GKS problem on Win11

[bkamins]

I know it has been reported before but under:

(@v1.8) pkg> st -m GR_jll
  [d2c73de3] GR_jll v0.69.1+0

(@v1.8) pkg> st GR
  [28b8d3ca] GR v0.69.3

on Win11 I get:

julia> using GR

julia> histogram(randn(10000))
connect: No error
GKS: can't connect to GKS socket application

GKS: Open failed in routine OPEN_WS
GKS: GKS not in proper state. GKS must be either in the state WSOP or WSAC in routine ACTIVATE_WS

If I downgrade GR to 0.69.2 things work again.

[jheinen]

Somehow the behavior makes absolutely no sense. The versions v0.69.2 and v0.69.3 are not different at all for Windows!? Meanwhile I have rather the impression that the Julia package management is faulty concerning the artifacts.
This comment kind of fits with my guess, as the error message in IMO is related to one of the Qt libraries ...

Ping @t-bltg

[bkamins]

This is what I thought, that is why I reported the GR_jll.jl version as well. Unfortunately, on both versions of GR.jl GR_jll.jl is in the same version, so 😕.

[t-bltg]

Unfortunately, I'm a linux user, never used windows which is a black box to me. Downgrading looks like a red herring to me too.

I'd suggest open a PR with the aforementioned code in test/runtests.jl see if we can reproduce in GR's ci on windows (maybe using display(...) ?).

@bkamins does pkg> test GR pass on your machine ?

I'm not really happy about the robustness of GR, that being said we must work towards robust testing since it is the only way to prevent broken code getting to the users: it is the best way to make them leave the Julia ecosystem.

I'm on my phone atm, and will try to help tomorrow, with my limited if not null knowledge of windoze.

[t-bltg]

Unless someone with a windows machine and some dev skills gets to the bottom on this (maybe @BeastyBlacksmith, if he has some time), there is no chance that this gets fixed magically.

[t-bltg]

@bkamins you can reopen the issue.

Unfortunately current master still fails on Win11 (sorry to report this). What additional test could I do to help?

The report in JuliaPlots/Plots.jl#4417 tends to indicate a problem with a library (@jheinen thinks of Qt):

The procedure entry point _Z21qRegisterDataiPKhS0_S0_ could not be located in the dynamic link library 
C:\Users\whee\.julia\artifacts\e40afe22fcfc9fe1caea4af17a4016e7ef36cd66\bin\gksqt.exe.

We need to demangle _Z21qRegisterDataiPKhS0_S0_ to find to which symbol it corresponds, and find to which library it belongs.

Under linux we have LD_DEBUG=libs to debug loading libraries, in windows I don't know. In julia, with artifacts, we expect artifacts to load libraries from other artifacts and not the system ones. The first thing to do is confirm that it is the case.

[BioTurboNick]

I don't know what the exact right solution is, but reverting Line 334 to

ENV["GKS_QT"] = string(GRPreferences.gksqt[])

works on Windows. This was what it was in v0.69.2.

I don't know what the intent is of setting it to the long env string, but it doesn't work on Windows.

[t-bltg]

Thanks, in 0.69.2

GR.jl/src/GR.jl

Line 328 in ce153a2

ENV["GKS_QT"] = string("env $env=", GRPreferences.libpath[], " ", GRPreferences.gksqt[])

is intended to change the PATH environment variable (akin to LD_LIBRARY_PATH on linux), in order to find the correct dlls (shared libraries) for gksqt.

It's weird, because in 0.69.1

GR.jl/src/GR.jl

Line 327 in c5ae87f

ENV["GKS_QT"] = string(GRPreferences.gksqt[])

we had report of this not working for windows users.

@jheinen, should this be reverted ?

[BioTurboNick]

Does that line depend on env being a valid shell command?

[t-bltg]

@jheinen emitted the possibility of PATH being too long (> 4095, see JuliaPlots/Plots.jl#4375 (comment)) (confirmed somehow by https://github.com/jheinen/GR.jl/actions/runs/3188088211/jobs/5200348433#step:6:191 ?)

I tried to clamp it in #476, before reverting it since it's not get(ENV, "PATH", "") being too long, but GRPreferences.libpath[] (which I do not know if we should reduce it somehow ...).

[t-bltg]

It would be interesting to see why the command env PATH=[...] [...]/gksqt.exe in https://github.com/jheinen/GR.jl/actions/runs/3188088211/jobs/5200348433#step:6:195 does not run on windows.

(you can debug the command by setting ENV["JULIA_DEBUG"] = "GR" before using GR).

[BioTurboNick]

env isn't a Windows shell command, probably.

[t-bltg]

Oh, crap you're right it's set in GR@0.68:

GR.jl/src/GR.jl

Line 354 in 9ed2c4f

ENV["GKS_QT"] = string("set PATH=", GR_jll.LIBPATH[], " & \"", GR_jll.gksqt_path, "\"")

Can you test this ?