Build on Windows in Visual Studio

Overview

Updated build instructions are available at https://github.com/sys-bio/roadrunner/wiki/Building-from-Source. The following is for reference only.

The step-by-step instructions will guide you to:

  1. Create the directory structure for the build and install
  2. Install SWIG
  3. Get Source Code (placed in src/)
  4. CMake LLVM, roadrunner_thirdparty, roadrunner (outputs to build/)
  5. Build and install in Visual Studio: LLVM, roadrunner_thirdparty, roadrunner (outputs to install/)

To prepare download and install the following. These are the tools we use to build roadrunner from source:

The commands in these instructions are used in the Git Bash console, which installs with Git on Windows. To use wget in Git Bash, to download needed files in the console, instead of downloading files using the browser, follow the instructions to install wget (http://www.kadamwhite.com/archives/2012/wget-in-git-bash). The commands will also work in a regular windows command prompt cmd as well, except for wget.

Start the console by going to your windows Start menu, typing to search git bash, then clicking on it when it comes up.

1. Create directory structure

These will be the directories for build, install, and source. An organized setup is recommended. In the rest of the instructions this structure will be used.

Your directory tree will look like this:

vs
+---build
|   +---llvm
|   +---roadrunner
|   |   \---release
|   \---roadrunner_thirdparty
|       \---release
+---install
|   +---llvm
|   +---roadrunner
|   |   \---release
|   +---roadrunner_thirdparty
|   |   \---release
|   \---swigwin-2.0.11
\---src
    +---llvm-3.3.src
        \---roadrunner
	        \---third_party

It is important to note that build files are kept separate from source files, and install files separate from build and source files as well.

To create directories run these commands

Copy and paste the commands below into the Git Bash console to run.

#Root dir
cd C:\\
mkdir vs
cd vs

#Build dirs
mkdir build
cd build
mkdir llvm
mkdir roadrunner_thirdparty
cd roadrunner_thirdparty
mkdir release
#mkdir debug
cd ..
mkdir roadrunner
cd roadrunner
mkdir release
#mkdir debug
cd ../..

#Install dirs
mkdir install
cd install
mkdir llvm
mkdir roadrunner_thirdparty
cd roadrunner_thirdparty
mkdir release
cd ..
mkdir roadrunner
cd roadrunner
mkdir release
#mkdir debug
cd ../..

#Source dirs
mkdir src
cd src
cd ..

1.a. Install Python/Numpy

Ensure you have an installation of Python 2.7 in C:\Python27. Install the Numpy 1.9.2 superpack in order to get the Numpy development headers/libraries.

2. Install SWIG

Get swigwin-2.0.11 binaries for windows using the wget commad below. Otherwise download it in your browser by clicking on the link, then move the file to theC:\vs\install directory and continue with the next command.

cd install
wget http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/swig/swigwin-2.0.11.zip
unzip swigwin-2.0.11.zip
cd ..

3. Get source code

Clone the roadrunner source code repository

cd src
git clone https://github.com/AndySomogyi/roadrunner.git

Get the LLVM 3.3 source code using the wget command below. Otherwise download it from the link and move the file to the C:\vs\src directory and continue with the next command.

wget http://llvm.org/releases/3.3/llvm-3.3.src.tar.gz
tar -xzvf llvm-3.3.src.tar.gz

4. Using CMake

In CMake, click on the checkbox that says “Advanced”. Some selections cannot be accessed without it. Using CMake GUI we will Configure and Generate Solution files (outputs to build/).

4.a. CMake LLVM

The screenshot panels show you where things are on the CMake GUI.

Set the Source Path and Build Path to directories for llvm

Source Path = C:/vs/src/llvm-3.3.src
Build Path = C:/vs/build/llvm

Then click Configure and the default options, listed here:

Configure > Visual Studio 10 > Use default Native compilers > Finish

Set the Install Path by pasting it in the CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX option. See the 2nd screenshot panel to see how it is supposed to look.

CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX = C:/vs/install/llvm

Press Configure again and wait until each option has changed color from Red in panel 2 to White in panel 3. Finally, press Generate.

