# Building the Podman client and client installer on Windows

The following describes the process for building and testing the Podman Windows
client (`podman.exe`) and the Podman Windows installer (`podman-setup.exe`) on
Windows.

## Topics

- [Requirements](#requirements)
  - [OS requirements](#os-requirements)
  - [Git and go](#git-and-go)
  - [Pandoc (optional)](#pandoc-optional)
  - [.NET SDK](#net-sdk)
  - [Virtualization Provider](#virtualization-provider)
    - [WSL](#wsl)
    - [Hyper-V](#hyper-v)
- [Get the source code](#get-the-source-code)
  - [Allow local PowerShell scripts execution](#allow-local-powershell-scripts-execution)
- [Build and test the Podman client for Windows](#build-and-test-the-podman-client-for-windows)
  - [Build the Podman client](#build-the-podman-client)
  - [Download gvproxy.exe and win-sshproxy.exe](#download-gvproxyexe-and-win-sshproxyexe)
  - [Create a configuration file (optional)](#create-a-configuration-file-optional)
  - [Create and start a podman machine](#create-and-start-a-podman-machine)
  - [Run a container using podman](#run-a-container-using-podman)
- [Build and test the Podman Windows installer](#build-and-test-the-podman-windows-installer)
  - [Build the Windows installer](#build-the-windows-installer)
  - [Test the Windows installer](#test-the-windows-installer)
    - [Run the Windows installer automated tests](#run-the-windows-installer-automated-tests)
    - [Verify the installation](#verify-the-installation)
  - [Uninstall and clean-up](#uninstall-and-clean-up)
    - [Retrieve Podman installed products](#retrieve-podman-installed-products)
- [Validate changes before submitting a PR](#validate-changes-before-submitting-a-pr)
  - [winmake lint](#winmake-lint)
  - [winmake validatepr](#winmake-validatepr)

## Requirements

### OS requirements

This documentation assumes one uses a Windows 10 or 11 development machine and a
PowerShell terminal.

### Git and go

To build Podman, the [git](https://gitforwindows.org/) and [go](https://go.dev)
tools are required. In case they are not yet installed, open a Windows
PowerShell terminal and run the following command (it assumes that
[winget](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/package-manager/winget/) is
installed):

```pwsh
winget install -e GoLang.Go Git.Git
```

:information_source: A terminal restart is advised for the `PATH` to be
reloaded. This can also be manually changed by configuring the `PATH`:

```pwsh
$env:Path += ";C:\Program Files\Go\bin\;C:\Program Files\Git\cmd\"
```

### Pandoc (optional)

[Pandoc](https://pandoc.org/) is used to generate Podman documentation. It is
used for building the documentation.
Pandoc can be installed from https://pandoc.org/installing.html. When performing
the Pandoc installation one, has to choose the option "Install for all users"
(to put the binaries into "Program Files" directory).
Alternatively, Podman documentation can be built using a container with the target
`docs-using-podman` in the `winmake.ps1` script.

```pwsh
.\winmake docs-using-podman
```

### .NET SDK

[.NET SDK](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/core/sdk), version 6 or
later, is required to develop and build the Podman Windows installer. It's not
required for the Podman Windows client.

```pwsh
winget install -e Microsoft.DotNet.SDK.8
```

[WiX Toolset](https://wixtoolset.org) **v5**, distributed as a .NET SDK tool, is
used too and can be installed using `dotnet install`:

```pwsh
dotnet tool install --global wix --version 5.0.2
```

:information_source: Because WiX Toolset has changed its licensing model when v6
was released, [Podman still uses the WiX Toolset
v5.0.2](https://github.com/containers/podman/issues/27042)
and we recommend using it as well for local development (although it's not
strictly required).

### Virtualization Provider

Running Podman on Windows requires a virtualization provider. The supported
providers are the
[Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL)](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/)
and
[Hyper-V](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/virtualization/hyper-v-on-windows/quick-start/enable-hyper-v).
At least one of those two is required to test podman on a local Windows machine.

