Code for finding the path to Visual Studio by Jon Blow.

May 19, 2019 ยท View on GitHub

// // Author: Jonathan Blow // Version: 2 // Date: 7 May, 2019 (update to original version released on 31 August, 2018). // // This code is released under the MIT license, which you can find at // // https://opensource.org/licenses/MIT // // // // See the comments for how to use this library just below the includes. //

#include <windows.h> #include <stdlib.h> #include <string.h> #include <assert.h> #include <stdio.h> #include <sys/stat.h>

#include <stdint.h> #include <io.h> // For _get_osfhandle

// // // HOW TO USE THIS CODE // // The purpose of this file is to find the folders that contain libraries // you may need to link against, on Windows, if you are linking with any // compiled C or C++ code. This will be necessary for many non-C++ programming // language environments that want to provide compatibility. // // We find the place where the Visual Studio libraries live (for example, // libvcruntime.lib), where the linker and compiler executables live // (for example, link.exe), and where the Windows SDK libraries reside // (kernel32.lib, libucrt.lib). // // We all wish you didn't have to worry about so many weird dependencies, // but we don't really have a choice about this, sadly. // // I don't claim that this is the absolute best way to solve this problem, // and so far we punt on things (if you have multiple versions of Visual Studio // installed, we return the first one, rather than the newest). But it // will solve the basic problem for you as simply as I know how to do it, // and because there isn't too much code here, it's easy to modify and expand. // // // Here is the API you need to know about: //

struct Find_Result { int windows_sdk_version; // Zero if no Windows SDK found.

wchar_t *windows_sdk_root              = NULL;
wchar_t *windows_sdk_um_library_path   = NULL;
wchar_t *windows_sdk_ucrt_library_path = NULL;

wchar_t *vs_exe_path = NULL;
wchar_t *vs_library_path = NULL;

};

Find_Result find_visual_studio_and_windows_sdk();

void free_resources(Find_Result *result) { free(result->windows_sdk_root); free(result->windows_sdk_um_library_path); free(result->windows_sdk_ucrt_library_path); free(result->vs_exe_path); free(result->vs_library_path); }

// // Call find_visual_studio_and_windows_sdk, look at the resulting // paths, then call free_resources on the result. // // Everything else in this file is implementation details that you // don't need to care about. //

// // This file was about 400 lines before we started adding these comments. // You might think that's way too much code to do something as simple // as finding a few library and executable paths. I agree. However, // Microsoft's own solution to this problem, called "vswhere", is a // mere EIGHT THOUSAND LINE PROGRAM, spread across 70 files, // that they posted to github unironically. // // I am not making this up: https://github.com/Microsoft/vswhere // // Several people have therefore found the need to solve this problem // themselves. We referred to some of these other solutions when // figuring out what to do, most prominently ziglang's version, // by Ryan Saunderson. // // I hate this kind of code. The fact that we have to do this at all // is stupid, and the actual maneuvers we need to go through // are just painful. If programming were like this all the time, // I would quit. // // Because this is such an absurd waste of time, I felt it would be // useful to package the code in an easily-reusable way, in the // style of the stb libraries. We haven't gone as all-out as some // of the stb libraries do (which compile in C with no includes, often). // For this version you need C++ and the headers at the top of the file. // // We return the strings as Windows wide character strings. Aesthetically // I don't like that (I think most sane programs are UTF-8 internally), // but apparently, not all valid Windows file paths can even be converted // correctly to UTF-8. So have fun with that. It felt safest and simplest // to stay with wchar_t since all of this code is fully ensconced in // Windows crazy-land. // // One other shortcut I took is that this is hardcoded to return the // folders for x64 libraries. If you want x86 or arm, you can make // slight edits to the code below, or, if enough people want this, // I can work it in here. //

// Defer macro/thing.