Configure > Generate

When done the bottom output window will say

Configuring done
Generating done

4.b. CMake Roadrunner Thirdparty

Set the Source Path and Build Path to directories for roadrunner_thirdparty

Source = C:/vs/src/roadrunner/third_party
Build = C:/vs/build/roadrunner_thirdparty/release

Then click Configure and the default options, listed here:

Configure >Visual Studio 10 > Use default Native compilers > Finish

Set the following options

CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX = C:/vs/install/roadrunner/release
CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE     = Release

Press Configure and then Generate

Configure > Generate

When done the bottom output window will say

Configuring done
Generating done

Note: The CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE flag does not actually control the type of build, its ignored, but set it anyway, otherwise the output says Debug when it is actually Release)

Note Special Instructions: To also build the C API (below)

4.c. CMake Roadrunner

Set the Source Path and Build Path to directories for roadrunner These instructions buildwith SWIG Python API

Source = C:/vs/src/roadrunner
Build = C:/vs/build/roadrunner/release

Then click Configure and the default options, listed here:

Configure > Visual Studio 10 > Use default Native compilers > Finish

CMake should throw an Error:

CMake Error at CMakeLists.txt:79 (message):
  BUILD_LLVM is enabled, but no LLVM installation was found

Set the LLVM install path as follows:

LLVM_INSTALL_PREFIX        = C:/vs/build/llvm

Then click Configure again and set the following options:

CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX       = C:/vs/install/roadrunner/release
CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE           = Release
THIRD_PARTY_INSTALL_FOLDER = C:/vs/install/roadrunner/release
BUILD_LLVM                 = Mark checkbox (yes)
BUILD_PYTHON               = Do not mark checkbox (no)
BUILD_TEST_TOOLS           = Mark checkbox (yes)
RR_BUILD_SHARED_CORE       = Mark checkbox (yes)

Press Configure and then Generate

Configure > Generate

When done the bottom output window will say

Configuring done
Generating done

5. Using Visual Studio

Build and install in Visual Studio: LLVM, roadrunner_thirdparty, roadrunner (outputs toinstall/)

5.a. Build LLVM

Open Solution file in Visual Studio

File > Open > Project/Solution > C:\vs\build\llvm\LLVM.sln

Set the Configuration and Platform to Release and Win32, the screenshot shows where these are in Visual Studio.

Solution Configurations: Release
Solution Platforms: Win32

Build and Install. In Visual Studio’s Solution Explorer

Right-Click > INSTALL > Build

5.b. Build Roadrunner ThirdParty

Open Solution file

File > Open > Project/Solution > C:\vs\build\roadrunner_thirdparty\release\RRThirdPartyBuild.sln

Set the Configuration and Platform to Release and Win32

Solution Configurations: Release
Solution Platforms: Win32

Build and Install. In Visual Studio’s Solution Explorer

Right-Click > INSTALL > Build

5.c. Build Roadrunner

Open Solution file

File > Open > Project/Solution > C:\vs\build\roadrunner\release\rr.sln

Set the Configuration and Platform to Release and Win32

Solution Configurations: Release
Solution Platforms: Win32

Build and Install. In Visual Studio’s Solution Explorer

Right-Click > INSTALL > Build

Note Special Instructions: To also build the C API

If building a Release version of RoadRunner for C The CMAKE_C_FLAGS_RELEASE flag and theCMAKE_CXX_FLAGS_RELEASE need to be modified from its default. The default switches

/O2 /Ob2

needs to be changed to

/Od /Ob0

This need to be observed for both the ThirdParty build, as well as for RoadRunner itself.

Comment on this Issue: The problem seem to be in the CVODE integration library, not being able to converge properly when full optimization is turned on.

old_buildrr_visualstudio instructions file

New notes below, to be added 12/17/13

1: Testing python is trivially easy. As the roadrunner package is completely self contained (if using LLVM), the tester is also built in. To test with python, if using python 2.7 or above, the roadrunner.testing package is a runnable module which means it can be run from the command line like:
python -m “roadrunner.testing”
Or, if using python 2.7, then from inside of the interpreter, just run
import roadrunner.testing
roadrunner.testing.runTester()
See, all the tests are packaged up into the roadrunner python package.
2: It is only required to disable the optimization flags {/O2 /Ob2} -> {/Od /Ob0} if you plan on actually using the C generating / external compiler back end. If using the internal LLVM sbml compiler, one can use full optimization. This is most likely due to incompatibilities with sharing memory with roadrunner and the TCC compiled external code. In any case, both third_party and roadrunner need to have the same optimization flags or else it won’t link.
3: One needs to make sure that the BUILD_SHARED_LIBS is *disabled* in the third_party build.
4: If building plugins, the RR_BUILD_SHARED_CORE should be enabled in the roadrunner build.