Getting Unangband/Angband from SVN and Compiling on Windows

[Bandobras]

Okay, I -think- it worked. It certainly did something that caused a lot of lines of text to appear.

Congratulations. You win. However, you may want to look closer at the last lines and verify they do not begin with "Error". I hope they don't.

If it did work correctly, would the old shortcut for the game still run the newly compiled version?

I don't think so. In short, you've made yourself your own package with the game, only it's not compressed, unlike the zip packages you get from Internet. You still have to install it and it's possible the old version will play tricks to stay in power...

You're all being so patient with me. I really appreciate all this.

You are brave and patient, too. And, you know, we don't often have (vocal and feminine) chicks on our forum. Much less ones that dare compile from sources.

[Anne]

Well, it appears that I claimed victory too soon. It didn't work. So I emptied my Workspace folder and started over in the hopes that I might get some clues as to what's going wrong. Downloading the SVN files went fine up until the last three lines -

Error In directory 'C:\workspace\branches\andrewdoull\unangband\lib\h elp'
Error Can't move source to dest
Error Can't move C:workspace\branches\andrewdoull\unangband\lib\hel p\.svn\tmp\prop-base\cmdorig.txt.svn-base' to 'C:\workspace\branches\andrewdoull\unangband\lib\h elp\.svn\prop-base\cmdorig.txt.svn-base': The system cannot find the file specified.

Since that's in the branches folder rather than in the src, I'm assuming it isn't important.

In the src folder, typing 'make -f makefile.win MINGW=yes' still doesn't work. It still says 'make' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file.

Tried typing 'mingw32-make -f makefile.win MINGW=yes'. It said:
copy unangband.exe ..
1 file(s) copied.

I'm not seeing anything in the src folder that looks like the usual .exe file that I find in the zips (at least nothing with that icon), but I do see an application labeled with the unangband icon. Double-clicking on that gives me
"Cannot find required directory: C:\workspace\trunk\unangband\src\lib\

Thinking that this might be related to the incompatibilities between Win and Unix that Andrew mentioned in #23, I copied it up a level into the Unangband folder. Double-clicking that now brings up the game window but it's blank. Going to File/New makes the usual cursor box appear in the right spot as if giving me choices to make the new character, but still no text, just black screen.

Copied it up to one level higher (trunk folder) and got the missing lib directory message again.

I was starting to wonder whether the Mingw download didn't go right, so I double-checked inside that bin folder, and found a 'mingw32-make' application in there, which is what the download site lists for 'make'. So that should be right, I think. And C:\mingw\bin is in PATH, I checked that again as well. So I can't understand why 'make' isn't being recognized as a command if that's what's normally used for this.

And Bandobras, you're such a sweetheart.

[Pete Mack]

Congratulations! I've gotta say, attempting to use Eclipse for the first time compiling is an audacious effort. In any case: no, you haven't actually installed the new version (and you may not want to.) You can run it either by navigating to your svn directory using the Explorer, or you can run it directly from the DOS window, as:

C:\....\unangband\> ./angband.exe

You can also install it in the original location, but that's a pain, because every time you update and recompile, you need to remember to reinstall the new version. (It's painfully easy to forget.)

As for maintaining the latest changes: either use eclipse, or install SVN (see V instructions), verify that svn is in your path (just like make), and use

C:\...\unangband\> svn update
or just

C:\...\unangband\> svn up

svn has brief command help via:

C:\> svn help
eg, for help with the update command:
C:\> svn help update

[Anne]

Thanks, Pete, but I ended up skipping Eclipse - the newer version that I have is just too different from the one used in the instructions. Anyway, I still don't have it up and running yet, but I'll remember what you posted for when I do. I tried the ./angband.exe anyway just to see if it would kick this thing into running properly, but it tells me that ". is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file." Par for the course, I'd say.

One more thing I tried - I reinstalled the last unofficial beta (I'd uninstalled it in the hopes that I'd get this one running) and it's now giving me the same blank screen that my compiled version did. So it looks like Bandobras may be right and the two are fighting each other for top dog status.

------------------------

EDIT -- Okay, this is getting worse and worse. I tried pulling up Angband and Zangband, since my Un isn't playable at the moment, and they both open with black screens now too. It's the opening screens and character creation screens that are missing on those - if I open an existing character, the game appears properly, but I haven't played anything yet to see whether anything else will come up missing. On my old version of Un, even opening an existing character presents me with blank screen. What in the world did I do?

[Pete Mack]

Thanks, Pete, but I ended up skipping Eclipse - the newer version that I have is just too different from the one used in the instructions. Anyway, I still don't have it up and running yet, but I'll remember what you posted for when I do. I tried the ./angband.exe anyway just to see if it would kick this thing into running properly, but it tells me that ". is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file." Par for the course, I'd say.

One more thing I tried - I reinstalled the last unofficial beta (I'd uninstalled it in the hopes that I'd get this one running) and it's now giving me the same blank screen that my compiled version did. So it looks like Bandobras may be right and the two are fighting each other for top dog status.