#define CONCAT_INTERNAL(x,y) x##y #define CONCAT(x,y) CONCAT_INTERNAL(x,y)

template struct ExitScope { T lambda; ExitScope(T lambda):lambda(lambda){} ~ExitScope(){lambda();} ExitScope(const ExitScope&); private: ExitScope& operator =(const ExitScope&); };

class ExitScopeHelp { public: template ExitScope operator+(T t){ return t;} };

#define defer const auto& CONCAT(defer__, LINE) = ExitScopeHelp() + &

// COM objects for the ridiculous Microsoft craziness.

struct DECLSPEC_UUID("B41463C3-8866-43B5-BC33-2B0676F7F42E") DECLSPEC_NOVTABLE ISetupInstance : public IUnknown { STDMETHOD(GetInstanceId)(Out BSTR* pbstrInstanceId) = 0; STDMETHOD(GetInstallDate)(Out LPFILETIME pInstallDate) = 0; STDMETHOD(GetInstallationName)(Out BSTR* pbstrInstallationName) = 0; STDMETHOD(GetInstallationPath)(Out BSTR* pbstrInstallationPath) = 0; STDMETHOD(GetInstallationVersion)(Out BSTR* pbstrInstallationVersion) = 0; STDMETHOD(GetDisplayName)(In LCID lcid, Out BSTR* pbstrDisplayName) = 0; STDMETHOD(GetDescription)(In LCID lcid, Out BSTR* pbstrDescription) = 0; STDMETHOD(ResolvePath)(In_opt_z LPCOLESTR pwszRelativePath, Out BSTR* pbstrAbsolutePath) = 0; };

struct DECLSPEC_UUID("6380BCFF-41D3-4B2E-8B2E-BF8A6810C848") DECLSPEC_NOVTABLE IEnumSetupInstances : public IUnknown { STDMETHOD(Next)(In ULONG celt, Out_writes_to(celt, pceltFetched) ISetupInstance* rgelt, Out_opt Deref_out_range(0, celt) ULONG* pceltFetched) = 0; STDMETHOD(Skip)(In ULONG celt) = 0; STDMETHOD(Reset)(void) = 0; STDMETHOD(Clone)(Deref_out_opt IEnumSetupInstances** ppenum) = 0; };

struct DECLSPEC_UUID("42843719-DB4C-46C2-8E7C-64F1816EFD5B") DECLSPEC_NOVTABLE ISetupConfiguration : public IUnknown { STDMETHOD(EnumInstances)(Out IEnumSetupInstances** ppEnumInstances) = 0; STDMETHOD(GetInstanceForCurrentProcess)(Out ISetupInstance** ppInstance) = 0; STDMETHOD(GetInstanceForPath)(In_z LPCWSTR wzPath, Out ISetupInstance** ppInstance) = 0; };

// The beginning of the actual code that does things.

struct Version_Data { int32_t best_version[4]; // For Windows 8 versions, only two of these numbers are used. wchar_t *best_name; };

bool os_file_exists(wchar_t *name) { // @Robustness: What flags do we really want to check here?

auto attrib = GetFileAttributesW(name);
if (attrib == INVALID_FILE_ATTRIBUTES) return false;
if (attrib & FILE_ATTRIBUTE_DIRECTORY) return false;

return true;

}

wchar_t *concat(wchar_t *a, wchar_t *b, wchar_t *c = nullptr, wchar_t *d = nullptr) { // Concatenate up to 4 wide strings together. Allocated with malloc. // If you don't like that, use a programming language that actually // helps you with using custom allocators. Or just edit the code.

auto len_a = wcslen(a);
auto len_b = wcslen(b);

auto len_c = 0;
if (c) len_c = wcslen(c);

auto len_d = 0;
if (d) len_d = wcslen(d);

wchar_t *result = (wchar_t *)malloc((len_a + len_b + len_c + len_d + 1) * 2);
memcpy(result, a, len_a*2);
memcpy(result + len_a, b, len_b*2);

if (c) memcpy(result + len_a + len_b, c, len_c * 2);
if (d) memcpy(result + len_a + len_b + len_c, d, len_d * 2);
    
result[len_a + len_b + len_c + len_d] = 0;

return result;

}

typedef void (*Visit_Proc_W)(wchar_t *short_name, wchar_t *full_name, Version_Data *data); bool visit_files_w(wchar_t *dir_name, Version_Data *data, Visit_Proc_W proc) {

// Visit everything in one folder (non-recursively). If it's a directory
// that doesn't start with ".", call the visit proc on it. The visit proc
// will see if the filename conforms to the expected versioning pattern.

