1# Building Zed for Windows
  2
  3> The following commands may be executed in any shell.
  4
  5## Repository
  6
  7Clone down the [Zed repository](https://github.com/zed-industries/zed).
  8
  9## Dependencies
 10
 11- Install [rustup](https://www.rust-lang.org/tools/install)
 12
 13- Install [Visual Studio](https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/downloads/) with the optional components `MSVC v*** - VS YYYY C++ x64/x86 build tools` and `MSVC v*** - VS YYYY C++ x64/x86 Spectre-mitigated libs (latest)` (`v***` is your VS version and `YYYY` is year when your VS was released. Pay attention to the architecture and change it to yours if needed.)
 14- Install Windows 11 or 10 SDK depending on your system, but ensure that at least `Windows 10 SDK version 2104 (10.0.20348.0)` is installed on your machine. You can download it from the [Windows SDK Archive](https://developer.microsoft.com/windows/downloads/windows-sdk/)
 15- Install [CMake](https://cmake.org/download) (required by [a dependency](https://docs.rs/wasmtime-c-api-impl/latest/wasmtime_c_api/))
 16
 17## Backend dependencies
 18
 19> This section is still in development. The instructions are not yet complete.
 20
 21If you are developing collaborative features of Zed, you'll need to install the dependencies of zed's `collab` server:
 22
 23- Install [Postgres](https://www.postgresql.org/download/windows/)
 24- Install [Livekit](https://github.com/livekit/livekit-cli) and [Foreman](https://theforeman.org/manuals/3.9/quickstart_guide.html)
 25
 26Alternatively, if you have [Docker](https://www.docker.com/) installed you can bring up all the `collab` dependencies using Docker Compose:
 27
 28```sh
 29docker compose up -d
 30```
 31
 32## Building from source
 33
 34Once you have the dependencies installed, you can build Zed using [Cargo](https://doc.rust-lang.org/cargo/).
 35
 36For a debug build:
 37
 38```sh
 39cargo run
 40```
 41
 42For a release build:
 43
 44```sh
 45cargo run --release
 46```
 47
 48And to run the tests:
 49
 50```sh
 51cargo test --workspace
 52```
 53
 54## Installing from msys2
 55
 56[MSYS2](https://msys2.org/) distribution provides Zed as a package [mingw-w64-zed](https://packages.msys2.org/base/mingw-w64-zed). The package is available for UCRT64, MINGW64 and CLANG64 repositories. To download it, run
 57
 58```sh
 59pacman -Syu
 60pacman -S $MINGW_PACKAGE_PREFIX-zed
 61```
 62
 63then you can run `zed` in a shell.
 64
 65You can see the [build script](https://github.com/msys2/MINGW-packages/blob/master/mingw-w64-zed/PKGBUILD) for more details on build process.
 66
 67> Please, report any issue in [msys2/MINGW-packages/issues](https://github.com/msys2/MINGW-packages/issues?q=is%3Aissue+is%3Aopen+zed) first.
 68
 69## Troubleshooting
 70
 71### Can't compile zed
 72
 73Before reporting the issue, make sure that you have the latest rustc version with `rustup update`.
 74
 75### Cargo errors claiming that a dependency is using unstable features
 76
 77Try `cargo clean` and `cargo build`.
 78
 79### `STATUS_ACCESS_VIOLATION`
 80
 81This error can happen if you are using the "rust-lld.exe" linker. Consider trying a different linker.
 82
 83If you are using a global config, consider moving the Zed repository to a nested directory and add a `.cargo/config.toml` with a custom linker config in the parent directory.
 84
 85See this issue for more information [#12041](https://github.com/zed-industries/zed/issues/12041)
 86
 87### Invalid RC path selected
 88
 89Sometimes, depending on the security rules applied to your laptop, you may get the following error while compiling Zed:
 90
 91```
 92error: failed to run custom build command for `zed(C:\Users\USER\src\zed\crates\zed)`
 93
 94Caused by:
 95  process didn't exit successfully: `C:\Users\USER\src\zed\target\debug\build\zed-b24f1e9300107efc\build-script-build` (exit code: 1)
 96  --- stdout
 97  cargo:rerun-if-changed=../../.git/logs/HEAD
 98  cargo:rustc-env=ZED_COMMIT_SHA=25e2e9c6727ba9b77415588cfa11fd969612adb7
 99  cargo:rustc-link-arg=/stack:8388608
100  cargo:rerun-if-changed=resources/windows/app-icon.ico
101  package.metadata.winresource does not exist
102  Selected RC path: 'bin\x64\rc.exe'
103
104  --- stderr
105  The system cannot find the path specified. (os error 3)
106warning: build failed, waiting for other jobs to finish...
107```
108
109In order to fix this issue, you can manually set the `ZED_RC_TOOLKIT_PATH` environment variable to the RC toolkit path. Usually, you can set it to:
110`C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10\bin\<SDK_version>\x64`.
111
112See this [issue](https://github.com/zed-industries/zed/issues/18393) for more information.
113
114### Build fails: Path too long
115
116You may receive an error like the following when building
117
118```
119error: failed to get `pet` as a dependency of package `languages v0.1.0 (D:\a\zed-windows-builds\zed-windows-builds\crates\languages)`
120
121Caused by:
122  failed to load source for dependency `pet`
123
124Caused by:
125  Unable to update https://github.com/microsoft/python-environment-tools.git?rev=ffcbf3f28c46633abd5448a52b1f396c322e0d6c#ffcbf3f2
126
127Caused by:
128  path too long: 'C:/Users/runneradmin/.cargo/git/checkouts/python-environment-tools-903993894b37a7d2/ffcbf3f/crates/pet-conda/tests/unix/conda_env_without_manager_but_found_in_history/some_other_location/conda_install/conda-meta/python-fastjsonschema-2.16.2-py310hca03da5_0.json'; class=Filesystem (30)
129```
130
131In order to solve this, you can enable longpath support for git and Windows.
132
133For git: `git config --system core.longpaths true`
134
135And for Windows with this PS command:
136
137```powershell
138New-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem" -Name "LongPathsEnabled" -Value 1 -PropertyType DWORD -Force
139```
140
141For more information on this, please see [win32 docs](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/fileio/maximum-file-path-limitation?tabs=powershell)
142
143(note that you will need to restart your system after enabling longpath support)