On Tue, 2 Dec 2025 22:07:05 GMT, Erik Joelsson <[email protected]> wrote:
> In [JDK-8344030](https://bugs.openjdk.org/browse/JDK-8344030) the configure > option --with-tools-dir was deprecated. There are however still references to > it in the configure script. Specifically toolchain_microsoft is still using > the variable it was setting up, and there are error messages telling the user > to try using it. > > Digging further into this, the way we use `--with-tools-dir` to find Visual > Studio is quite convoluted. It used to be that you would point to something > like ".../Community/VC/bin" or ".../Community/VC/bin/amd64", which would make > sense as those were directories with the compiler executables. Configure > would then walk up two or three levels to find the root of the Visual Studio > installation. Modern Visual Studio installations have a much deeper and more > complex directory structure, so this doesn't work as it used to. However, > because the configure logic just checks two and three levels above the > directory given to `--with-tools-dir`, you can actually supply any existing > directory inside the installation at the appropriate depth, e.g. > ".../Community/VC/Auxiliary/Build". > > This really isn't a great situation and the proper fix would be some kind of > overhaul, probably a new explicit configure parameter pointing to the Visual > Studio root to use. However, I don't have the time to invest in such a big > rewrite at this time, so I will limit this bug to just restoring > --with-tools-dir for it's current functionality on Windows, with a help text > that describes what it currently does. This will at least let users currently > relying on this option to continue building with Visual Studio in a > nonstandard location. Marked as reviewed by mikael (Reviewer). ------------- PR Review: https://git.openjdk.org/jdk/pull/28618#pullrequestreview-3532691382
