Running the worker on Windows

Propaedeutical steps

Read Running the worker: overview before installing the worker.

Windows Subsystem for Linux

If you are a Linux user with a supported Windows platform, you can run the worker by:

• enabling Windows Subsystem for Linux (suggested Ubuntu 22.04), and
• simply following the Running the worker on Linux

MSYS2

MSYS2 is a software distribution and building platform for Windows. It provides a Unix-like environment, a command line interface, and a software repository, making it easy to install software on Windows or build software on Windows with the GCC compiler. The first setup may take between 8-20 minutes depending on your download bandwidth.

Windows 11/10/8 instructions

The setup installs Chocolatey, a Windows package manager, and MSYS2 using Chocolatey. If you have already installed MSYS2, please uninstall it: the fishtest worker is expecting to have MSYS2 installed in C:\tools\msys64

Installation instructions

1. download and unzip the worker setup archive
2. right click on 00_install_choco_msys2_admin.cmd and select Run as administrator
3. double click on 02_install_worker.cmd and write when asked: your fishtest username, your fishtest password, the number of CPU cores to be contributed
4. enter the newly created "worker" folder and double click on fishtest.cmd to start the fishtest worker. You can move the "worker" folder in your preferred place, you can rename the folder e.g. "worker_3_cores" and redo the point 3 to setup a new worker with a different number of cores
5. from time to time (suggested monthly) update Chocolatey and the MSYS2 packages:
   1. download the up to date worker setup archive
   2. stop the worker
   3. right click on 04_update_msys2_choco_admin.cmd, select Run as administrator, and click approve if requested. This requires a couple of minutes in a system updated regularly
   4. start the worker

This video provides a tutorial on how to setup the worker on Windows 10.

Uninstall the worker, MSYS2 and Chocolatey

1. delete the worker folder
2. delete the C:\tools\msys64 folder
3. delete the C:\ProgramData\chocolatey folder
4. optional: delete the Chocolatey variables according to the official uninstallation instruction

Windows 7 instructions

Update Windows 7 with the latest Service Pack. MSYS2 must be manually installed as Chocolatey installation on Windows 7 is not simple to automate.

Installation instructions

1. download and unzip the worker setup archive
2. download and start the one-click installer for MSYS2, change the installation folder to C:\tools\msys64
3. double click on 02_install_worker.cmd. You will be prompted to provide your fishtest username, your fishtest password, the number of CPU cores to contribute
4. navigate to your newly created "worker" folder and double click on fishtest.cmd to start the fishtest worker. You can move the "worker" folder to your preferred destination, you can rename the folder e.g. "worker_3_cores" and redo point 3 to setup a new worker with a different number of CPU cores
5. from time to time (suggested monthly) update the MSYS2 packages:
   1. stop the worker
   2. double click on C:\tools\msys64\mingw64.exe
   3. execute the command pacman -Syuu --noconfirm
   4. if asked to restart MSYS2 system: close the mingw64 window and repeat the previous 2 steps
   5. start the worker

Uninstall the worker and MSYS2

1. delete the worker folder
2. uninstall "MSYS2" from the Control Panel