Compiling on Windows

This page allows you to figure out the steps and programs needed to compile your own version of Cider.

Getting Started

Recommended / Required Development Utilities

• NodeJS 14.0.0 or greater

• pnpm (Optional, but highly recommended)

• Git

• Python 3.8 or greater

• Basic Command Line Knowledge

• windows-build-tools

While not required, PNPM is recommended for compiling Cider, and you can install it by using:

npm install -g pnpm

You need windows-build-tools to be able to compile the native modules Cider uses for Windows. It should be installed with Node.js through the chocolatey package manager. If the installation fails you can install it using pnpm/npm in an administrator powershell/cmd window and entering:

pnpm install -g windows-build-tools

or

npm install -g windows-build-tools

Cloning the repository

Open a command prompt window in the directory you'd like Git to clone to and enter the following command

git clone https://github.com/ciderapp/Cider.git

Optionally, if you'd like to use the Development branch of Cider to test upcoming features switch your branch by moving your terminal into the directory and using git to checkout the branch by entering the following commands

cd Cider/
git checkout develop

If you'd like to update your repository in the future to keep up to date, use the command (Make sure you're in the directory, you originally cloned in)

git pull

Installing Dependencies

Now for the fun part, by using pnpm, npm or yarn (we'll be using pnpm in this case) enter the following command to automatically obtain all required dependencies for installation.

pnpm

pnpm install

npm

npm install --force

yarn

yarn install

This step could take a little while on some machines.

Compiling Cider

This step takes a little while on the first compilation so bare with it as it does what it needs to do.

Compiling Cider for specific CPU architectures is a smart thing to do and you can do it by adding switches to the dist argument as displayed.

pnpm

// For x86_64 machines. (Modern PC's)
pnpm dist -w --x64

// For x86 ONLY machines. (Legacy PC's)
pnpm dist -w --ia32

npm

// For x86_64 machines. (Modern PC's)
npm run dist -w --x64

// For x86 ONLY machines. (Legacy PC's)
npm run dist -w --ia32

yarn

// For x86_64 machines. (Modern PC's)
yarn dist -w --x64

// For x86 ONLY machines. (Legacy PC's)
yarn dist -w --ia32

On some low-end machines this process could take up to ~5 minutes.

Installing Cider

Your new Cider installation setup file is ready for you! You can find your setup executable in your cloned folder directory on your system in the subfolder dist/ and from there you'll see your new Setup file.

Congrats! You've successfully compiled your own build of Cider!