If you are a Windows C++ developer and MS Visual Studio is your favorite IDE, you might wonder if it's possible to have the EOS code compiled directly on Windows.

We have made several attempts with Windows C++ compilers, but to no avail. The main problem is that, while the EOS code is branched with the WIN32 flag, unfortunately it's been done inconsistently. Also, Windows Clang compiler behaves differently than its Unix counterpart - it seems to be more restrictive. For example expressions like std::move(u8"env") are invalid in Windows.

However, we've come up with an alternative solution: Windows Subsystem for Linux combined with Visual Studio Code IDE. As you'll see this approach works even better than having the code compiled directly in Windows.

Prerequisites

You need to be running Windows 10, version 1703, also known as the Creators Update. To verify your Windows version open the Settings Panel and then navigate to System > About.

If you have an earlier version of Windows 10 and for some reasons don't want to upgrade to version 1703, you might still be able to give it a try, provided you manage to upgrade your Windows Subsystem for Linux from Ubuntu 14 to Ubuntu 16.

Windows Subsystem for Linux can be only installed on the system drive. If you're running low on your disk space (extra 3-4 GB will be needed), you might want to expand your system partition using tools available here.

Tooling up

First we will enable Windows Subsystem for Linux and then we will access the Bash command line interface from within Visual Studio.

Windows Subsystem for Linux

The official Windows Subsystem for Linux installation guide is to be found here. However, for your convenience, we provide the following simplified procedure:

1. Open PowerShell in the administrator mode (right-click and choose Run as Administrator) and execute this command:
   Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName Microsoft-Windows-Subsystem-Linux

2. Restart your computer when prompted.

3. Turn on the Developer Mode:
   -- Open the Settings Panel and navigate to Update & Security > For developers.
   -- Select the Developer Mode radio button.
   -- If prompted, restart your computer again.

4. Open Windows command prompt and type bash. After you have accepted the license agreement, a Ubuntu user-mode image will be downloaded and extracted to %localappdata%\lxss\. You will be prompted for setting up a Linux user name and password. When the process is finished, a shortcut named Bash on Ubuntu on Windows will be added to your Start Menu.

5. Launch a new Ubuntu shell by either:
   -- Typing bash in the command prompt, or
   -- Using the Bash on Ubuntu on Windows shortcut available from the Start Menu.

6. Once you are inside the Linux shell, make sure you are running Ubuntu 16:
   lsb_release -a

7. And finally update & upgrade Ubuntu:
   sudo apt update
sudo apt full-upgrade

Redoing the Ubuntu installation

The following step is optional. Use it only if, for some reasons, you need to start over and redo the Ubuntu installation.

1. Open Windows command prompt and run:
   lxrun /uninstall /full to uninstall
   lxrun /install to reinstall

2. Run bash to launch a new Ubuntu shell and inside it run update & upgrade:
   sudo apt update
sudo apt full-upgrade

Visual Studio Code

Download and install Visual Studio Code from the official website. To enable Ubuntu bash console inside Visual Studio Code you need to modify the User Settings:
-- Navigate to File > Preferences > User Settings.
-- Add the following entry in the right-hand side panel to overwrite the default settings: "terminal.integrated.shell.windows": "C:\\Windows\\sysnative\\bash.exe".
-- After saving the changes, you should be able to toggle the Ubuntu console with Ctrl + ' or View > Integrated Terminal.

Optionally, consider adding C++ extensions to Visual Studio Code, as they can be useful for C++ development. Use Ctrl + Shift + X to open the Extensions Panel and then you might want to add the following extensions:
-- C/C++
-- C++ Intelisense
-- CMakeTools
-- CMake Tools Helper
-- Code Runner

Compile the Source Code

Create a workspace location for EOS on the Windows file system. In this guide we will be using X:\Workspaces\EOS but obviously it's up to you to choose your own location.

On the Linux file system, the above location will be mapped as /mnt/x/Workspaces/EOS. The location you have chosen will be mapped accordingly.

NOTE: use lower case for the name of the drive, in our case it's /mnt/x/.

At this stage you can start using the Ubuntu shell available in Visual Studio Code (View > Integrated Terminal). The main advantage is its support for an easy way to copy-paste commands.

All the following commands are to be run in an Ubuntu shell.

1. Define the following system variables:
   export WORKSPACE_DIR=/mnt/x/Workspaces/EOS
export EOSIO_INSTALL_DIR=${WORKSPACE_DIR}/eos
export EOS_PROGRAMS=${EOSIO_INSTALL_DIR}/build/programs
export TEMP_DIR=/tmp
   NOTE: make sure to replace x/Workspaces/EOS with the appropriate path that matches the workspace location you have chosen on your computer.

2. Save the above system variables to the ~/.bashrc file:
   echo "export WORKSPACE_DIR=${WORKSPACE_DIR}" >> ~/.bashrc
echo "export EOSIO_INSTALL_DIR=${EOSIO_INSTALL_DIR}" >> ~/.bashrc
echo "export EOS_PROGRAMS=${EOS_PROGRAMS}" >> ~/.bashrc

3. Install cmake and git:
   sudo apt install cmake
sudo apt install git

4. Clone the source code from the EOS repository:
   cd ${WORKSPACE_DIR}
git clone https://github.com/eosio/eos --recursive

5. Now you are ready to proceed with the actual compilation of the source code. This step can take several hours, depending on your computer's power, and will require you to intermittently confirm some actions and also to supply the sudo password.
   cd ${EOSIO_INSTALL_DIR}
./build.sh ubuntu full
   NOTE: As this process requires downloading a lot of files from various sources, it might fail. In this case just try running this step again.

