# Native Windows GitLab CI builds We are using the same basic approach to Windows CI building as Mesa, just as we do on Linux. See for the details there. The following is the Mesa readme, lightly modified to fit Monado. Unlike Linux, Windows cannot reuse the freedesktop ci-templates as they exist as we do not have Podman, Skopeo, or even Docker-in-Docker builds available under Windows. We still reuse the same model: build a base container with the core operating system and infrequently-changed build dependencies, then execute Monado builds only inside that base container. This is open-coded in PowerShell scripts. ## Base container build The base container build jobs execute the `monado_container.ps1` script which reproduces the ci-templates behaviour. It looks for the registry image in the user's namespace, and exits if found. If not found, it tries to copy the same image tag from the upstream Monado repository. If that is not found, the image is rebuilt inside the user's namespace. The rebuild executes `docker build` which calls `monado_deps_*.ps1` inside the container to fetch and install all build dependencies. This includes Visual Studio Build Tools (downloaded from Microsoft, under the license which allows use by open-source projects), and other build tools from Scoop. (These are done as two separate jobs to allow "resuming from the middle".) This job is executed inside a Windows shell environment directly inside the host, without Docker. ## Monado build The Monado build runs inside the base container, executing `mesa_build.ps1`. This simply compiles Monado using CMake and Ninja, executing the build and unit tests. ## Local testing To try these scripts locally, you need this done once, rebooting after they are complete: ```pwsh scoop install sudo sudo Add-MpPreference -ExclusionProcess dockerd.exe sudo Add-MpPreference -ExclusionProcess docker.exe winget install stevedore sudo Add-MpPreference -ExclusionPath c:\ProgramData\docker ``` then this, done when you want to test: ```pwsh docker context use desktop-windows ``` before doing your normal `docker build .`, etc. (It may still be very slow despite the virus scanning exclusions.) If you're having issues accessing the network, see this comment's instructions: