Re: [HACKERS] src/interfaces/libpq shipping nmake-related Makefiles

On 04/07/2017 02:00 PM, Magnus Hagander wrote:
> On Fri, Apr 7, 2017 at 6:29 AM, Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us> wrote:
>
>> Yeah.  For win32.mak, the key question is whether there is still anybody
>> who'd have an insurmountable problem with building the whole distro via
>> src/tools/msvc/ rather than just building libpq with win32.mak.  Given our
>> lack of infrastructure for testing win32.mak, continuing support for it
>> seems like quite an expensive proposition from the developer-time
>> standpoint.  I don't really want to do that if it's only going to save
>> somebody an occasional few minutes of build time.
>
> Insurmountable, probably not. The big difference is that you don't need
> *any* dependencies to build a libpq using win32.mak, but you need many of
> them (to start with, perl...) to build using the built-in one. For people
> who want to build it, it certainly save a lot more than "a few minutes".
> For somebody who doesn't have ready scripts it takes a *long* time to set
> up a build environment to do our regular msvc builds.
>
> I think the question is more, is there any need for people to do that at
> all, or are those people just going to be using the pre-built binaries
> anyway? That question I can't say I know the answer to.

It does seem handy, if all you want is libpq. Clearly not many people 
use it, though.

I just tested it. After adding all the missing files to the makefile, 
I'm getting an error:

> .\Release\libpq.dll.manifest : general error c1010070: Failed to load and parse
> the manifest. The system cannot find the file specified.
> NMAKE : fatal error U1077: '"C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10\bin\x86\mt.
> XE"' : return code '0x1f'
> Stop.
> NMAKE : fatal error U1077: '"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 14.
> \VC\BIN\nmake.EXE"' : return code '0x2'
> Stop.

This seems be the same as the 2nd error that was reported back in 2013: 
https://www.postgresql.org/message-id/CAJ2%3DPVQcW8UGNnSy%3DOw%3DvUK2zpjowTkzUS1B864REa7LOT140Q%40mail.gmail.com.

Despite the failure, it built a libpq.dll file, and it seems to work. I 
have no idea what the manifest file is.

I could easily add the missing files to win32.mak, but unless someone 
else steps up to the plate and fixes the manifest issue, I don't think 
we have much choice but remove the it.

- Heikki