ValueError: Unknown MS Compiler version 1916 when trying to compile with mingw-w64

Question

I'm trying to get Python packages built on my Windows machine using GCC instead of the MS C++ build tools, the former being much smaller (although still 1.5GB).

I have setup mingw-w64 using MSYS2, and it's in the path, so:

C:\Users\username>where g++
c:\MyPrograms\msys64\mingw64\bin\g++.exe

C:\Users\username>g++ --version
g++ (Rev3, Built by MSYS2 project) 10.1.0
Copyright (C) 2020 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions.  There is NO
warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

So far, so good.

I setup the distutils.cfg as follows, as described here:

[build]
compiler=mingw32

[build_ext]
compiler=mingw32

But then installing a package such as astropy yields the following error:

ValueError: Unknown MS Compiler version 1916

I saw somewhere a suggestion to fill distutils.cfg like this:

[build]
compiler=g++

[build_ext]           
compiler=g++

which then raises:

error: don't know how to compile C/C++ code on platform 'nt' with 'g++' compiler

Any idea?

Edit: Full trace

    running build_ext
    running pre_hook from astropy.modeling.setup_package for build_ext command
    running pre_hook from astropy._erfa.setup_package for build_ext command
    Traceback (most recent call last):
      File "<string>", line 1, in <module>
      File "C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Temp\pip-install-id1zp2pt\astropy\setup.py", line 35, in <module>
        setup(setup_requires=setup_requires)
      File "c:\users\username\appdata\local\temp\pip-install-id1zp2pt\astropy\astropy_helpers\astropy_helpers\setup_helpers.py", line 102, in setup
        setuptools_setup(**package_info)
      File "c:\users\username\appdata\local\programs\python\python38\lib\site-packages\setuptools\__init__.py", line 161, in setup
        return distutils.core.setup(**attrs)
      File "c:\users\username\appdata\local\programs\python\python38\lib\distutils\core.py", line 148, in setup
        dist.run_commands()
      File "c:\users\username\appdata\local\programs\python\python38\lib\distutils\dist.py", line 966, in run_commands
        self.run_command(cmd)
      File "c:\users\username\appdata\local\programs\python\python38\lib\distutils\dist.py", line 985, in run_command
        cmd_obj.run()
      File "c:\users\username\appdata\local\programs\python\python38\lib\site-packages\setuptools\command\install.py", line 61, in run
        return orig.install.run(self)
      File "c:\users\username\appdata\local\programs\python\python38\lib\distutils\command\install.py", line 545, in run
        self.run_command('build')
      File "c:\users\username\appdata\local\programs\python\python38\lib\distutils\cmd.py", line 313, in run_command
        self.distribution.run_command(command)
      File "c:\users\username\appdata\local\programs\python\python38\lib\distutils\dist.py", line 985, in run_command
        cmd_obj.run()
      File "c:\users\username\appdata\local\programs\python\python38\lib\distutils\command\build.py", line 135, in run
        self.run_command(cmd_name)
      File "c:\users\username\appdata\local\programs\python\python38\lib\distutils\cmd.py", line 313, in run_command
        self.distribution.run_command(command)
      File "c:\users\username\appdata\local\programs\python\python38\lib\distutils\dist.py", line 985, in run_command
        cmd_obj.run()
      File "c:\users\username\appdata\local\temp\pip-install-id1zp2pt\astropy\astropy_helpers\astropy_helpers\setup_helpers.py", line 298, in run
        orig_run(self)
      File "c:\users\username\appdata\local\temp\pip-install-id1zp2pt\astropy\astropy_helpers\astropy_helpers\commands\build_ext.py", line 142, in run
        super().run()
      File "c:\users\username\appdata\local\programs\python\python38\lib\site-packages\setuptools\command\build_ext.py", line 87, in run
        _build_ext.run(self)
      File "c:\users\username\appdata\local\programs\python\python38\lib\site-packages\Cython\Distutils\old_build_ext.py", line 186, in run
        _build_ext.build_ext.run(self)
      File "c:\users\username\appdata\local\programs\python\python38\lib\distutils\command\build_ext.py", line 306, in run
        self.compiler = new_compiler(compiler=self.compiler,
      File "c:\users\username\appdata\local\programs\python\python38\lib\distutils\ccompiler.py", line 1032, in new_compiler
        return klass(None, dry_run, force)
      File "c:\users\username\appdata\local\programs\python\python38\lib\distutils\cygwinccompiler.py", line 282, in __init__
        CygwinCCompiler.__init__ (self, verbose, dry_run, force)
      File "c:\users\username\appdata\local\programs\python\python38\lib\distutils\cygwinccompiler.py", line 157, in __init__
        self.dll_libraries = get_msvcr()
      File "c:\users\username\appdata\local\programs\python\python38\lib\distutils\cygwinccompiler.py", line 86, in get_msvcr
        raise ValueError("Unknown MS Compiler version %s " % msc_ver)
    ValueError: Unknown MS Compiler version 1916
    ----------------------------------------
ERROR: Command errored out with exit status 1: 'c:\users\username\appdata\local\programs\python\python38\python.exe' -u -c 'import sys, setuptools, tokenize; sys.argv[0] = '"'"'C:\\Users\\username\\AppData\\Local\\Temp\\pip-install-id1zp2pt\\astropy\\setup.py'"'"'; __file__='"'"'C:\\Users\\username\\AppData\\Local\\Temp\\pip-install-id1zp2pt\\astropy\\setup.py'"'"';f=getattr(tokenize, '"'"'open'"'"', open)(__file__);code=f.read().replace('"'"'\r\n'"'"', '"'"'\n'"'"');f.close();exec(compile(code, __file__, '"'"'exec'"'"'))' install --record 'C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Temp\pip-record-zwu6d9vh\install-record.txt' --single-version-externally-managed --compile --install-headers 'c:\users\username\appdata\local\programs\python\python38\Include\astropy' Check the logs for full command output.