auto wildcard_name = concat(dir_name, L"\\*");
defer { free(wildcard_name); };
 
WIN32_FIND_DATAW find_data;
auto handle = FindFirstFileW(wildcard_name, &find_data);
if (handle == INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE) return false;

while (true) {
    if ((find_data.dwFileAttributes & FILE_ATTRIBUTE_DIRECTORY) && (find_data.cFileName[0] != '.')) {
        auto full_name = concat(dir_name, L"\\", find_data.cFileName);
        defer { free(full_name); };
      
        proc(find_data.cFileName, full_name, data);
    }
    
    auto success = FindNextFileW(handle, &find_data);
    if (!success) break;
}

FindClose(handle);

return true;

}

wchar_t *read_from_the_registry(HKEY key, wchar_t *value_name) { // Returns NULL if read failed. // Otherwise returns a wide string allocated via 'malloc'.

//
// If the registry data changes between the first and second calls to RegQueryValueExW,
// we may fail to get the entire key, even though it told us initially that our buffer length
// would be big enough. The only solution is to keep looping until we don't fail.
//

DWORD required_length;
auto rc = RegQueryValueExW(key, value_name, NULL, NULL, NULL, &required_length);
if (rc != 0)  return NULL;

wchar_t *value;
DWORD length;
while (1) {
    length = required_length + 2;  // The +2 is for the maybe optional zero later on. Probably we are over-allocating.
    value = (wchar_t *)malloc(length + 2);  // This second +2 is for crazy situations where there are race conditions or the API doesn't do what we want!
    if (!value) return NULL;

    DWORD type;
    rc = RegQueryValueExW(key, value_name, NULL, &type, (LPBYTE)value, &length);  // We know that version is zero-terminated...
    if (rc == ERROR_MORE_DATA) {
        free(value);
        required_length = length;
        continue;
    }

    if ((rc != 0) || (type != REG_SZ)) {
        // REG_SZ because we only accept strings here!
        free(value);
        return NULL;
    }
    
    break;
}

// The documentation says that if the string for some reason was not stored
// with zero-termination, we need to manually terminate it. Sigh!!

auto num_wchars = length / 2;
value[num_wchars] = 0;  // If the string was already zero-terminated, this just puts an extra 0 after (since that 0 was counted in 'length'). If it wasn't, this puts a 0 after the nonzero characters we got.

return value;

}

void win10_best(wchar_t *short_name, wchar_t *full_name, Version_Data *data) { // Find the Windows 10 subdirectory with the highest version number.

int i0, i1, i2, i3;
auto success = swscanf_s(short_name, L"%d.%d.%d.%d", &i0, &i1, &i2, &i3);
if (success < 4) return;

if (i0 < data->best_version[0]) return;
else if (i0 == data->best_version[0]) {
    if (i1 < data->best_version[1]) return;
    else if (i1 == data->best_version[1]) {
        if (i2 < data->best_version[2]) return;
        else if (i2 == data->best_version[2]) {
            if (i3 < data->best_version[3]) return;
        }
    }
}

// we have to copy_string and free here because visit_files free's the full_name string
// after we execute this function, so Win*_Data would contain an invalid pointer.
if (data->best_name) free(data->best_name);
data->best_name = _wcsdup(full_name);
        
if (data->best_name) {
    data->best_version[0] = i0;
    data->best_version[1] = i1;
    data->best_version[2] = i2;
    data->best_version[3] = i3;
}

}

void win8_best(wchar_t *short_name, wchar_t *full_name, Version_Data *data) { // Find the Windows 8 subdirectory with the highest version number.

int i0, i1;
auto success = swscanf_s(short_name, L"winv%d.%d", &i0, &i1);
if (success < 2) return;

if (i0 < data->best_version[0]) return;
else if (i0 == data->best_version[0]) {
    if (i1 < data->best_version[1]) return;
}

// we have to copy_string and free here because visit_files free's the full_name string
// after we execute this function, so Win*_Data would contain an invalid pointer.
if (data->best_name) free(data->best_name);
data->best_name = _wcsdup(full_name);

if (data->best_name) {
    data->best_version[0] = i0;
    data->best_version[1] = i1;
}

}

void find_windows_kit_root(Find_Result *result) { // Information about the Windows 10 and Windows 8 development kits // is stored in the same place in the registry. We open a key // to that place, first checking preferntially for a Windows 10 kit, // then, if that's not found, a Windows 8 kit.

