Suggested improvement: automatically append .EXE when running programs on Windows

[chetmurthy]

When one runs a program stored in findlib packages, e.g.

ocamlfind pkg/exename args ....

on Linux, this works great, but on Windows, one must instead run

ocamlfind pkg/exename.EXE args ....

[capitalized for emphasis only]

It seems like a pity, when ocamlfind could just append the .EXE on Windows (since an executable MUST have that suffix), no?

Just a thought.

[gerdstolpmann]

I gladly accept Windows patches. There's no Windows around anymore - can't test.

[chetmurthy]

I can't blame you. I justo two solid 12-hour days in Windows CI hell, trying to get my Camlp5 testsuite to -compile-. Just insanity all-around.

I won't be touching Windows again, I think.

[chetmurthy]

Gerd,

OK, I got over my "touched the stove Windows, got third-degree burns", and got Camlp5 working on Windows. I have some fixes for ocamlfind, and they come in four bits. I thought I would describe them, and then only sen d you the ones you would want in a PR. All of the below is on windows only.

(1) when an executable FOO.EXE is installed in a package-directory, currently one must invoke via ocamlfind pkg/FOO.EXE .... It would be good if you could instead invoke as ocamlfind pkg/FOO .... (since "run_command" already appends ".exe").

(2) when an executable FOO.PL (or FOO for that matter) is installed in a package-directory, one CANNOT invoke it with M_call. It would be nice to be able to say ocamlfind pkg/FOO.PL .... This is straightforward: in "run_command", don't append the ".exe" if the file without the suffix exists.

(3) Add Github Actions CI to build ocamlfind on Windows (and Ubuntu and MacOS).

(4) In order to make the above most useful, it would be good if the individual build-steps ("./configure", "make all", "make opt") worked as Github CI steps. But Windows is .... Windows, and the default shell is a PITA. So I had to add a little bit of "use this shell" to the Makefiles to get it working.

OK, that's it. Can you let me know which of these you'd like me to send you?