Worker setup on Windows

Multi Variant Fishtest: worker setup on Windows

Windows Subsystem for Linux

If you are an experienced Linux user and you have a supported Windows platform, you can run the worker:

• enabling Windows Subsystem for Linux, and
• simply following the Worker setup on Linux.

Astonishingly Stockfish got a 3-4% speedup when running as Linux application in WSL respect to when running as Windows application.

If you are not a Linux user use the following instructions.

Get username/password for Multi Variant Fishtest

Create an account on Multi Variant Fishtest choosing an username/password:

http://35.161.250.236:6543/signup

Setup Python on Windows

Install Python 2.7.x (not 3.x series), choose 32 or 64 bit according your Windows version:

• Python 2.7.13 32-bit
• Python 2.7.13 64-bit

Setup Fishtest

Download Fishtest directly from Github and unzip the archive:

https://github.com/ianfab/fishtest/archive/master.zip

MinGW-w64 & MSYS2 install

MSYS2 is a collection of GNU utilities, based on modern Cygwin (POSIX compatibility layer) that uses pacman (from Arch Linux) as packages manager to install and to update packages. MinGW-w64 is a project created to support the GCC compiler on Windows systems.

MSYS2 provides 3 different shells:

• MSYS2 MinGW 64-bit, used to build 64 bit applications. Use this if you have a 64 bit Windows
• MSYS2 MinGW 32-bit, used to build 32 bit applications. Use this if you have a 32 bit Windows
• MSYS2 MSYS, used to build MSYS2 core packages. Don't use this shell

The default setting installs MSYS2 in to C:\msys64 folder, the user home is the folder C:\msys64\home<your_username> (C:\msys32 for 32 bit Windows)

Warning: MSYS2 might not work with Windows XP and Windows Server 2003.

1. download and install MSYS2, use the 64 bit or 32 bit installer according your operating system and follow the official instruction to update the MSYS2 packages (simply: a. update the core packages executing pacman -Syuu, when requested close the windows pushing the top right X button b. open a MSYS2 MinGW 64-bit shell and update the others packages executing pacman -Syuu)

2. install make and MinGW-w64 packages (64 bit or 32 bit according your operating system):

• 64 bit: at prompt run pacman -S make mingw-w64-x86_64-gcc
• 32 bit: at prompt run pacman -S make mingw-w64-i686-gcc

Launching the worker

1. in fishtest-master/worker directory, create a text file named fishtest.bat and copy in it the text below (write the <n_cores> that you want dedicate to fishtest, and your fishtest's <username> and <password>)

• 64 bit Windows:

@echo off
SET PATH=C:\msys64\mingw64\bin;C:\msys64\usr\bin;%PATH%
cmd /k C:\Python27\python.exe -i C:\fishtest-master\worker\worker.py --concurrency <n_cores> <username> <password>

• 32 bit Windows:

@echo off
SET PATH=C:\msys32\mingw32\bin;C:\msys32\usr\bin;%PATH%
cmd /k C:\Python27\python.exe -i C:\fishtest-master\worker\worker.py --concurrency <n_cores> <username> <password>

2. you MUST override the default mingw32-make command (the non standard MSYS's make command used by the worker) writing a custom_make.txt file in fishtest-master\worker directory, according the architecture of your CPU (you can also add the flag -j <n_jobs> to lower the compile time, use all the cores to speedup the building process):

• 32 bit Windows:

  make profile-build ARCH=x86-32 COMP=mingw -j <n_jobs>

• old CPU:

  make profile-build ARCH=x86-64 COMP=mingw -j <n_jobs>

• Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge CPU:

  make profile-build ARCH=x86-64-modern COMP=mingw -j <n_jobs>

• Haswell and later CPU:

  make profile-build ARCH=x86-64-bmi2 COMP=mingw -j <n_jobs>

3. start the worker executing fishtest.bat (e.g double click on fishtest.bat)