HKEY main_key;

auto rc = RegOpenKeyExA(HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, "SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\\Windows Kits\\Installed Roots",
                        0, KEY_QUERY_VALUE | KEY_WOW64_32KEY | KEY_ENUMERATE_SUB_KEYS, &main_key);
if (rc != S_OK) return;
defer { RegCloseKey(main_key); };

// Look for a Windows 10 entry.
auto windows10_root = read_from_the_registry(main_key, L"KitsRoot10");
if (windows10_root) {
    defer { free(windows10_root); };
    Version_Data data = {0};
    auto windows10_lib = concat(windows10_root, L"Lib");
    defer { free(windows10_lib); };
    
    visit_files_w(windows10_lib, &data, win10_best);
    if (data.best_name) {
        result->windows_sdk_version = 10;
        result->windows_sdk_root = data.best_name;
        return;
    }
}

// Look for a Windows 8 entry.
auto windows8_root = read_from_the_registry(main_key, L"KitsRoot81");

if (windows8_root) {
    defer { free(windows8_root); };
    
    auto windows8_lib = concat(windows8_root, L"Lib");
    defer { free(windows8_lib); };

    Version_Data data = {0};
    visit_files_w(windows8_lib, &data, win8_best);
    if (data.best_name) {
        result->windows_sdk_version = 8;
        result->windows_sdk_root = data.best_name;
        return;
    }
}

// If we get here, we failed to find anything.

}

bool find_visual_studio_2017_by_fighting_through_microsoft_craziness(Find_Result *result) { // The name of this procedure is kind of cryptic. Its purpose is // to fight through Microsoft craziness. The things that the fine // Visual Studio team want you to do, JUST TO FIND A SINGLE FOLDER // THAT EVERYONE NEEDS TO FIND, are ridiculous garbage.

// For earlier versions of Visual Studio, you'd find this information in the registry,
// similarly to the Windows Kits above. But no, now it's the future, so to ask the
// question "Where is the Visual Studio folder?" you have to do a bunch of COM object
// instantiation, enumeration, and querying. (For extra bonus points, try doing this in
// a new, underdeveloped programming language where you don't have COM routines up
// and running yet. So fun.)
//
// If all this COM object instantiation, enumeration, and querying doesn't give us
// a useful result, we drop back to the registry-checking method.

auto rc = CoInitializeEx(NULL, COINIT_MULTITHREADED);
// "Subsequent valid calls return false." So ignore false.
// if rc != S_OK  return false;

GUID my_uid                   = {0x42843719, 0xDB4C, 0x46C2, {0x8E, 0x7C, 0x64, 0xF1, 0x81, 0x6E, 0xFD, 0x5B}};
GUID CLSID_SetupConfiguration = {0x177F0C4A, 0x1CD3, 0x4DE7, {0xA3, 0x2C, 0x71, 0xDB, 0xBB, 0x9F, 0xA3, 0x6D}};

ISetupConfiguration *config = NULL;
auto hr = CoCreateInstance(CLSID_SetupConfiguration, NULL, CLSCTX_INPROC_SERVER, my_uid, (void **)&config);
if (hr != 0)  return false;
defer { config->Release(); };

IEnumSetupInstances *instances = NULL;
hr = config->EnumInstances(&instances);
if (hr != 0)     return false;
if (!instances)  return false;
defer { instances->Release(); };

while (1) {
    ULONG found = 0;
    ISetupInstance *instance = NULL;
    auto hr = instances->Next(1, &instance, &found);
    if (hr != S_OK) break;

    defer { instance->Release(); };
    
    BSTR bstr_inst_path;
    hr = instance->GetInstallationPath(&bstr_inst_path);
    if (hr != S_OK)  continue;
    defer { SysFreeString(bstr_inst_path); };
    
    auto tools_filename = concat(bstr_inst_path, L"\\VC\\Auxiliary\\Build\\Microsoft.VCToolsVersion.default.txt");
    defer { free(tools_filename); };

