Imitate Visual C++ with MinGW or other C++ compilers (for Python packages based on Visual C++)

[lorenzznerol]

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This is a full copy of https://stackoverflow.com/questions/62149329/imitate-visual-c-with-mingw-or-other-c-compilers-for-python-packages-based

With an interesting comment from @david Macek
The C++ ABIs (possibly headers even) of GCC and MSVC are just incompatible. You might have some luck using Clang, but I don't guarantee anything. /// If you're concerned about disk space, you might try installing the requisites and then stripping the parts irrelevant to Python packages. There might even be a way to make something of a portable MSVC toolchain, but don't distribute it (I believe it's not allowed in the license).
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Is there a way to use MinGW as a substitute of MS Visual C++? A lot of Python packages need VS C++ to be installed: 4.5 GB of disk space! MinGW takes only 450 MB and reaches the same aim to compile C/C++.

I am using Visual Studio Code, and I try to avoid the Microsoft Visual C++ installation that is proposed here under 3) --> You can also install just the C++ Build Tools: https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/cpp/config-msvc/#_prerequisites

Perhaps there is just a trick needed to imitate MS Visual C++ with MinGW, so that the Python packages directly find the MinGW compiler as if it were MS Visual C++?

Perhaps adding symlinks to the lib directory and adding some system variable path?

My question is strongly linked with https://stackoverflow.com/questions/29846087/microsoft-visual-c-14-0-is-required-unable-to-find-vcvarsall-bat/51087608#51087608

The error that I get when I install a package that needs MS Visual C++ as an example, installing pip install dtaidistance:

  creating build\temp.win-amd64-3.7\Release\dtaidistance

  C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\BuildTools\VC\Tools\MSVC\14.26.28801\bin\HostX86\x64\cl.exe /c /nologo /Ox /W3 /GL /DNDEBUG /MD -IC:\Users\Admin\Anaconda3\lib\site-packages\numpy\core\include -IC:\Users\Admin\Anaconda3\include -IC:\Users\Admin\Anaconda3\include "-IC:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\BuildTools\VC\Tools\MSVC\14.26.28801\include" /Tcdtaidistance/dtw_c.c /Fobuild\temp.win-amd64-3.7\Release\dtaidistance/dtw_c.obj /openmp /Ox /fp:fast /favor:INTEL64 /Og

  cl : Befehlszeile warning D9035 : Die Option "Og" ist veraltet und wird in einer der n„chsten Versionen entfernt.

  dtw_c.c

  C:\Users\Admin\Anaconda3\include\pyconfig.h(59): fatal error C1083: Datei (Include) kann nicht ge”ffnet werden: "io.h": No such file or directory

  error: command 'C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Microsoft Visual Studio\\2019\\BuildTools\\VC\\Tools\\MSVC\\14.26.28801\\bin\\HostX86\\x64\\cl.exe' failed with exit status 2

  ----------------------------------------

  ERROR: Failed building wheel for dtaidistance

  Running setup.py clean for dtaidistance

Failed to build dtaidistance

Installing collected packages: dtaidistance

  Running setup.py install for dtaidistance ... error

    ERROR: Command errored out with exit status 1:

     command: 'C:\Users\Admin\Anaconda3\python.exe' -u -c 'import sys, setuptools, tokenize; sys.argv[0] = '"'"'C:\\Users\\Admin\\AppData\\Local\\Temp\\pip-install-5lb8uekg\\dtaidistance\\setup.py'"'"'; __file__='"'"'C:\\Users\\Admin\\AppData\\Local\\Temp\\pip-install-5lb8uekg\\dtaidistance\\setup.py'"'"';f=getattr(tokenize, '"'"'open'"'"', open)(__file__);code=f.read().replace('"'"'\r\n'"'"', '"'"'\n'"'"');f.close();exec(compile(code, __file__, '"'"'exec'"'"'))' install --record 'C:\Users\Admin\AppData\Local\Temp\pip-record-dzfe2cwr\install-record.txt' --single-version-externally-managed --compile

         cwd: C:\Users\Admin\AppData\Local\Temp\pip-install-5lb8uekg\dtaidistance\

After installing only MSVC (1.8 GB) - only that, as a test to see if that is already all I need:

We see that the installation still fails, but the error changes slightly, as at least ERROR: Failed building wheel for dtaidistance has disappeared now, see the following screenshot:

    creating build\temp.win-amd64-3.7\Release\dtaidistance

    C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\BuildTools\VC\Tools\MSVC\14.26.28801\bin\HostX86\x64\cl.exe /c /nologo /Ox /W3 /GL /DNDEBUG /MD -IC:\Users\Admin\Anaconda3\lib\site-packages\numpy\core\include -IC:\Users\Admin\Anaconda3\include -IC:\Users\Admin\Anaconda3\include "-IC:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\BuildTools\VC\Tools\MSVC\14.26.28801\include" /Tcdtaidistance/dtw_c.c /Fobuild\temp.win-amd64-3.7\Release\dtaidistance/dtw_c.obj /openmp /Ox /fp:fast /favor:INTEL64 /Og

    cl : Befehlszeile warning D9035 : Die Option "Og" ist veraltet und wird in einer der n„chsten Versionen entfernt.

    dtw_c.c

    C:\Users\Admin\Anaconda3\include\pyconfig.h(59): fatal error C1083: Datei (Include) kann nicht ge”ffnet werden: "io.h": No such file or directory

    error: command 'C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Microsoft Visual Studio\\2019\\BuildTools\\VC\\Tools\\MSVC\\14.26.28801\\bin\\HostX86\\x64\\cl.exe' failed with exit status 2

    ----------------------------------------

ERROR: Command errored out with exit status 1: 'C:\Users\Admin\Anaconda3\python.exe' -u -c 'import sys, setuptools, tokenize; sys.argv[0] = '"'"'C:\\Users\\Admin\\AppData\\Local\\Temp\\pip-install-jr44cxi8\\dtaidistance\\setup.py'"'"'; __file__='"'"'C:\\Users\\Admin\\AppData\\Local\\Temp\\pip-install-jr44cxi8\\dtaidistance\\setup.py'"'"';f=getattr(tokenize, '"'"'open'"'"', open)(__file__);code=f.read().replace('"'"'\r\n'"'"', '"'"'\n'"'"');f.close();exec(compile(code, __file__, '"'"'exec'"'"'))' install --record 'C:\Users\Admin\AppData\Local\Temp\pip-record-t_8xl3_a\install-record.txt' --single-version-externally-managed --compile Check the logs for full command output.

After installing the other 4 checkboxes directly below the MSVC checkbox in the screenshot of MS Visual++ above, I could install the package.

Perhaps changing the assigned C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Microsoft Visual Studio\\2019\\BuildTools\\VC\\Tools\\MSVC\\14.26.28801\\bin\\HostX86\\x64\\cl.exe somewhere in the python settings to MinGW gcc compiler C:\Program Files (x86)\mingw-w64\i686-8.1.0-posix-dwarf-rt_v6-rev0\mingw32\bin\c++.exe might already solve it?

[IllusionMH]

This is issue tracker for Visual Studio Code editor, not Microsoft Visual Studio (year).

Are you sure that this issue related to Visual Studio Code?

[lorenzznerol]

yes, I refer to Visual Studio Code here. I also wondered about it, but you have to install Microsoft Visual C++ in order to have C++ available for a lot of packages in Python which do not accept any other C++ compiler, and now the question is if Visual Studio Code could give a smart and lightweight alternative to this quite clumpsy approach. (Not the right comparison, but the GB disk size goes into the same direction: For Python to work in Visual Studio Code, you can also just install Python instead of installing 4 GB Anaconda ;) I just trust vscode to be smarter and change things here faster than the Microsoft Visual Studio approach which I do not even need to change, as there, the 4 GB are probably needed.

[dbaeumer]

@lorenzznerol the VS Code core editor is not the right place for this. It is either the CPP extension or better the Python extension. Please open issues against these extensions.