#### WSL

WSL can be installed on Windows 10 and Windows 11, including Windows Home, with
the following command, from a PowerShell or Windows Command Prompt terminal in
**administrator mode**:

```pwsh
wsl --install
```

For more information refer to
[the official documentation](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/).

#### Hyper-V

Hyper-V is an optional feature of Windows Enterprise, Pro, or Education (not
Home). It is available on Windows 10 and 11 only and
[has some particular requirements in terms of CPU and memory](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/virtualization/hyper-v-on-windows/quick-start/enable-hyper-v#check-requirements).
To enable it on a supported system, enter the following command:

```pwsh
Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName Microsoft-Hyper-V -All
```

After running this command, a restart of the Windows machine is required.

:information_source: Configure the VM provider used by podman (Hyper-V or WSL)
in the file `%APPDATA%/containers/containers.conf`.
[More on that later](#create-a-configuration-file-optional).

## Get the source code

Open a Windows Terminal and run the following command:

```pwsh
git config --global core.autocrlf false
```

It configures git so that it does **not** automatically convert LF to CRLF. In
the Podman git repository, files are expected to use Unix LF rather than Windows
CRLF.

Then run the command to clone the Podman git repository:

```pwsh
git clone https://github.com/containers/podman
```

It creates the folder `podman` in the current directory and clones the Podman
git repository into it.

### Allow local PowerShell scripts execution

A developer can build the Podman client for Windows and the Windows installer
with the PowerShell script
[winmake.ps1](https://github.com/containers/podman/blob/main/winmake.ps1).

Windows sets the ExecutionPolicy to `Restricted` by default; running scripts is
prohibited. Determine the ExecutionPolicy on the machine with this command:

```pwsh
Get-ExecutionPolicy
```

If the command returns `Restricted`, the ExecutionPolicy should be changed to
`RemoteSigned`:

```pwsh
Set-ExecutionPolicy -ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned -Scope CurrentUser
```

This policy allows the execution of local PowerShell scripts, such as
`winmake.ps1`, for the current user.

## Build and test the Podman client for Windows

The following steps describe how to build the `podman.exe` binary from sources
and test it.

### Build the Podman client

Open a PowerShell terminal and move to Podman local git repository directory:

```pwsh
Set-Location .\podman
```

Build `podman.exe`

```
.\winmake.ps1 podman-remote
```

:information_source: Verify build's success by checking the content of the
`.\bin\windows` folder. Upon successful completion, the executable `podman.exe`
should be there:

```pwsh
Get-ChildItem .\bin\windows\


    Directory: C:\Users\mario\Git\podman\bin\windows


Mode                 LastWriteTime         Length Name
----                 -------------         ------ ----
-a----         2/27/2024  11:59 AM       45408256 podman.exe
```

### Download gvproxy.exe and win-sshproxy.exe

[gvisor-tap-vsock](https://github.com/containers/gvisor-tap-vsock/) binaries
(`gvproxy-windowsgui.exe` and `win-sshproxy.exe`) are required to run the Podman
client on Windows. The executables are expected to be in the same folder as
`podman.exe`. The following command downloads the latest version in the
`.\bin\windows\` folder:

```pwsh
.\winmake.ps1 win-gvproxy
```

:information_source: To verify that the binaries have been downloaded
successfully, check the content of the .\bin\windows` folder.

```pwsh
Get-ChildItem .\bin\windows\


    Directory: C:\Users\mario\Git\podman\bin\windows


Mode                 LastWriteTime         Length Name
----                 -------------         ------ ----
-a----         2/29/2024  12:10 PM       10946048 gvproxy.exe
-a----         2/27/2024  11:59 AM       45408256 podman.exe
-a----         2/29/2024  12:10 PM        4089856 win-sshproxy.exe
```

### Create a configuration file (optional)

To test some particular configurations of Podman, create a `containers.conf`
file:

```
New-Item -ItemType Directory $env:APPDATA\containers\
New-Item -ItemType File $env:APPDATA\containers\containers.conf
notepad $env:APPDATA\containers\containers.conf
```

For example, to test with Hyper-V as the virtualization provider, use the
following content:

```toml
[machine]
provider="hyperv"
```

Find the complete list of configuration options in the
[documentation](https://github.com/containers/common/blob/main/docs/containers.conf.5.md).

