Appetite for a contributing to a native windows version

[AndyBevan]

Curious whether there is any appetite for submitting PR's to allow SteamPipe be runnable on Windows natively without needing to use WSL. WSL does work fine but it adds an additional layer of complexity and personally I'd like to be able to run something directly on windows.

I took a run at this locally and I've been able to get a version that will compile - main differences so far are OS specific handling of looking for running processes. Before I proceed much further I wanted to check whether this is something you would consider including.

[e-gineer]

We like the idea of Steampipe working natively on Windows and have definitely been asked before.

It is hard for us to test and maintain though, and WSL2 has satisfied most users.

So, it's a trade off 😅

What's the level of changes you've had to make? What's your opinion of the maintenance effort going forward?

Thanks so much for putting this out there - great to have you building with us!

[AndyBevan]

I did a dive into what I think would be involved to get a windows version up and running - here is what I found

• Postgres local database - needs a windows version - easy, binaries exist
• Postgres FDW - build windows version of steampipe-postgres-fdw - This feels like it would be pretty tricky - hard
• PipeFittings - add windows versions of the methods that determine what process is running - easy-ish (maybe?)
• CLI - Modifications to the CLI to handle running the Postgres DB locally on windows + any other gotchas that would exist - medium
• Plugins - unsure how many have OS specific behaviors in them.

With a good level of automated tests you should be able to keep the maintenance efforts under control.

It was interesting digging into the inner workings of SteamPipe. If others are interested in investing in this please hit me up, probably more than I can take on single-handedly.