[appveyor] build alicevision snapshot binaries (win)

[natowi]

setup appveyor to release windows binaries from the develop branch

For every commit, a snapshot build for windows can be downloaded from the appveyor build artifacts tab.

Details: https://www.appveyor.com/docs/packaging-artifacts/

Note: (to be added to the wiki)
Do not use snapshots if you need a stable version.
Snapshot builds are for developers and testers and should be considered unstable.

With snapshots, users can test and report back on a bugfix/feature without waiting for the official release or needing to build alicevision on their own.

[natowi]

@simogasp any comments? I´d like to merge this as it reduces issues from people trying to build av on their own.

[simogasp]

I cannot try it as i don't have a windows machine? Did you? Do you need an appveyor login to download it?
In any case it should be made clear that they are developer versions and there may be bugs &C.
Also, maybe it would be better to add the hash of the commit to the name, so it is always possible to know which version it is.

[natowi]

I cannot try it as i don't have a windows machine? Did you? Do you need an appveyor login to download it?

Yes, I have tried the build and it works. No, the artifact can be downloaded without login.

In any case it should be made clear that they are developer versions and there may be bugs &C.

Yes, that is why I would not push this to the releases. Releases should be stable. I would not advertise this too much, as this is primarily for people who want to try out some new features or WIP PR without going through the hassle of setting up the build environment on their computer. I think we could mention this on a wiki page.

Also, maybe it would be better to add the hash of the commit to the name, so it is always possible to know which version it is.

That is a good idea. Something like APPVEYOR_REPO_BRANCH-prAPPVEYOR_PULL_REQUEST_NUMBER ?

https://www.appveyor.com/docs/environment-variables/

after_build:
  - set BUILD_ARCHIVE=%APPVEYOR_BUILD_FOLDER%\build\alicevisionWin64snapshot-%APPVEYOR_REPO_BRANCH%-pr%APPVEYOR_PULL_REQUEST_NUMBER%.zip
  - 7z a %BUILD_ARCHIVE% %APPVEYOR_BUILD_FOLDER%\build\Windows-AMD64\Release\*

artifacts:
  - path: 'build\*.zip'

[simogasp]

APPVEYOR_PULL_REQUEST_HEAD_COMMIT seems to me more appropriate, once you have the hash you always know which version it is.
I don't know how often these artefacts are produced, for every commit?

[natowi]

I don't know how often these artefacts are produced, for every commit?

Artifacts are produced for every commit, as appveyor is used as as part of the CI/check. It is build anyway, this PR just provides a way to download the build.

This is the new filename: alicevisionWin64snapshot-f22c9504f635d3845a60670fc577a727ea47d64d.zip

[natowi]

ToDo

• add *.md files from %APPVEYOR_BUILD_FOLDER% (COPYING, LICENSE,...) to zip

[natowi]

COPY command is not supported.

Testing to add the files directly to the zip archive

[fabiencastan]

@natowi It is ready to be integrated?
(In order to keep a clean history, I plan to use squash instead of merge for this PR.)

[natowi]

Any ideas why the squash merged PR failed cb07231 ?
I made sure the build succeeded before merging: https://ci.appveyor.com/project/AliceVision/alicevision/builds/31822915

[simogasp]

maybe a timeout?

[natowi]

Yes, could be. In this case this will be resolved with the next merge or by manually restarting the build via the appveyor project page.

[fabiencastan]

Yes, I just restarted the build.