Musilitar (May 13 2024 at 17:09): Musilitar (May 13 2024 at 17:09):Hi all,
Wanted to check out Roc on Windows, though I know support is limited.
Built the compiler from source and it looks okay.
Now I'm trying to run the helloWorld.roc example but it seems the basic-cli package has no Windows support.
I'm completely new here and don't know if that is indeed the case? Couldn't find any clear info on this.
Compiler error:
I was expecting this file to exist:
C:\...\Roaming\Roc\packages\github.com/roc-lang/basic-cli/releases/download/0.10.0\vNe6s9hWzoTZtFmNkvEICPErI9ptji_ySjicO6CkucY\windows-x64.rh
However, it was not there!
The file indeed doesn't exist, I only see Linux and MacOS
Luke Boswell (May 13 2024 at 17:14):This is correct. In my experience only the zig platforms seem to reliably work for now. I haven't really dug into what changes we need to make to the basic cli to get it working.
Luke Boswell (May 13 2024 at 17:15):So for example checkout https://github.com/lukewilliamboswell/roc-wasm4 which works on Windows and is fun
Luke Boswell (May 13 2024 at 17:16):Also note that the surgical linker has a bug and is currently the default for Windows so be sure to use --linker=legacy when using examples like platform switching.
Luke Boswell (May 13 2024 at 17:19):Oh, to specifically address your question. It's looking for the prebuilt binaries in the platform tar file. But we dont have prebuilt files for Windows yet. You can clone basic-cli and use a path if you want to use it locally. I have a branch of basic-cli that should be easier to build the platform prebuilt binary if you are interested in looking into this.
Musilitar (May 13 2024 at 17:19):Alright, good to know.
At least I learned some things while getting the compiler working :smile:
Thanks for the tips!
Folkert de Vries (May 23 2024 at 09:09):what are blockers for including the windows version in those binaries (now that @Luke Boswell showed that we can cross-compile platforms)
Luke Boswell (May 23 2024 at 09:17):There's a wondows surgical linker bug causing everything to segfault
Luke Boswell (May 23 2024 at 09:20):I have this PR https://github.com/roc-lang/basic-cli/pull/194 that I should probably update and submit for review. That changes the building in preparation for the removal of rebuilding host from the cli. But if people are using a release there is no difference. It would make it so we can do the cross compiling thing. Then I guess its a matter of checking what is compatible with windows.
Luke Boswell (May 23 2024 at 09:22):My main concern with that PR is just I haven't spoken to Anton yet, and we will need to modify the bundle process a little. I wanted to make sure Anton was happy with the final result, but I guess we could achieve that with a PR review. That PR was really helpful in developing the basic-ssg and platform-template repositories.
Luke Boswell (May 23 2024 at 09:23):Oh, the other thing is I need to figure out how to do the cross-compile thing for surgical linker artefacts. I'm hoping :fingers_crossed: that with both cargo and roc cross compiling that should just work.
Luke Boswell (May 23 2024 at 09:24):I can maybe look into this again tomorrow.
Last updated: Jul 26 2025 at 12:14 UTC