Cannot build using gcc on windows.

[amine-aboufirass]

Hey all, I'm trying to run a simple example inspired from the docs. I have a simple source file called main.c:

#include <stdio.h>

#ifdef ENGLISH
#define GREETING "Hello!\n"
#else
#define GREETING "Bonjour!\n"
#endif


int main()
{
    printf(GREETING);
}

And a simple SConstruct file as follows:

import os

env = Environment(CC="gcc", CCFLAGS="-DENGLISH", ENV={ "PATH" : os.environ["PATH"]})

env.Program("main.c")

When I try to build it using scons I get an error:

scons: Reading SConscript files ...
scons: done reading SConscript files.
scons: Building targets ...
gcc /Fomain.obj /c main.c -DENGLISH
scons: building terminated because of errors.
Cannot create temporary file in C:\windows\: Permission denied
scons: *** [main.obj] Error 3

If I run the same from an administrator powershell terminal I get the following error:

scons: Reading SConscript files ...
scons: done reading SConscript files.
scons: Building targets ...
gcc /Fomain.obj /c main.c -DENGLISH
c:/programdata/chocolatey/lib/mingw/tools/install/mingw64/bin/../lib/gcc/x86_64-w64-mingw32/11.2.0/../../../../x86_64-w64-mingw32/bin/ld.exe: cannot find /Fomain.obj: No such file or directory
c:/programdata/chocolatey/lib/mingw/tools/install/mingw64/bin/../lib/gcc/x86_64-w64-mingw32/11.2.0/../../../../x86_64-w64-mingw32/bin/ld.exe: cannot find /c: No such file or directory
collect2.exe: error: ld returned 1 exit status
scons: *** [main.obj] Error 1
scons: building terminated because of errors.

So my question is two fold:

• Why does scons require administrator permissions to build using gcc on Windows? Can I build without admin privileges?
• Why does building in an administrator terminal also fail?

[loonycyborg]

To use gcc on windows you should pass toolset=["gcc"] to Environment. By default it tries to use msvc and thus using msvc style switches. wrt admin rights I never had such problem with gcc though I'm using msys2.

[amine-aboufirass]

@loonycyborg while this appears to work at first glance, upon a closer look it seems that it still triggers cl which isn't what I want.

[loonycyborg]

Ye, it was wrong arg, I don't have windows handy atm so didn't test it :P

[mwichmann]

The two questions: (1) you don't need admin, (2) while it's trying to use the command gcc, SCons hasn't been initialized for building with gcc.

Turns out on Windows, which defaults to using msvc, it's not enough to just set CC to gcc. You actually have to run the correct "tool" to get the steup right - as @loonycyborg just said while I was typing. Try this line (tools, not toolset, btw):

env = Environment(tools=["mingw"], CCFLAGS="-DENGLISH", ENV={ "PATH" : os.environ["PATH"]})

Not really sure how you've ended up in a place where it's trying to write in C:\windows\:, which should fail. Maybe check your setting of TEMP?

[amine-aboufirass]

Your solution works, and doesn't seem to require the ENV={ "PATH" : os.environ["PATH"]} part, which I assume you've replicated to keep in line with the OP.

It seems that I have multiple installations of gcc, all installed with Chocolatey. The output of where.exe gcc is as follows:

C:\ProgramData\chocolatey\bin\gcc.exe
C:\ProgramData\chocolatey\lib\mingw\tools\install\mingw64\bin\gcc.exe

Not sure what tools=["mingw"] does but it fixes my immediate problem.

[mwichmann]

Depends on what you installed. If you install msys2 with choco, that install is governed by the setting of %ChocolateyToolsLocation%, which defaults to C:\tools afaik. Just discovered this, and current SCons doesn't know to look there. If you install just mingw, without the associated cygwin-insipired shell environment, it goes someplace different, not goverened by that environment variable, as far as I recall (I have an example in a VM somewhere that would take a while to get to to check).

SCons doesn't normally look at the existing PATH setting, which is why many people do what your example does, import the one from the system. But then what it finds is governed by the order of the system's PATH. This isn't really helping get you sorted out, just an explanation.