tools: add Boxstarter script #17046

bzoz · 2017-11-15T15:49:47Z

Adds a Boxstarter script and documentation for an easy way to install Node.js building prerequisites on Windows. It will install git, python, msbuild tools and optionally VSCode.

Ref: nodejs/code-and-learn#71

The links will not work until this lands. A version with working links can be found here: ~~tools/boxstarter/README.md~~
Edit: new link - tools/bootstrap/README.md.

Checklist

documentation is changed or added
commit message follows commit guidelines

Affected core subsystem(s)

build, doc, tools

Adds a Boxstarter script for easy Node.js building prerequisites installation

bzoz · 2017-11-15T15:51:17Z

CI: https://ci.nodejs.org/job/node-test-pull-request/11455/

benjamingr · 2017-11-15T15:59:05Z

cc @refack @mwrock

Great work, I'm hugely +1 on anything that'll make onboarding windows users easier. Boxstarter which I was unfamiliar with looks based on the built in package manager and with a permissive license.

benjamingr · 2017-11-15T16:00:16Z

tools/boxstarter/README.md

+Install-BoxstarterPackage https://github.com/raw/nodejs/node/master/tools/boxstarter/node_boxstarter -DisableReboots
+```
+
+ * For Node.js prerequisites with VS Code:  


Not sure why we need this?

benjamingr · 2017-11-15T16:01:06Z

tools/boxstarter/node_boxstarter_vscode

+#
+
+# Git and Unix tools will be added to the PATH
+choco install git -params /GitAndUnixToolsOnPath -y


I'd prefer it if we didn't install the editor as well - most people being onboarded have their own preference for an editor.

benjamingr · 2017-11-15T16:01:33Z

tools/boxstarter/README.md

@@ -0,0 +1,54 @@
+# Boxstarter setup for Node.js
+
+A [Boxstarter][] script can be used for an easy setup of Windows systems with all


maybe remove an.

benjamingr

Waiting for vscode

gibfahn · 2017-11-15T19:53:23Z

tools/boxstarter/node_boxstarter_vscode

+choco install visualstudio2017-workload-vctools -y
+
+# Installs Visual Studio Code
+choco install visualstudiocode -y


+1 to not installing an editor, especially if it means duplicating the whole script.

Instead of duplicating the script, we could just check if an environment variable is set indicating whether an editor should be installed? (not advocating one way or the other but just pointing out that we likely don't need to duplicate the whole script)

refack · 2017-11-15T20:01:55Z

Love it.
I would go one step further and add a shortcut through vcbuild boxstarter:

powershell.exe -ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted -noprofile -Command "&{iex ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('http://boxstarter.org/bootstrapper.ps1')); get-boxstarter -Force; Install-BoxstarterPackage https://github.com/raw/nodejs/node/master/tools/boxstarter/node_boxstarter -DisableReboots}"

gibfahn

Cautiously +1 on this, but it seems odd to just have Windows packages documented. I think I'd prefer something in doc/guides/ that covered all platforms (e.g. brew for macOS, apt/yum/pacman+ for Linux etc.).

gibfahn · 2017-11-15T20:00:19Z

tools/boxstarter/node_boxstarter

+
+# Installs VS 2017 Build Tools
+choco install visualstudio2017buildtools -y
+choco install visualstudio2017-workload-vctools -y


What is the benefit of using Boxstarter here rather than just using chocolatey directly? Is it the web url?

Looking at their page, I'm not seeing anything obviously beneficial, and it's another thing for new starters to understand.

:: Copied from chocolatey website @"%SystemRoot%\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe" -NoProfile -InputFormat None -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Command "iex ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://chocolatey.org/install.ps1'))" && SET "PATH=%PATH%;%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\chocolatey\bin" choco install git -params /GitAndUnixToolsOnPath -y choco install python2 visualstudio2017buildtools visualstudio2017-workload-vctools -y

Maybe use a more generic directory name like tools/bootstrap/ and then iterate over recipes.

This is an improvement either way, but I'd go with boxstarter rather than just chocolatey. For users that want to understand this or already know about chocolatey, the script is very easy to understand and use as a guide for their own custom installation (plus, dependencies are already documented in BUILDING.md).

Looking at the Boxstarter page, it adds a lot of resilience to the process (reboots, disabling updates, etc), moving it much closer to the ideal one-click-no-issues setup.

joaocgreis

LGTM with or without VSCode.

Also cc @nodejs/platform-windows

digitalinfinity · 2017-11-16T01:39:13Z

tools/boxstarter/README.md

+## WebLauncher Installation
+
+To install Node.js prerequisites using [Boxstarter WebLauncher][], just open
+**one** of  the following links with Internet Explorer or Edge browser on the


Why does it need to be just those two browsers?

It is a "Click Once" app (https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/t71a733d.aspx). It works in IE and Edge by default, other browsers need a plugin.

digitalinfinity · 2017-11-16T01:42:15Z

tools/boxstarter/node_boxstarter_vscode

+choco install visualstudio2017-workload-vctools -y
+
+# Installs Visual Studio Code
+choco install visualstudiocode -y


Instead of duplicating the script, we could just check if an environment variable is set indicating whether an editor should be installed? (not advocating one way or the other but just pointing out that we likely don't need to duplicate the whole script)

digitalinfinity · 2017-11-16T01:48:48Z

This is awesome, thanks @bzoz! (cc @yodurr @rachelnicole). +1 to @refack's suggestion of adding this support to vcbuild too (although I would still prefer having an explicit developer shell for Node but that can come later 😄).

bzoz · 2017-11-16T14:09:35Z

Updated the PR, PTAL.

