I am looking for a way to easily install addons on Windows that are
not in the official repository. This is currently not possible using
g.extension, because addons cannot be compiled on Windows.
But what if I would compile and package an addon in a zip file like
the once on the official server, then the only thing that is required
is that the g.extension can be directed to another url (online or
local). Or is this too simplistic? If so, do you have any other
pointers as to how I can share private addons?
I am looking for a way to easily install addons on Windows that are
not in the official repository. This is currently not possible using
g.extension, because addons cannot be compiled on Windows.
But what if I would compile and package an addon in a zip file like
the once on the official server, then the only thing that is required
is that the g.extension can be directed to another url (online or
local). Or is this too simplistic? If so, do you have any other
pointers as to how I can share private addons?
g.extension already allows for another URL to be provided (including a local ZIP file). However, the problem is that the compilation is not possible on Windows as you pointed out. What is missing is the machinery to do the compilation. For Python modules, it is just the make et al. For C/C++, it is also the compiler and development files of the compile dependencies/libraries. That’s why on Linux, you typically need some grass-dev(evel) package.
Of course, Python modules don’t need much, so some custom code in Python could take care of it. Some additional options are including the compilation machinery in Windows installer or (re-)using an existing package manager (which could perhaps even take care of the compiling C).