You have set up MSYS2 but you're running the commands in the Command Prompt. Why aren't you using the MSYS2 shell? — Brecht Sanders, Jun 07 '20 at 14:32
Because you can't install a Python package from the MSYS2 shell... — mrgou, Jun 08 '20 at 08:26
I have built and installed Python packages under MSYS2 before... — Brecht Sanders, Jun 08 '20 at 09:55
Note that I'm not trying to install a package in the python distribution included in MSYS2. I'm just using MSYS2 to get the most up to date mingw-w64 toolchain available. — mrgou, Jun 08 '20 at 16:10
I have a personal build of MinGW-w64 that you can get without MSYS2. Check out: http://winlibs.com/ — Brecht Sanders, Jun 08 '20 at 16:21
Same error from pip when using your nice WinLibs build: `ValueError: Unknown MS Compiler version 1916` — mrgou, Jun 11 '20 at 08:00
Can you give an example of a simple Python packages you're trying to build? — Brecht Sanders, Jun 11 '20 at 09:03
I found [this answer](https://stackoverflow.com/a/43971456/6340496) helpful, specifically steps 5 and 6. In step 5, use `elif msc_ver == '1916': return ['vcruntime140']`. Sorted! — S3DEV, Apr 01 '22 at 19:34

score -1 · Answer 1 · answered Apr 21 '21 at 09:16

-1

This is an issue that persists from visual studio 14, as reported in this https://bugs.python.org/issue25251 thread. I tried to patch it in various ways, but compiling python libraries with mingw32 looks to be broken since 2015.

answered Apr 21 '21 at 09:16

BestCrazyNoob

1

As I read it, it looks like the bug you're referring to means that you can't use mingw64 if you also have MSVC installed? – mrgou Apr 21 '21 at 19:12

ValueError: Unknown MS Compiler version 1916 when trying to compile with mingw-w64

1 Answers1