------------------------

EDIT -- Okay, this is getting worse and worse. I tried pulling up Angband and Zangband, since my Un isn't playable at the moment, and they both open with black screens now too. It's the opening screens and character creation screens that are missing on those - if I open an existing character, the game appears properly, but I haven't played anything yet to see whether anything else will come up missing. On my old version of Un, even opening an existing character presents me with blank screen. What in the world did I do?

That sounds extremely bad, and I don't think it has to do with building. All I can think of is reboot :/

Also, ./angband.exe is wrong (I am a fool). Since you are building unangband, it's unangband.exe If you are using the DOS window, use the
C:\> dir

command to see what's present in the directory. This is equivalent to seeing the contents of a directory with Explorer.exe in 'details' mode. You can run any executables (exe files) using .\foo.exe (or ./foo.exe). This is equivalent to clicking on an executable in Explorer.


C:\...unangband> ./unangband.exe

This is in the directory where .../lib and ..../src are. There should be a copy of unangband.exe in the directory if your build was successful. Basically the DOS window works like Explorer--you can run any executable from the current directory, or examine any file. You can't see them without running:

C:\> dir

which will give you a list of the contents of the current directory. If there is no unangband.exe, ./unangband.exe or .\unangband.exe wont work. The '.\' (or './') will only run the one in the current directory only, as opposed to one somewhere else in your path by accident.

[Rizwan]

Eclipse Tutorial

I was browsing the net and I found this tutorial on installing eclipse. It might help.
Sorry its too big to attach, here is the site http://www.cs.umanitoba.ca/~eclipse/

[roustk]

You can run any executables (exe files) using .\foo.exe (or ./foo.exe). This is equivalent to clicking on an executable in Explorer.

C:\...unangband> ./unangband.exe

It's been an age, but isn't Windows still picky about it's slashes -- "./foo.exe" is run "." with the "foo.exe" flag, but ".\foo.exe" is run "foo.exe" in the current directory?

In short, ".\unangband.exe" seems far more likely to work.

[Anne]

The good news is that after rebooting this morning, my games are running again. That's all it took to straighten out those missing screens. Yay!

It seems that I need to type just "unangband.exe" in the command shell, without the "./" or ".\" to get it to run. It's still giving me the Cannot find required directory: C:\workspace\trunk\unangband\src\lib\ but at least it gets me that far. I'll try redownloading from the SVN and see if that straightens it out.

Rizwin - thanks for that tutorial link. I've bookmarked it to see if it can help me wrap my head around Eclipse a little better.

Thanks guys!

[Pete Mack]

Anne, you need to change directory one higher. You can't actually run the game from the
src directory, only from

C:\workspace\trunk\unangband

which is where the lib directory is located. The very last directive in the make command is to put a copy in the parent directory, which is refered to as '..' :

C:\workspace\trunk\unangband\src> cd ..
C:\workspace\trunk\unangband> unangband.exe

[Pete Mack]

It's been an age, but isn't Windows still picky about it's slashes -- "./foo.exe" is run "." with the "foo.exe" flag, but ".\foo.exe" is run "foo.exe" in the current directory?

In short, ".\unangband.exe" seems far more likely to work.

You are right. '/' works in DOS only when using cd. Since I almost always use cygwin, I had forgotten that it doesn't mean the same thing when running an executable in DOS.

Sorry about that.

[Anne]

Woo! Success! It's working! You guys are great! Thank you for all the help. Boy is that a relief. Virtual cookies and milk for everybody!

[Bandobras]

Congratulations! You have valiantly defeated the sinister guardian of Unangband Compilation. The way forth lies open before you.

Next step is making daily compiles, keeping up with all game changes. For now, however, a yesterday's SVN feed is enough so that you can start looking for your exclusive General Store outlet (can be further than in Hobbiton!). Thanks for the cookies, BTW.

[Pete Mack]

Thanks for the cookie It just occurred to me that this kind of discussion would be a lot easier on the #angband-dev IRC channel at irc.freenode.net

I haven't been there for a while, but I know that Andrew Sidwell (takkaria) has a bot there watching for activity. For something that works better in dialogue, like the first time ever setting up a build environment, IRC would be a lot easier.

[Rizwan]

Rizwin - thanks for that tutorial link. I've bookmarked it to see if it can help me wrap my head around Eclipse a little better.

Thanks guys!

You are most welcome

[Anne]

Just for posterity in case someone else experiences similar problems, I encountered one more problem while trying to do my daily update.

I attempted to update, and it was unsuccessful - the reason given was that the workspace folder was locked. Attempting to 'release lock' via TortoiseSVN did not alter that status, and nothing I could do was able to remove that lock.

I found information on the TortoiseSVN site - it seems that some virus programs will lock the folder and prevent that lock from being removed. Putting the workspace folder on as an exclusion can remedy this. But some virus programs (mine included) don't allow that. And others will still lock the folder even though it's excluded. In that case, the only alternative is to completely remove the folder and do it from scratch every time you want to do a daily update. Luckily, if you're doing this the TortoiseSVN route, that really doesn't add much time to the process.