Compatibility with Windows and WSL

[t-hamano]

I want to contribute to this project and attempted to build the project. I am using Windows OS and could not build it because of the UNIX-derived commands used.

For example, the cp command is not recognized as follows (the equivalent command is copy on Windows) :

nx run wp-now:"build:bundle"

> nx run wp-now:"build:bundle"

'cp' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.
Warning: run-commands command "cp packages/wp-now/public/* dist/packages/wp-now" exited with non-zero status code

 ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

 >  NX   Ran target build:bundle for project wp-now (653ms)
 
    ×    1/1 failed
    √    0/1 succeeded [0 read from cache]

So, after a quick look at the commands property of project.json, it seems that the following commands are not available on Windows:

• rm
• zip
• cp
• cat

The three solutions I know of are as follows:

• Install GNU Core Utilities on the developer's own machine to make UNIX commands available
• Use OS-independent npm packages such as cpx, rimraf, etc.
• Use node directly (Information on Stack Overflow)

I know it is very difficult to build an OS-independent development environment for such an advanced project, but I would be happy to help in any way I can.

[dmsnell]

@t-hamano have you tried using the Windows Subsystem for Linux?
It was Microsoft's response to these kind of recurring issues and it's gotten quite good.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/about

[t-hamano]

@dmsnell
Thanks for the reply.

have you tried using the Windows Subsystem for Linux?

Yes, I am developing on WSL2 primarily for the Gutenberg Project.

However, I could not build the project even on WSL. The following error occurs (However, this might be a problem in my environment):

$ nx preview wp-now start
/mnt/c/Users/tetsuaki.hamano/AppData/Local/Volta/bin/nx: line 1: cmd: command not found

I also believe that debugging on Windows OS is necessary to resolve Windows-specific issues such as those reported in WordPress/playground-tools#11.

[dmsnell]

@t-hamano was just discussing this in another issue. nx is a runtime dependency not specified, so it looks like the project is working in WSL for you, but depending on nx at the runtime is itself a problem.

workaround for now to confirm the problem is npm install -g nx and try again

[adamziel]

It would be great not to rely on the global nx command.

About rm, cp, and others – I'm conflicted. On one hand, it's really convenient to use them and node packages like rimraf are portable but also tend to be slower, behave differently, and require consulting the documentation frequently. What do you think @dmsnell ?

[t-hamano]

@dmsnell
Thank you, after installing nx globally, I was able to run npm run dev and confirm that Playground was launched in the browser!

The nx preview wp-now start command also executed successfully, but when I accessed http://127.0.0.1:8881/, I got an ERR_CONNECTION_REFUSED error. If this does not seem to be a problem in my environment, I will report it separately.

[adamziel]

CCing @danielbachhuber about the connection error.

@t-hamano WSL should just allow you to use any ports, right? I just wanted to confirm you don't have to explicitly allow network traffic.

[t-hamano]

@adamziel

According to this comment from the WSL project, my understanding is as follows:

• Currently wp-now is listening on 127.0.0.1 (ipv4 address)
• Windows host OS resolves localhost to ::1 (ipv6 address)
• Therefore, the address that wp-now is listening to cannot be reached

However, localhost:5400 that npm run dev is listening to is correctly accessible. I can also access localhost:8888​ when wp-env is started with WSL.

Therefore, one solution might be to change the address that wp-now listens on to localhost.

[danielbachhuber]

Therefore, one solution might be to change the address that wp-now listens on to localhost.

@t-hamano Want to submit a PR with your suggested changes?

[t-hamano]

@t-hamano Want to submit a PR with your suggested changes?

Yes, I still lack understanding about this project, but I will try to submit a PR soon.

[eliot-akira]

I'm not sure if it's related, but there was an issue with using localhost for absolute URL when loading PHP WASM on the server side (Node.js). The temporary solution was to use 127.0.0.1.

• Installing WordPress with localhost as absoluteURL fails with getaddrinfo ENOTFOUND localhost #203

Just wanted to mention it, in case you see the same error.

[adamziel]

@t-hamano I believe it's hardcoded in this line:

wordpress-playground/packages/wp-now/src/start-server.ts

Line 105 in 07700f0

const url = `http://127.0.0.1:${port}/`;

@eliot-akira good point! Perhaps it would work now that localhost resolves to 127.0.0.1: 4c40c55

[danielbachhuber]

Another contributor hitting the original report WordPress/playground-tools#66

[ajitbohra]

is this still relevant?

https://github.com/WordPress/playground-tools/blob/trunk/packages/wp-now/src/start-server.ts#L116

url is no longer hardcoded

[adamziel]

@ajitbohra The URL issue should now be solved, but the larger question about Windows compatibility still stands. Perhaps requiring WSL as a dependency would be a good middle-ground. @t-hamano – is everything working for you on WSL now?

[t-hamano]

I've been away from this project for a while, so could you please tell me what I should check?

For the time being, when I executed npm run preview on WSL, the server started up, but the page was not displayed on either http://localhost:5932/ or http://127.0.0.1:5932/.

6af728706e50045e825cc64bf9668339.mp4

[adamziel]

Thank you for testing @t-hamano! That's useful for the core Wordpress Playground repo.

I was about to ask if you could also try wp-now from https://github.com/WordPress/playground-tools/, but I just saw the absoluteUrl option @ajitbohra linked to is not actually exposed to the CLI:

So yes, this issue still stands.

[t-hamano]

Regarding wp-now, it seems to be working mostly fine, both in the case of developing the playground-tools project itself and using the library. The command that is failing may be a problem with my environment or testing procedure 🤔

playground-tools project development

After cloning the playground-tools repo and running npm install, I ran the following command:

• npm run build: ✅ The build completes successfully
• nx preview wp-now start: ✅ Server starts and WP site works
• npm run dev: ⚠️ got the following error > NX Cannot find project 'playground-website'
• npm run preview: ⚠️ got the following error > NX Cannot find project 'playground-website'

wp-now package

• npm install -g @wp-now/wp-now
• wp-now start: ✅ Server starts and WP site works

Is there anything else I should check?

[adamziel]

This is golden, thank you so much @t-hamano!

CCing @sejas on the playground-tools errors, which are likely a matter of removing playground-website from some config as it's not a project living in that repo.