### Create and start a podman machine

Execute the following commands in a terminal to create a Podman machine:

```pwsh
.\bin\windows\podman.exe machine init
```

When `machine init` completes, run `machine start`:

```pwsh
.\bin\windows\podman.exe machine start
```

:information_source: If the virtualization provider is Hyperv-V, execute the
above commands in an administrator terminal.

### Run a container using podman

Use the locally built Podman client for Windows to run containers:

```pwsh
.\bin\windows\podman.exe run hello-world
```

To learn how to use the Podman client, refer to its
[tutorial](https://github.com/containers/podman/blob/main/docs/tutorials/remote_client.md).

## Build and test the Podman Windows installer

The Podman Windows installer (e.g., `podman-5.7.0.msi`) is an MSI package
built using the [WiX Toolset](https://wixtoolset.org/) v5. The installer
supports installation at both user scope (per-user) and machine scope
(per-machine/administrator). The source code is in the folder
`contrib\win-installer`.

### Build the Windows installer

To build the MSI installer, run the following command:

```pwsh
.\winmake.ps1 installer
```

:information_source: making `podman-remote`, `win-gvproxy`, and `docs` (or `docs-using-podman`) is
required before running this command.

Locate the installer in the `contrib\win-installer` folder (relative to checkout
root) with a name like `podman-5.7.0.msi`, where `5.7.0` is the version of
Podman on the local branch.

The `installer` target of `winmake.ps1` runs the script
`contrib\win-installer\build.ps1` that, in turn, executes:

- `dotnet build podman.wixproj`: builds `podman.msi` from the WiX source files
  `wix\podman-main.wxs`, `wix\podman-ui-main.wxs`, and
  `wix\podman-ui-welcome-dlg.wxs`.

### Test the Windows installer

Double-click on the Windows installer to run it. To get the installation logs
with debug information, running it via the command line is recommended:

```pwsh
msiexec /package contrib\win-installer\podman-5.7.0.msi /l*v podman-msi.log
```

It generates the file `podman-msi.log`, which includes detailed installation
information, in the current directory.

The MSI installer supports both user-scope and machine-scope installations:

- **User scope (per-user)**: No administrator privileges required. Files are
  installed in the user's profile directory, and the PATH is updated only for
  the current user. This is the default scope.

- **Machine scope (per-machine)**: Requires administrator privileges. Files are
  installed in `Program Files`, and the PATH is updated for all users.

To run an automated installation in quiet, non-interactive mode and set the
machine provider (`wsl` or `hyperv`), use the following command:

**User scope installation** (no administrator required):

```pwsh
msiexec /package contrib\win-installer\podman-5.7.0.msi /l*v podman-msi.log `
        /quiet MSIINSTALLPERUSER=1 MACHINE_PROVIDER=wsl
```

**Machine scope installation** (requires administrator terminal):

```pwsh
msiexec /package contrib\win-installer\podman-5.7.0.msi /l*v podman-msi.log `
        /quiet ALLUSERS=1 MACHINE_PROVIDER=wsl
```

:information_source: If uninstallation fails, the installer may end up in an
inconsistent state. Podman results as uninstalled, but the MSI package is still
tracked in the Windows registry and will affect further attempts to reinstall
Podman. When this is the case, trying to reinstall Podman results in the
installer returning zero (success) but no action is executed. The package
`GUID` can be found in the installation logs:

```log
Product: Podman CLI -- Installation completed successfully.
ProductCode: {<GUID>}
```

To fix this problem, remove the tracked package:

```pwsh
msiexec /x "{<GUID>}"
```

