Bug: windows 10 pip install eth-ape fails building pyethhash error: 'alloca.h': No such file or directory

[sabotagebeats]

Environment information

• ape and plugin versions:

`eth_ape-0.1.0a14-py3-none-any.whl`

• Python Version: 3.8.3
• OS: Windows 10

What went wrong?

PS> pip install eth-ape errors installing pyethhash dependency
fatal error C1083: Cannot open include file: 'alloca.h': No such file or directory

How can it be fixed?

upstream issue in pyethhash Consensys/ethjsonrpc#5

[sabotagebeats]

also experiencing this in anaconda for windows

[antazoey]

Have you tried adding -D MS_WIN64 to the compile flags in setup.py?

Reference: last comment here ethereum/ethash#87

[sabotagebeats]

Have you tried adding -D MS_WIN64 to the compile flags in setup.py?

Reference: last comment here ethereum/ethash#87

No i have not, I think that @lost-theory was working on trying to resolve this as well so may have some helpful inputs

[lost-theory]

Yes, I tried that -D MS_WIN64 flag and it didn't do anything. Here's how I was able to workaround this issue and get Ape to install on Windows

1. Clone github.com/ethereum/ethash
2. Apply this patch:

diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 18aa20f..fd01603 100755
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -38,7 +38,7 @@ setup(
     author="Matthew Wampler-Doty",
     author_email="[email protected]",
     license='GPL',
-    version='0.1.23',
+    version='0.1.27',
     url='https://github.com/ethereum/ethash',
     download_url='https://github.com/ethereum/ethash/tarball/v23',
     description=('Python wrappers for ethash, the ethereum proof of work'
diff --git a/src/libethash/io_win32.c b/src/libethash/io_win32.c
index 34f1aaa..30f819f 100644
--- a/src/libethash/io_win32.c
+++ b/src/libethash/io_win32.c
@@ -89,6 +89,8 @@ bool ethash_get_default_dirname(char* strbuf, size_t buffsize)
 {
 	static const char dir_suffix[] = "Ethash\\";
 	strbuf[0] = '\0';
+	return false;
+	/*
 	if (!SUCCEEDED(SHGetFolderPathA(NULL, CSIDL_LOCAL_APPDATA, NULL, 0, (CHAR*)strbuf))) {
 		return false;
 	}
@@ -97,4 +99,5 @@ bool ethash_get_default_dirname(char* strbuf, size_t buffsize)
 	}
 
 	return ethash_strncat(strbuf, buffsize, dir_suffix, sizeof(dir_suffix));
+	*/
 }
diff --git a/src/libethash/util_win32.c b/src/libethash/util_win32.c
index 268e6db..59693b9 100644
--- a/src/libethash/util_win32.c
+++ b/src/libethash/util_win32.c
@@ -35,4 +35,4 @@ void debugf(char const* str, ...)
 	_vsnprintf_s(buf, sizeof(buf), sizeof(buf), str, args);
 	buf[sizeof(buf)-1] = '\0';
 	OutputDebugStringA(buf);
-}
+}
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/src/python/core.c b/src/python/core.c
index c66e03c..e89d40c 100644
--- a/src/python/core.c
+++ b/src/python/core.c
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 #include <Python.h>
-#include <alloca.h>
+#include <malloc.h>
 #include <stdint.h>
 #include <stdlib.h>
 #include <time.h>
diff --git a/test/c/test.cpp b/test/c/test.cpp
index 44e0c38..de5d3aa 100644
--- a/test/c/test.cpp
+++ b/test/c/test.cpp
@@ -296,7 +296,7 @@ BOOST_AUTO_TEST_CASE(test_ethash_get_default_dirname) {
 	// TODO: Improve this test ...
 #ifdef _WIN32
 	char homedir[256];
-	BOOST_REQUIRE(SUCCEEDED(SHGetFolderPathA(NULL, CSIDL_PROFILE, NULL, 0, (CHAR*)homedir)));
+	//BOOST_REQUIRE(SUCCEEDED(SHGetFolderPathA(NULL, CSIDL_PROFILE, NULL, 0, (CHAR*)homedir)));
 	BOOST_REQUIRE(ethash_get_default_dirname(result, 256));
 	std::string res = std::string(homedir) + std::string("\\AppData\\Local\\Ethash\\");
 #else

3. Create a venv and run python setup.py install for ethash in the venv.
4. Now you can do pip install eth-ape or pip install -e .[dev] in the ape repo and it'll use the already installed version of pyethash when installing all the dependencies (it's actually py-evm which requires pyethash>=0.1.27,<1.0.0).

Note that the patch in step 2 may be removing some important code. It's not a real fix, just a workaround I came up with to see if the package would build.

[lost-theory]

Very up to date fork of ethash that doesn't seem to support Windows: https://github.com/chfast/ethash

[lost-theory]

This is the definitive issue on what's blocking Windows support, with next steps on how to fix the issue and making a new release (if pyethash was still maintained):

ethereum/ethash#107

[fubuloubu]

So, one thing that would help here is to remove the eth-tester provider defined under ape_test, this way we could at least push that to a different plugin where windows support isn't necessary

Otherwise, the trick would be to make some modifications to py-evm to make ethash optional for only situations where you'd need to validate headers (I don't think a precompile uses this like with blake2b)

[NotPeopling2day]

No CI support yet this ticket blocked lost-theory in ApeWorX/ape-hardhat#2

[Nov1kov]

I installed the APE on Windows, using this workaround to install ethash ethereum/ethash#131

But it still has problems. For example, ape plugins list doesn't show anything. Something wrong with pydantic + enums in
installed = PluginGroup(plugin_type=PluginType.INSTALLED)

[antazoey]

But it still has problems. For example, ape plugins list doesn't show anything. Something wrong with pydantic + enums in installed = PluginGroup(plugin_type=PluginType.INSTALLED)

We think we fixed the weird Enum problem here: #1745

[Nov1kov]

But it still has problems. For example, ape plugins list doesn't show anything. Something wrong with pydantic + enums in installed = PluginGroup(plugin_type=PluginType.INSTALLED)

We think we fixed the weird Enum problem here: #1745

Oh yes, it's quite a coincidence that MR 3 hours ago fixed my issue. I checked the master branch, and it's working! Thank you.

[antazoey]

But it still has problems. For example, ape plugins list doesn't show anything. Something wrong with pydantic + enums in installed = PluginGroup(plugin_type=PluginType.INSTALLED)

We think we fixed the weird Enum problem here: #1745

Oh yes, it's quite a coincidence that MR 3 hours ago fixed my issue. I checked the master branch, and it's working! Thank you.

Yes that was odd timing! However, I am pretty happy you found a way to get it working on windows 10 and I would like to both document this and include the windows-latest matrix value in CI such that it works.

[Nov1kov]

Great!
To clarify, In my case I tested on winsows 11 + python 3.10 + custom install ethash. So, it's still not easy "pip install" way.

[antazoey]

this is no longer an issue - ever since: Windows support isn't 100% there yet, but this specific problem has been resolved since: ethereum/py-evm#2121 and Ape is using later versions of eth dependencies already.

however we are not 100% windows compat yet.