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Building InferNode on Windows

Prerequisites

Visual Studio 2022 Build Tools (required)

Download the free Build Tools for Visual Studio 2022 from: https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/downloads/ (scroll to "Tools for Visual Studio")

During installation, select the "Desktop development with C++" workload. This provides cl.exe, ml64.exe, link.exe, and lib.exe.

After installation, all build commands must be run from the x64 Native Tools Command Prompt for VS 2022 (find it in the Start menu under "Visual Studio 2022"). This sets up the correct compiler paths. A regular PowerShell or CMD window will not work.

SDL3 Development Package (optional, for GUI)

Only needed if you want the graphical interface (Xenith, wm/wm). The headless build has no SDL3 dependency.

  1. Go to https://github.com/libsdl-org/SDL/releases
  2. Download SDL3-devel-<version>-VC.zip
  3. Extract so the structure is: SDL3-dev/SDL3-<version>/include/SDL3/SDL.h

The build script searches for SDL3 in this order:

  • -SDL3Dir parameter
  • SDL3DIR environment variable
  • SDL3-dev/SDL3-*/ in the project root
  • vcpkg (C:\vcpkg\installed\x64-windows)

Building — Headless

Open x64 Native Tools Command Prompt for VS 2022, cd to the project root, then:

powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File build-windows-amd64.ps1

This builds:

  • Nt\amd64\bin\mk.exe — Plan 9 build tool
  • Nt\amd64\bin\limbo.exe — Limbo compiler
  • Nt\amd64\lib\*.lib — All static libraries
  • emu\Nt\o.emu.exe — Headless emulator
  • dis\**\*.dis — Compiled Dis bytecode (630+ files)

Build time is typically 1-2 minutes.

Building — SDL3 GUI

The GUI build requires the headless build to be done first (it reuses the libraries).

powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File build-windows-amd64.ps1    # libraries + limbo + bytecode
powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File build-windows-sdl3.ps1     # GUI emulator

After a successful GUI build, emu\Nt\ will contain both o.emu.exe (rebuilt with GUI support) and SDL3.dll.

You can also point to a custom SDL3 location:

powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File build-windows-sdl3.ps1 -SDL3Dir "C:\path\to\SDL3"

Running

All commands are run from the project root directory.

Headless Shell

.\emu\Nt\o.emu.exe -r .

Or with the shell profile loaded (sets up PATH, creates /tmp, etc.):

.\emu\Nt\o.emu.exe -r . sh -l

Window Manager (GUI build)

.\emu\Nt\o.emu.exe -g 1024x768 -r . wm/wm

Xenith (GUI build)

.\emu\Nt\o.emu.exe -g 1024x768 -r . sh -l -c xenith

Lucifer (GUI build)

Lucifer is a three-zone AI interface (conversation, presentation, context) designed for human-AI collaboration. Launch it with:

.\run-lucifer.ps1
.\run-lucifer.ps1 -Width 1920 -Height 1080    # custom resolution

Or manually:

.\emu\Nt\o.emu.exe -g 1280x800 -pheap=512m -pmain=512m -pimage=512m -r . sh -l -c 'luciuisrv; echo activity create Main > /n/ui/ctl; lucifer'

Common Flags

Flag Description
-r . Use current directory as Inferno root filesystem
-g WxH Set window size (e.g., -g 1024x768, -g 1920x1080)
-c0 Interpreter only (default on Windows)
-c1 Enable JIT compiler (not yet available on Windows)

Troubleshooting

"cl.exe is not recognized"

You're not in the Visual Studio Developer Command Prompt. Open x64 Native Tools Command Prompt for VS 2022 from the Start menu, or run:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2022\BuildTools\VC\Auxiliary\Build\vcvars64.bat"

"Running scripts is disabled on this system"

PowerShell execution policy is blocking the build script. Use the -ExecutionPolicy Bypass flag as shown in the build commands above, or set the policy for your user:

Set-ExecutionPolicy -ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned -Scope CurrentUser

"Can't open font file" or garbled text

Font files have Windows-style line endings (CRLF). Inferno's font parser requires Unix line endings (LF).

Fix: ensure .gitattributes is present at the project root (it should be — it's tracked in git). Then re-checkout the font files:

git checkout -- fonts/

If you cloned before .gitattributes existed, you may need to normalize the whole repo:

git rm --cached -r .
git reset --hard

Window appears but shows white screen

This is usually the font issue described above. After fixing line endings, rebuild:

git checkout -- fonts/
powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File build-windows-sdl3.ps1

"SDL3 not found"

The GUI build script can't locate SDL3. Make sure you either:

  • Extracted the SDL3 development package to SDL3-dev/ in the project root
  • Set the SDL3DIR environment variable
  • Installed via vcpkg (vcpkg install sdl3:x64-windows)

"Libraries not found. Run build-windows-amd64.ps1 first."

The SDL3 GUI build depends on libraries built by the headless build script. Run build-windows-amd64.ps1 before build-windows-sdl3.ps1.

Technical Notes

  • Windows uses the Dis interpreter only (no JIT compiler yet). Performance is adequate for interactive use.
  • The build uses /MT (static CRT) to allow Inferno's pool allocator to override malloc/free.
  • MSVC does not support __int128 — the build uses a shim (uint128.h) with _umul128() intrinsics for x25519 and ECC.
  • All files are built with LF line endings (enforced by .gitattributes). This is critical — Inferno's font parser, shell profile, and other tools cannot handle CRLF.