I've renamed it from tools/boxstarter to tools/bootstrap. I've dropped VSCode - I've assumed one of the use cases would be installing dev environment on a completely clean Windows install, having a link that would also install editor sounded reasonable.

@refack vcbuild boxstart would be great, but it needs to be run in a elevated terminal. I guess some more powershell can do the UAC. It could be also used to disable Windows Defender for the Node folder (as mentioned in #16278).

gibfahn · 2017-11-16T14:24:58Z

I think you can do this to get elevated powershell:

@"%SystemRoot%\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe" -NoProfile -InputFormat None -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Command "..."

(copied from the chocolatey getting started.

gibfahn

LGTM modulo nit

gibfahn · 2017-11-16T14:58:47Z

BUILDING.md

@@ -202,6 +202,9 @@ Prerequisites:
  [Git for Windows](http://git-scm.com/download/win) includes Git Bash
  and tools which can be included in the global `PATH`.

+*Note:* All prerequisites can be easily installed by following
+[this bootstrapping guide](https://github.com/nodejs/node/blob/master/tools/bootstrap/README.md#Windows).


Maybe not move this to the top of the list and drop the #Windows off the end? That way it'll work when we add other platforms.

Sorry, I don't understand what you mean

Move this line to L83, and change it to:

All prerequisites can be easily installed by following [this bootstrapping guide](https://github.com/nodejs/node/blob/master/tools/bootstrap/README.md).

bzoz · 2017-11-22T13:48:37Z

Updated - moved the link, and added instructions for Linux. PTAL

richardlau · 2017-11-22T13:49:54Z

tools/bootstrap/README.md

@@ -22,6 +22,20 @@ get-boxstarter -Force
 Install-BoxstarterPackage https://github.com/raw/nodejs/node/master/tools/bootstrap/windows_boxstarter -DisableReboots
 ```

+## Linux
+
+For building Node.js on Linux, following packets are required (note, that this


Should packets be packages?

gibfahn

Yeah this looks great, worth adding macOS too, but otherwise let's land.

gibfahn · 2017-11-22T20:14:08Z

tools/bootstrap/README.md

+To bootstrap Node.js on Linux, run in terminal:
+  * OpenSUSE: `sudo zypper install git-core python gcc-c++ make`
+  * Fedora: `sudo dnf install git-core python gcc-c++ make`
+  * Ubuntu, Debian: `sudo apt-get install git-core python g++ make`


Does git-core work? From the website it seems like it should be git for all three distros.

It looks like on openSUSE git-core is more lightweight than git package. But I think I'll change this anyway.

gibfahn · 2017-11-22T20:25:04Z

tools/bootstrap/README.md

+  * OpenSUSE: `sudo zypper install git-core python gcc-c++ make`
+  * Fedora: `sudo dnf install git-core python gcc-c++ make`
+  * Ubuntu, Debian: `sudo apt-get install git-core python g++ make`
+


For macOS I'm pretty sure it's just:

xcode-select --install # Installs git, make, and clang

python2 is already installed.

digitalinfinity · 2017-11-23T08:55:06Z

I gave this a spin on a new machine which happened to have VS (internal dogfood) and git already installed. There were probably some issues caused by VS already being installed because the boxstarter script ended with a strange warning about chocolatey failing but didn't actually print out what the error was, it just asked me to hit enter and then it exited- but it looks like python27 was installed correctly.

One thing that might be useful to add in the readme is how much free disk space the user should be expected to have before running the script?

bzoz · 2017-11-23T09:57:10Z

@digitalinfinity I just tried that, a fresh Win2016 install on amazon takes 13.7 GB. After the script it rises to 21.6 GB

digitalinfinity · 2017-11-27T18:49:33Z

Great, thanks for checking! Perhaps it would be good to document that expectation?

bzoz · 2017-11-28T13:45:16Z

Updated, PTAL

bzoz · 2017-11-30T10:37:04Z

Landed in 61d46dd

Adds a Boxstarter script for easy Node.js building prerequisites installation PR-URL: #17046 Reviewed-By: Benjamin Gruenbaum <benjamingr@gmail.com> Reviewed-By: Refael Ackermann <refack@gmail.com> Reviewed-By: João Reis <reis@janeasystems.com> Reviewed-By: Gibson Fahnestock <gibfahn@gmail.com>

tools: add Boxstarter script

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Adds a Boxstarter script for easy Node.js building prerequisites installation

nodejs-github-bot added build Issues and PRs related to build files or the CI. doc Issues and PRs related to the documentations. tools Issues and PRs related to the tools directory. labels Nov 15, 2017

bzoz mentioned this pull request Nov 15, 2017

Write a guide on environment setup, troubleshooting, and preparations (e.g. downloads) nodejs/code-and-learn#71

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Node Interactive Code & Learn issues on Windows #16278

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fixup: remove vscode, rename to bootstrap

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fixup: move link in BUILDING.md up, add Linux instructions

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gibfahn mentioned this pull request Nov 26, 2017

Revert "build,windows: implement PEP514 python detection" #17293

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fixup: chagnge git-core to core, add macOS and windows disk space

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MylesBorins mentioned this pull request Dec 12, 2017

v9.3.0 proposal #17631

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v8.9.4 proposal #17772

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v8.9.4 proposal #17774

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v6.12.3 proposal #17776

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		@@ -0,0 +1,54 @@
		# Boxstarter setup for Node.js

		A [Boxstarter][] script can be used for an easy setup of Windows systems with all

tools: add Boxstarter script #17046

tools: add Boxstarter script #17046

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bzoz commented Nov 15, 2017 • edited Loading

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digitalinfinity commented Nov 23, 2017

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