    FILE *f = nullptr;
    auto open_result = _wfopen_s(&f, tools_filename, L"rt");
    if (open_result != 0) continue;
    if (!f) continue;
    defer { fclose(f); };

    LARGE_INTEGER tools_file_size;
    auto file_handle = (HANDLE)_get_osfhandle(_fileno(f));
    BOOL success = GetFileSizeEx(file_handle, &tools_file_size);
    if (!success) continue;

    auto version_bytes = (tools_file_size.QuadPart + 1) * 2;  // Warning: This multiplication by 2 presumes there is no variable-length encoding in the wchars (wacky characters in the file could betray this expectation).
    wchar_t *version = (wchar_t *)malloc(version_bytes);
    defer { free(version); };

    auto read_result = fgetws(version, version_bytes, f);
    if (!read_result) continue;

    auto version_tail = wcschr(version, '\n');
    if (version_tail)  *version_tail = 0;  // Stomp the data, because nobody cares about it.

    auto library_path = concat(bstr_inst_path, L"\\VC\\Tools\\MSVC\\", version, L"\\lib\\x64");
    auto library_file = concat(library_path, L"\\vcruntime.lib");  // @Speed: Could have library_path point to this string, with a smaller count, to save on memory flailing!

    if (os_file_exists(library_file)) {
        auto link_exe_path = concat(bstr_inst_path, L"\\VC\\Tools\\MSVC\\", version, L"\\bin\\Hostx64\\x64");
        result->vs_exe_path     = link_exe_path;
        result->vs_library_path = library_path;
        return true;
    }

    /*
       Ryan Saunderson said:
       "Clang uses the 'SetupInstance->GetInstallationVersion' / ISetupHelper->ParseVersion to find the newest version 
       and then reads the tools file to define the tools path - which is definitely better than what i did."

       So... @Incomplete: Should probably pick the newest version...
    */
}

// If we get here, we didn't find Visual Studio 2017. Try earlier versions.
return false;

}

void find_visual_studio_by_fighting_through_microsoft_craziness(Find_Result *result) { bool found_visual_studio_2017 = find_visual_studio_2017_by_fighting_through_microsoft_craziness(result); if (found_visual_studio_2017) return;

HKEY vs7_key;
auto rc = RegOpenKeyExA(HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, "SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\\VisualStudio\\SxS\\VS7", 0, KEY_QUERY_VALUE | KEY_WOW64_32KEY, &vs7_key);

if (rc != S_OK)  return;
defer { RegCloseKey(vs7_key); };

// Hardcoded search for 4 prior Visual Studio versions. Is there something better to do here?
wchar_t *versions[] = { L"14.0", L"12.0", L"11.0", L"10.0" };
const int NUM_VERSIONS = sizeof(versions) / sizeof(versions[0]);

for (int i = 0; i < NUM_VERSIONS; i++) {
    auto v = versions[i];

    auto buffer = read_from_the_registry(vs7_key, v);
    if (!buffer) continue;

    defer { free(buffer); };
    
    auto lib_path = concat(buffer, L"VC\\Lib\\amd64");

    // Check to see whether a vcruntime.lib actually exists here.
    auto vcruntime_filename = concat(lib_path, L"\\vcruntime.lib");
    defer { free(vcruntime_filename); };

    if (os_file_exists(vcruntime_filename)) {
        result->vs_exe_path     = concat(buffer, L"VC\\bin\\amd64");
        result->vs_library_path = lib_path;
        return;
    }
    
    free(lib_path);
}

// If we get here, we failed to find anything.

}

Find_Result find_visual_studio_and_windows_sdk() { Find_Result result;

find_windows_kit_root(&result);

if (result.windows_sdk_root) {
    result.windows_sdk_um_library_path   = concat(result.windows_sdk_root, L"\\um\\x64");
    result.windows_sdk_ucrt_library_path = concat(result.windows_sdk_root, L"\\ucrt\\x64");
}

find_visual_studio_by_fighting_through_microsoft_craziness(&result);

return result;

}