Run the Executables

If no errors have occurred, you should have the EOS code on your Windows system compiled, resulting with multiple libraries and executables. Executables are placed in the $EOS_PROGRAMS folder:

• eosd - a server-side blockchain node component,
• eosc - a command line interface to interact with the blockchain,
• eos-walletd - an EOS wallet,
• launcher - an application for network composing and deployment, more information is available here.

At this stage you should be able to run tests described in eos/README.md.

For completeness, let's try if EOS can be started:
cd ${EOS_PROGRAMS}/eosd && ./eosd

At this stage it should exit with an error complaining about the genesis.json file not being defined. In case it does not exit with this error, you can always close it with ctrl + C.

Produce Blocks

Figure out the path for your genesis.json file. In our case it's /mnt/x/Workspaces/EOS/eos/build/genesis.json, yours will probably be different, depending on the workspace location you have chosen.

Edit the config.ini file (in our case it's located here: X:\Workspaces\EOS\eos\build\programs\eosd\data-dir\config.ini) using WordPad (or other text editor of your choice), locate the enable-stale-production entry and make it enable-stale-production = true.

Then append the following content in config.ini:

genesis-json = /mnt/x/Workspaces/EOS/eos/build/genesis.json

producer-name = inita
producer-name = initb
producer-name = initc
producer-name = initd
producer-name = inite
producer-name = initf
producer-name = initg
producer-name = inith
producer-name = initi
producer-name = initj
producer-name = initk
producer-name = initl
producer-name = initm
producer-name = initn
producer-name = initq
producer-name = initr
producer-name = inits
producer-name = initt
producer-name = initu

plugin = eos::producer_plugin
plugin = eos::chain_api_plugin
plugin = eos::wallet_api_plugin
plugin = eos::account_history_api_plugin
plugin = eos::http_plugin 

NOTE: Make sure to set the proper value for the genesis.json path - most probably your path will be different than the one quoted above.

At this stage, when you run eosd again, it should start block production:
cd ${EOS_PROGRAMS}/eosd && ./eosd

This is what you should see in your console if everything works OK:

232901ms thread-0   chain_plugin.cpp:80           plugin_initialize    ] initializing chain plugin
232902ms thread-0   producer_plugin.cpp:159       plugin_initialize    ] Public Key: EOS6MRyAjQq8ud7hVNYcfnVPJqcVpscN5So8BhtHuGYqET5GDW5CV
232903ms thread-0   http_plugin.cpp:132           plugin_initialize    ] host: 127.0.0.1 port: 8888
232905ms thread-0   http_plugin.cpp:135           plugin_initialize    ] configured http to listen on 127.0.0.1:8888
...
232998ms thread-0   producer_plugin.cpp:170       plugin_startup       ] producer plugin:  plugin_startup() begin
232999ms thread-0   producer_plugin.cpp:175       plugin_startup       ] Launching block production for 19 producers.

*******************************
*                             *
*   ------ NEW CHAIN ------   *
*   -   Welcome to EOS!   -   *
*   -----------------------   *
*                             *
*******************************

Your genesis seems to have an old timestamp
Please consider using the --genesis-timestamp option to give your genesis a recent timestamp

233012ms thread-0   producer_plugin.cpp:185       plugin_startup       ] producer plugin:  plugin_startup() end
233012ms thread-0   http_plugin.cpp:147           plugin_startup       ] start processing http thread
...
233059ms thread-0   http_plugin.cpp:224           add_handler          ] add api url: /v1/account_history/get_transaction
233060ms thread-0   http_plugin.cpp:224           add_handler          ] add api url: /v1/account_history/get_transactions
237003ms thread-0   chain_controller.cpp:235      _push_block          ] initq #1 @2017-09-29T16:03:57  | 0 trx, 0 pending, exectime_ms=0
237005ms thread-0   producer_plugin.cpp:233       block_production_loo ] initq generated block #1 @ 2017-09-29T16:03:57 with 0 trxs  0 pending
240003ms thread-0   chain_controller.cpp:235      _push_block          ] initc #2 @2017-09-29T16:04:00  | 0 trx, 0 pending, exectime_ms=0
240004ms thread-0   producer_plugin.cpp:233       block_production_loo ] initc generated block #2 @ 2017-09-29T16:04:00 with 0 trxs  0 pending
243003ms thread-0   chain_controller.cpp:235      _push_block          ] initd #3 @2017-09-29T16:04:03  | 0 trx, 0 pending, exectime_ms=0

NOTE: It might happen that eosd hangs and fails to produce blocks at the first attempt. In this case just exit the process using ctrl + C, then wait a bit and try again.

Update the Source Code

In order to update the source code from the official repository and recompile it, run the following commands:

cd ${EOSIO_INSTALL_DIR}
git pull
rm -r build && mkdir build && cd build
export BOOST_ROOT=${HOME}/opt/boost_1_64_0
cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug \
    -DCMAKE_C_COMPILER=clang-4.0 \
    -DCMAKE_CXX_COMPILER=clang++-4.0 \
    -DWASM_LLVM_CONFIG=${HOME}/opt/wasm/bin/llvm-config \
    -DBINARYEN_BIN=${HOME}/opt/binaryen/bin \
    -DOPENSSL_ROOT_DIR=/usr/local/opt/openssl \
    -DOPENSSL_LIBRARIES=/usr/local/opt/openssl/lib \
    ../ && make

Please refer to the official build guide and/or this list if you need EOS build guides for operating systems other than Windows (i.e. MacOS and Linux).