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MS Windows environment setup

Unlike most UN*X operating systems, MS Windows generally lacks a Python interpreter and a few utilities being globally available.

As this extension requires Python, unzip and tar extraction utilities to be present, MS Windows users should first set up their environment with the Python framework. On a vanilla Windows environment, when you run the update script of this extension in Extension Manager by clicking on action icon Download Python (Running the update script in Extension Manager before TYPO3 6.2) you will see a few error messages:

Environment check under MS Windows

Following sections describe how to install:

Note

These instructions have been tested under:

Tip

Installation of WampServer may fail with an error message similar to:

Missing Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable

This cryptic error message means that you need to install the Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable which can easily be downloaded on the Microsoft website as x86 or x64 edition:

Tip

When installing WampServer, the default ThreadStackSize is only 1 MB, which is not enough for TYPO3 Extension Manager to be loaded. To fix that, open httpd.conf and append:

<IfModule mpm_winnt_module>
    ThreadStackSize 8388608
</IfModule>

This will allocate 8 MB for ThreadStackSize. Then restart Apache.

Installing Python

Please go to https://www.python.org/download/releases/ and download the Python Windows Installer. As of writing, Python 2.7.6 is known to be working properly. Then launch the installer and follow the instructions:

Installing Python

Important

Option "Install for all users" is needed if your web server runs with another user.

After the setup completed successfully, you should register the python command in %PATH% to be globally available.

To do so, open Control Panel > System > Advanced system settings > Environment variables:

Updating the environment variables

Find the system variable Path and edit it:

System environment variables

You should append the path to python. By default it is stored under directory C:\Python27\.

Important

Put the path at the end of the existing list, after having inserted a path separator character which is, under MS Windows, a semi-colon.

Tip

You will need to restart Apache in order for TYPO3 to detect python as Apache reads the %PATH% only once at startup.

Installing Unzip

Please go to http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/packages/unzip.htm and download the setup file. Then launch the installer and follow the instructions:

Installing UnZip extraction utility

You should now register the unzip command in %PATH% to be globally available. By default it is stored under directory C:\Program Files (x86)\GnuWin32\bin. Please perform steps as in previous section.

Installing Tar

Please go to http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/packages/libarchive.htm (LibArchive contains BsdTar) and download the setup file. Then launch the installer and follow the instructions, as you did for unzip:

Installing LibArchive library for reading and writing streaming archives

Important

By default the bsdtar extraction utility is stored under directory C:\Program Files (x86)\GnuWin32\bin, just as unzip; it should thus be automatically detected as you already registered this path into the %PATH% environment variable. If needed, please register an alternate path as described previously.

In spite of that, extension Sphinx seeks for command tar and not bsdtar. As such, you should either copy bsdtar.exe and rename it as tar.exe or, better, create a symbolic link to it. Do do that, open a command (CMD) prompt as administrator:

C:\Windows\system32> cd "\Program Files (x86)\GnuWin32\bin"

C:\Program Files (x86)\GnuWin32\bin> mklink tar.exe bsdtar.exe
symbolic link created for tar.exe <<===>> bsdtar.exe

Note

In case you wonder why we are using BsdTar instead of GNU Tar, here is why. In fact, a quick search for tar for Windows leads to GNU Tar. However this package will be of no use since it cannot handle tar.gz files. Instead, it will crash with:

C:\> Cannot fork: Function not implemented
C:\> Error is not recoverable: exiting now

Besides, the Tar package itself recommends using BsdTar:

The Win32 port can only create tar archives, but cannot pipe its output to other programs such as gzip or compress, and will not create tar.gz archives; you will have to use or simulate a batch pipe. BsdTar does have the ability to direcly create and manipulate .tar, .tar.gz, tar.bz2, .zip, .gz and .bz2 archives, understands the most-used options of GNU Tar, and is also much faster; for most purposes it is to be preferred to GNU Tar.

Congratulations! You should now be able to configure the extension Sphinx!