# Windows create beat fails with /build/python-env/bin/activate: No such file or directory **URL:** \ **Category:** Beats\ **Created:** [December 29, 2016, 12:10pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/windows-create-beat-fails-with-build-python-env-bin-activate-no-such-file-or-directory/70203 "2016-12-29T12:10:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![mast](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e274bd/32.png) [@mast](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/mast)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2016, 12:10pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/windows-create-beat-fails-with-build-python-env-bin-activate-no-such-file-or-directory/70203/1 "2016-12-29T12:10:21Z")
Hi, Trying to build a custom beat on windows but the command "make setup" fails with: [path to custom beat folder]/build/python-env/bin/activate: No such file or directory Seems like there is something wrong with the virtualenvironment, but I fail to understand the cause. I have go (1.7.4 windows/amd64), python (2.7.13 win/amd64) and virtualenv(15.1.0) installed. What can be the reason? What is it I'm missing? I'm running cygwin when executing the make call. BR Mathias ---
**Author:** ![mast](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e274bd/32.png) [@mast](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/mast)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2016, 2:03pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/windows-create-beat-fails-with-build-python-env-bin-activate-no-such-file-or-directory/70203/2 "2016-12-29T14:03:44Z")
Or if anyone succefully installed a custom beat on windows and would like to share how this puzzle was solved, it would be appreciated! BR Mathias ---
**Author:** ![andrewkroh](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/andrewkroh/32/3784_2.png) [@andrewkroh](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/andrewkroh)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2016, 3:10pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/windows-create-beat-fails-with-build-python-env-bin-activate-no-such-file-or-directory/70203/3 "2016-12-29T15:10:09Z")
When I do Beat development on Windows I stick to the basic commands for building the go code (`go build`) and testing it (`go test`). I do the index template generation and packaging on linux (using cross-compilation). The `make` targets were not written with Windows in mind. But if you find a specific bug that can be fixed in a way that it works across linux and windows then let's get it fixed. I would like it to be more Windows friendly. You'll see from the main projects [.appveyor.yml](https://github.com/elastic/beats/blob/master/.appveyor.yml) that we don't use `make` in our CI setup for Windows. Some of the official Beats have a helper [`make.bat`](https://github.com/elastic/beats/blob/master/winlogbeat/make.bat) that is used when on Windows to build and test. It sounds like there is a problem with the `make python-env` target. Maybe you can step through the [commands](https://github.com/elastic/beats/blob/master/libbeat/scripts/Makefile#L186-L195) that it runs to see what's happening and if/where the environment is written. It's supposed to go into the beat's `build/python-env` dir. ---
**Author:** ![mast](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e274bd/32.png) [@mast](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/mast)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2016, 8:25am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/windows-create-beat-fails-with-build-python-env-bin-activate-no-such-file-or-directory/70203/4 "2016-12-30T08:25:53Z")
Hi Andrew, I got it to work with make setup on win with cygwin. Manually create the virtualenv [beat-dir]/python-env Change the following files below elastic/beats/libbeat/scripts: Makefile set: PYTHON\_ENV?=python-env Replace all: ${PYTHON\_ENV}/bin/activate To: ${PYTHON\_ENV}/Scripts/activate generate\_fields\_docs.py: Somewhere around Line 108-110 args = parser.parse\_args() if args.path.startswith("/cygdrive/"): args.path = args.path[len('/cygdrive/'):len('/cygdrive/') + 1] + ":" + args.path[len("/cygdrive/") + 1:] generate\_template.py: Somewhere around line 303-305 args = parser.parse\_args() if args.path.startswith("/cygdrive/"): args.path = args.path[len('/cygdrive/'):len('/cygdrive/') + 1] + ":" + args.path[len("/cygdrive/") + 1:] generate\_index\_pattern.py Somewhere around line 114-116 args = parser.parse\_args() if args.beat.startswith("/cygdrive/"): args.beat = args.beat[len('/cygdrive/'):len('/cygdrive/') + 1] + ":" + args.beat[len("/cygdrive/") + 1:] This is a hack and not generalized at all, but for my simple purpose it works. This will give you a hint on what needs to be changed. No attaching of files here so I uploaded my fix here: [http://s000.tinyupload.com/?file\_id=00340893578855435437](http://s000.tinyupload.com/?file_id=00340893578855435437) BR Mathias ---
**Author:** ![ruflin](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/ruflin/32/3116_2.png) [@ruflin](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/ruflin)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2017, 9:13am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/windows-create-beat-fails-with-build-python-env-bin-activate-no-such-file-or-directory/70203/5 "2017-01-03T09:13:12Z")
Thanks for sharing. Could be worth adding to our scripts. In python we could detect the OS, in the Makefile we could make `activate` a variable and just overwrite it for windows runs? @andrewkroh WDYT? Will this work on appveyor? ---
**Author:** ![andrewkroh](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/andrewkroh/32/3784_2.png) [@andrewkroh](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/andrewkroh)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2017, 3:13pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/windows-create-beat-fails-with-build-python-env-bin-activate-no-such-file-or-directory/70203/6 "2017-01-03T15:13:15Z")
For the cygdrive changes we would want to detect the cygwin usage since those changes are not needed if you just run the script manually in a Powershell. For the choice between `/Scripts/activate` and `/bin/activate` in the Makefile I assume that choice could be made based on the OS. Maybe another option is to always `mv ${PYTHON_ENV}/Scripts/activate ${PYTHON_ENV}/bin/activate` after running virtualenv to normalize things and ignore the `mv` error that would occur on non-Windows. ---
**Author:** ![ruflin](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/ruflin/32/3116_2.png) [@ruflin](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/ruflin)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2017, 11:27am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/windows-create-beat-fails-with-build-python-env-bin-activate-no-such-file-or-directory/70203/7 "2017-01-05T11:27:52Z")
@mast Interested to open a PR or a Github issue with this? ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2017, 12:10pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/windows-create-beat-fails-with-build-python-env-bin-activate-no-such-file-or-directory/70203/8 "2017-01-19T12:10:26Z")
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