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Article Arcanist User Guide: Windows

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Explains how to install Arcanist on Windows.

Overview

Arcanist runs on Windows, either in cmd.exe or the Git Bash environments. However, it will take a little effort to get working. This document explains what you need to do in order to get it running.

NOTE: Windows support is relatively new and incomplete, file bugs when you run into issues.

Required Components

You need to install:

  • Arcanist itself, see Arcanist User Guide.
  • PHP (see "Detailed PHP Install Instructions" below).
  • SVN, Git, or Mercurial.

Then, configure:

  • Your PATH environmental variable should include arcanist/bin, the php directory, and the directory where your VCS command lives. When you type php, arc, or (for example) git from the command line, they should all do something.
  • Your EDITOR environmental variable should point at some valid CLI editor, like the Git Bash vim. You can set this in arc if you prefer. See below for details.

You can set environmental variables somewhere in the Advanced tab of the System control panel.

Now you should be able to run arc normally (either from cmd.exe or Git Bash) and it should work more-or-less properly.

Configuring an Editor

NOTE: You can not use Notepad as your editor, because it does not have a blocking mode. You can use GitPad instead.

Some arc workflows prompt you to edit large blocks of text using a text editor. You can configure various programs for this purpose, depending on which text editor you prefer. Some editors that will work are:

  • Notepad++, a good all-around editor.
  • vim, which comes with Git Bash.
  • GitPad, which allows you to use Notepad as your editor.

Other editors may also work, but they must have a blocking edit mode.

To configure an editor, either set the EDITOR environmental variable to point at it, or run:

$ arc set-config editor "\"C:\path\to\some\editor.exe\""
NOTE: Note the use of quotes. Paths with spaces in them must be quoted, and these quotes must be escaped when passed to arc set-config, as in the examples below.

Specifically, you can use this command for Notepad++ (adjusting the path for your machine):

Notepad++
$ arc set-config editor "\"C:\Program Files (x86)\Notepad++\notepad++.exe\" -multiInst -nosession"

And this command for Vim (you may need to adjust the path):

vim
$ arc set-config editor "\"C:\Program Files (x86)\Git\share\vim\vim73\vim.exe\""

And this for GitPad (you may need to adjust the path):

GitPad
$ arc set-config editor "\"C:\Users\yourusername\AppData\Roaming\GitPad\GitPad.exe\""

And this for Sublime Text (you may need to adjust the path):

Sublime Text
$ arc set-config editor "\"C:\Program Files\Sublime Text 2\sublime_text.exe\" -w"

Detailed PHP Install Instructions

While multiple versions of PHP should work, you can follow these specific instructions if you're having trouble.

  • Download the latest stable PHP binary release from: http://windows.php.net/download/. When this document was last updated, this was PHP 5.4.6, but newer versions should also work. The "VC9 x86 Non Thread Safe" build should work correctly. (Other versions newer than PHP 5.3 should work, and thread-safe versions should also work.)
  • Unzip the PHP directory.
  • Copy php.ini-development to php.ini in that same directory.
  • Open php.ini and locate the line ;extension=php_curl.dll. Remove the ; to activate this extension. Locate the line ; extension_dir = "ext" and change it to ; extension_dir = "C:\PHP\ext", where C:\PHP is the directory where you installed PHP.
  • Verify that things work by running php -i from your commandline and looking for curl in the output.

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