be checked, I can test again.

As these will be continuously tested by the buildfarm, I agree that
what you suggested looks better.

> One issue I have with the meson page listing the requirements is that
> we don't directly mention Diff, but that's critical for the tests.

I think that is because most distros come with a preinstalled
diffutils package. It is mentioned under the Windows requirements page
[1] since it does not come preinstalled. However, I agree that it
could be good to mention it under the meson page listing the
requirements.

[1] https://www.postgresql.org/docs/devel/installation-platform-notes.html#WINDOWS-REQUIREMENTS

--
Regards,
Nazir Bilal Yavuz
Microsoft