dx: support building desktop on win

Author: staltz

docs/getting-started.md

@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ In the explanations below, we will constantly refer to "development" and "target
 - If your target OS is **iOS**, only **macOS** computers are supported
 - If your target OS is **Android**, only **Linux and macOS** computers are supported
   - _No Windows support_ so far, unfortunately; but you can always choose to install Linux for free if you have a Windows computer
-- If your target is **desktop**, **Linux and macOS** computers are supported
+- If your target is **desktop**, then **Linux**, **macOS** and **Windows** computers are supported
 
 ### Development Container
 
@@ -60,6 +60,17 @@ The paragraph below is commented out because we use --no-rust for all iOS compil
 
 ️ **macOS Big Sur is not supported!** Manyverse only builds on macOS Catalina or older versions. This is because Apple made significant changes to how linking dynamic libraries work, and most non-Apple tooling (which we depend on) hasn't updated yet. For more information, read [issue 1371](https://gitlab.com/staltz/manyverse/-/issues/1371). You may have luck if you compile the backend without Rust, using `npm run build-backend-ios -- --no-rust` (read more about that some sections below). -->
 
+### Windows specifics
+
+If you are developing Manyverse desktop on a Windows computer, then we recommend [choco](https://chocolatey.org/) to install the required tools.
+
+Then make sure you run the following commands to install the required tools for building Node.js native addons:
+
+- `choco install python3`
+- `choco install visualstudio2017-workload-nodebuildtools`
+- `npm i -g windows-build-tools`
+
+
 ### Node.js
 
 Use node (preferably exactly) **`16.17.x`** and npm `8.x`. To manage node versions easily, we recommend [nvm](https://github.com/nvm-sh/nvm) and use its deep integration feature to install and load the required node version automatically.

package.json

@@ -41,8 +41,8 @@
     "prebuild-desktop-release-macos": "cd desktop && cross-env DEBUG=electron-builder electron-builder install-app-deps --platform=darwin",
     "build-desktop-release-macos": "electron-builder build --config desktop/electron-builder.config.js --macos --publish $EB_PUBLISH",
     "clean-desktop-prebuilds": "rimraf ./desktop/node_modules/**/{bufferutil,sodium-native,leveldown,utf-8-validate}/{build,prebuilds}",
-    "desktop": "cd desktop && MANYVERSE_DEVELOPMENT=1 npm run electron",
-    "desktop-debug": "cd desktop && MANYVERSE_DEVELOPMENT=1 npm run debug-electron",
+    "desktop": "cd desktop && cross-env MANYVERSE_DEVELOPMENT=1 npm run electron",
+    "desktop-debug": "cd desktop && cross-env MANYVERSE_DEVELOPMENT=1 npm run debug-electron",
     "start": "npm run lib && npm run propagate-replacements && react-native start",
     "psdr": "./tools/print-service-desk-report.js",
     "report-libraries": "./tools/report-libraries.mjs",

tools/build-backend.mjs

@@ -7,6 +7,10 @@
 import util from 'util';
 import ora from 'ora';
 import childProcess from 'child_process';
+import {createRequire} from 'module';
+const require = createRequire(import.meta.url);
+
+const fsExtra = require('fs-extra');
 
 const exec = util.promisify(childProcess.exec);
 const loading = ora('...').start();
@@ -101,7 +105,6 @@ async function runAndReport(label, task) {
       }),
     );
   } else {
-
     await runAndReport(
       'Apply patches to node modules',
       exec('npm run apply-patches', {
@@ -113,9 +116,13 @@ async function runAndReport(label, task) {
   if (targetPlatform === 'desktop') {
     await runAndReport(
       'Update package-lock.json in ./src/backend',
-      exec(
-        'cp ./desktop/package-lock.json ' + './src/backend/package-lock.json',
-      ),
+      // Use fs-extra to support Windows
+      fsExtra
+        .copy('./desktop/package-lock.json', './src/backend/package-lock.json')
+        .then(
+          () => ({stdout: '', stderr: ''}),
+          () => ({stdout: '', stderr: 'Failed to copy package-lock.json'}),
+        ),
     );
   } else {
     await runAndReport(
@@ -188,7 +195,19 @@ async function runAndReport(label, task) {
   if (targetPlatform === 'desktop') {
     await runAndReport(
       'Remove patches from the desktop folder',
-      exec('rm -rf ./desktop/patches &&' + 'rm ./desktop/package-lock.json'),
+      // Use fs-extra to support Windows
+      fsExtra.rmdir('./desktop/patches', {recursive: true}).then(
+        () => ({stdout: '', stderr: ''}),
+        () => ({stdout: '', stderr: 'Failed to remove patches folder'}),
+      ),
+    );
+    await runAndReport(
+      'Remove package-lock.json from the desktop folder',
+      // Use fs-extra to support Windows
+      fsExtra.rm('./desktop/package-lock.json').then(
+        () => ({stdout: '', stderr: ''}),
+        () => ({stdout: '', stderr: 'Failed to remove package-lock.json'}),
+      ),
     );
   }
 })();