#### Run the Windows installer automated tests

The following command executes a number of tests of the windows installer. Running
it requires an administrator terminal.

```pwsh
.\winmake.ps1 installertest [wsl|hyperv]
```

#### Verify the installation

Inspect the MSI installation log `podman-msi.log` to verify that the
installation was successful:

```pwsh
Select-String -Path "podman-msi.log" -Pattern "Installation success or error status: 0"
```

The following commands are helpful to check the installation:

**For machine scope (per-machine) installations:**

```pwsh
# Check the copy of the podman client in the Podman folder
Test-Path -Path "$ENV:PROGRAMFILES\Podman\podman.exe"
# Check the generation of the podman configuration file
Test-Path -Path "$ENV:PROGRAMDATA\containers\containers.conf.d\99-podman-machine-provider.conf"
# Check that the installer configured the right provider
Get-Content "$ENV:PROGRAMDATA\containers\containers.conf.d\99-podman-machine-provider.conf" | Select -Skip 1 | ConvertFrom-StringData | % { $_.provider }
# Check the creation of the registry key
Test-Path -Path "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Podman"
Get-ItemProperty "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Podman" InstallDir
# Check that podman.exe is in the $PATH
$env:PATH | Select-String -Pattern "Podman"
```

**For user scope (per-user) installations:**

```pwsh
# Check the copy of the podman client in the Podman folder
Test-Path -Path "$ENV:LOCALAPPDATA\Programs\Podman\podman.exe"
# Check the generation of the podman configuration file
Test-Path -Path "$ENV:APPDATA\containers\containers.conf.d\99-podman-machine-provider.conf"
# Check that the installer configured the right provider
Get-Content "$ENV:APPDATA\containers\containers.conf.d\99-podman-machine-provider.conf" | Select -Skip 1 | ConvertFrom-StringData | % { $_.provider }
# Check the creation of the registry key
Test-Path -Path "HKCU:\SOFTWARE\Podman"
Get-ItemProperty "HKCU:\SOFTWARE\Podman" InstallDir
# Check that podman.exe is in the $PATH
$env:PATH | Select-String -Pattern "Podman"
```

:information_source: Podman CI uses script
`contrib\cirrus\win-installer-main.ps1`. Use it locally, too, to build and test
the installer:

```pwsh
$ENV:CONTAINERS_MACHINE_PROVIDER='wsl'; .\contrib\cirrus\win-installer-main.ps1
$ENV:CONTAINERS_MACHINE_PROVIDER='hyperv'; .\contrib\cirrus\win-installer-main.ps1
```

### Uninstall and clean-up

Podman can be uninstalled from the Windows Control Panel or using the MSI
uninstall command. Administrator privileges will be required if Podman was
installed for the machine, rather than for a user:

```pwsh
msiexec /x contrib\win-installer\podman-5.7.0.msi /quiet /l*v podman-msi-uninstall.log
```

The uninstaller does not delete some folders. Clean them up manually:

**For machine scope installations:**

```pwsh
$extraFolders = @(
    "$ENV:PROGRAMDATA\containers\"
    "$ENV:LOCALAPPDATA\containers\"
    "$env:USERPROFILE\.config\containers\"
    "$env:USERPROFILE\.local\share\containers\"
)
$extraFolders | ForEach-Object {Remove-Item -Recurse -Force $PSItem -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue}
```

**For user scope installations:**

```pwsh
$extraFolders = @(
    "$ENV:APPDATA\containers\"
    "$ENV:LOCALAPPDATA\containers\"
    "$env:USERPROFILE\.config\containers\"
    "$env:USERPROFILE\.local\share\containers\"
)
$extraFolders | ForEach-Object {Remove-Item -Recurse -Force $PSItem -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue}
```

The following commands are helpful to verify that the uninstallation was
successful:

**For machine scope installations:**

```pwsh
# Inspect the uninstallation log for a success message
Select-String -Path "podman-msi-uninstall.log" -Pattern "Removal success or error status: 0"
# Check that the uninstaller removed Podman resources
$foldersToCheck = @(
    "$ENV:PROGRAMFILES\Podman\podman.exe"
    "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Podman"
    "$ENV:PROGRAMDATA\containers\"
    "$env:USERPROFILE\.config\containers\"
    "$env:USERPROFILE\.local\share\containers\"
    "$ENV:APPDATA\containers\"
    "$ENV:PROGRAMDATA\containers\containers.conf.d\99-podman-machine-provider.conf"
)
$foldersToCheck | ForEach-Object {Test-Path -Path $PSItem}
```

**For user scope installations:**

```pwsh
# Inspect the uninstallation log for a success message
Select-String -Path "podman-msi-uninstall.log" -Pattern "Removal success or error status: 0"
# Check that the uninstaller removed Podman resources
$foldersToCheck = @(
    "$ENV:PROGRAMFILES\Podman\podman.exe"
    "HKCU:\SOFTWARE\Podman"
    "$ENV:APPDATA\containers\"
    "$env:USERPROFILE\.config\containers\"
    "$env:USERPROFILE\.local\share\containers\"
    "$ENV:LOCALAPPDATA\containers\"
    "$ENV:APPDATA\containers\containers.conf.d\99-podman-machine-provider.conf"
)
$foldersToCheck | ForEach-Object {Test-Path -Path $PSItem}
```

#### Retrieve Podman installed products

MSI uninstallations can leave the package tracked in the Windows registry. This
can cause issues when trying to reinstall Podman. The following command can be
used to retrieve the package information:

```pwsh
$Installer = New-Object -ComObject WindowsInstaller.Installer
$InstallerProducts = $Installer.ProductsEx("", "", 7)
$InstalledProducts = ForEach($Product in $InstallerProducts){
    try {
        $ProductCode = $Product.ProductCode()
        $LocalPackage = try { $Product.InstallProperty("LocalPackage") } catch { "Unknown" }
        $VersionString = try { $Product.InstallProperty("VersionString") } catch { "Unknown" }
        $ProductName = $Product.InstallProperty("ProductName")

        [PSCustomObject]@{
            ProductCode = $ProductCode
            LocalPackage = $LocalPackage
            VersionString = $VersionString
            ProductName = $ProductName
        }
    }
    catch {
        Write-Warning "Failed to process product: $($_.Exception.Message)"
        # Skip this product and continue
        continue
    }
}
$InstalledProducts | Where-Object {$_.ProductName -match "podman"}
```

This command returns a list of installed Podman products:

```log
ProductCode                            LocalPackage VersionString ProductName
-----------                            ------------ ------------- -----------
{xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx} Unknown      Unknown       Podman
```

The product code can be used to uninstall the Podman package:

```pwsh
msiexec /x "{<product-code>}"
```

## Validate changes before submitting a PR

The script `winmake.ps1` has a couple of targets to check the source code
statically. GitHub Pull request checks execute the same statical analysis. It is
highly recommended that you run them locally before submitting a PR.

### winmake lint

The `lint` target provides a fast validation target. It runs the following
tools:

- `golangci-lint`: runs go-specific linters configured in
  [`.golangci.yml`](.golangci.yml)
- `pre-commit`: runs more linters configured in
  [`.pre-commit-config.yaml`](.pre-commit-config.yaml)

:information_source: Install [golangci-lint](https://golangci-lint.run) and
[pre-commit](https://pre-commit.com) to run `winmake.ps1 lint`:
    ```pwsh
    winget install -e golangci-lint.golangci-lint
    winget install -e Python.Python.3.13
    pip install pre-commit
    ```

### winmake validatepr

Target `validatepr` performs a more exhaustive validation but takes
significantly more time to complete. It uses `podman` to run the target
`.validatepr` of the [Linux `Makefile`](Makefile). It builds Podman for Linux,
MacOS and Windows and then performs the same checks as the `lint` target plus
many more.

:information_source: Create and start a Podman machine before running
`winmake.ps1 validatepr`. Configure the Podman machine with at least 4GB of
memory:
`podman machine init -m 4096`.