microsoft / microsoft/react-native-windows

Replace dependency script with WinGet Desired State Configuration

Open
#12,553 3 comments 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub

Nobody has claimed this yet.

Area: Dependencies Developer First Experience enhancement Workstream: Developer Experience
Dominant language
C++
Stars
17.3k
Forks
1.2k
Avg merge
1d 13h
Merged PRs (30d)
33

Description

Summary

We have automated (via script) and manual steps to install dependencies here.

That script is challenging to maintain, and is located here.

WinGet configure has some capability to standardize this kind of thing: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/package-manager/configuration/

Motivation

We don't want to maintain this script. And WinGet likely will need changes to support our complexity and the earlier we engage the more time there is to make fixes.

Open Questions

Our dependency script is complicated as these things go. WinGet might not be ready to replace something of this complexity. But we can start investigating it as a replacement, even if partial.

The normal recommendation for this would be to use the Sandbox to set up the configuration. Because installing Visual Studio is a requirement, the Sandbox would run out of disk space. So we'd need to build the configuration from a base Windows VM instead.

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start by reading vnext/Scripts/rnw-dependencies.ps1 and the dependency instructions at rnw-dependencies. Compare the script's requirements with WinGet configuration support, using a base Windows VM rather than the Sandbox because Visual Studio may exceed its disk space. Done means establishing whether WinGet can replace all or part of the existing setup and recording the resulting configuration or limitations.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
powershell
Domain
tooling
Issue type
Refactor
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Needs clarification
Newbie friendliness
25/100

Get new issues in your inbox

A short digest of beginner-friendly GitHub issues.