Windows build fails with "MSBuild not found" when only VS Build Tools is installed (possiblePaths list has no BuildTools entries)

[AlexRMU]

Environment

• OS: Windows 10, x64
• talib: 2.0.4
• Node.js: 26
• Package manager: pnpm
• Visual Studio: 2022 Build Tools (installed via choco install visualstudio2022-workload-vctools), "Desktop development with C++" workload confirmed present via vswhere

Problem

src/lib/build.js fails during pnpm i / npm install with:

building talib functions...
MSBuild not found. Please install Visual Studio Build Tools.

This happens even though MSBuild is genuinely installed and correctly detected by vswhere.exe:

& "${env:ProgramFiles(x86)}\Microsoft Visual Studio\Installer\vswhere.exe" -latest -products * -requires Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.VC.Tools.x86.x64 -property installationPath
> C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2022\BuildTools

The root cause is that build.js locates MSBuild via a hardcoded list of paths, and that list only covers the Enterprise/Professional/Community editions for 2019/2022 — not BuildTools, which is the edition installed by the standalone Build Tools installer (and by the corresponding Chocolatey/winget packages):

node-talib/src/lib/build.js

Lines 39 to 51 in 8c7679e

	const possiblePaths = [
	'C:\\Program Files\\Microsoft Visual Studio\\2022\\Enterprise\\MSBuild\\Current\\Bin\\MSBuild.exe',
	'C:\\Program Files\\Microsoft Visual Studio\\2022\\Professional\\MSBuild\\Current\\Bin\\MSBuild.exe',
	'C:\\Program Files\\Microsoft Visual Studio\\2022\\Community\\MSBuild\\Current\\Bin\\MSBuild.exe',
	'C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Microsoft Visual Studio\\2019\\Enterprise\\MSBuild\\Current\\Bin\\MSBuild.exe',
	'C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Microsoft Visual Studio\\2019\\Professional\\MSBuild\\Current\\Bin\\MSBuild.exe',
	'C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Microsoft Visual Studio\\2019\\Community\\MSBuild\\Current\\Bin\\MSBuild.exe',
	'C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Microsoft Visual Studio\\2017\\Enterprise\\MSBuild\\15.0\\Bin\\MSBuild.exe',
	'C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Microsoft Visual Studio\\2017\\Professional\\MSBuild\\15.0\\Bin\\MSBuild.exe',
	'C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Microsoft Visual Studio\\2017\\Community\\MSBuild\\15.0\\Bin\\MSBuild.exe',
	'C:\\Program Files (x86)\\MSBuild\\14.0\\Bin\\MSBuild.exe',
	'C:\\Program Files\\MSBuild\\14.0\\Bin\\MSBuild.exe'
	];

Given that Build Tools is the edition Microsoft explicitly recommends for CI/non-interactive installs (and the one most native-module build scripts, including this project's own README, implicitly assume when they tell users to install "Visual Studio Build Tools"), this seems worth fixing directly rather than leaving as a workaround.

What I did as a workaround

Created a directory junction so the existing detection logic finds the BuildTools install under one of the paths it already checks:

mklink /J "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\2022\Community" "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2022\BuildTools"

This works, but it's a machine-local hack that every developer/CI runner using Build Tools would have to repeat.

Suggested fix

Minimal version — just add the missing BuildTools entries to possiblePaths for each supported year:

'C:\\Program Files\\Microsoft Visual Studio\\2022\\BuildTools\\MSBuild\\Current\\Bin\\MSBuild.exe',
'C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Microsoft Visual Studio\\2022\\BuildTools\\MSBuild\\Current\\Bin\\MSBuild.exe',
'C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Microsoft Visual Studio\\2019\\BuildTools\\MSBuild\\Current\\Bin\\MSBuild.exe',

More robust version — resolve MSBuild dynamically via vswhere.exe (ships with every VS2017+ install, including Build Tools) instead of a hardcoded/editions list, so this doesn't need updating again for future VS releases:

const { execSync } = require('child_process');

function findMSBuildViaVswhere() {
  try {
    const programFilesX86 = process.env['ProgramFiles(x86)'] || process.env['ProgramFiles'];
    const vswherePath = path.join(programFilesX86, 'Microsoft Visual Studio', 'Installer', 'vswhere.exe');
    if (!fs.existsSync(vswherePath)) return null;
    const msbuildPath = execSync(
      `"${vswherePath}" -latest -products * -requires Microsoft.Component.MSBuild -find MSBuild\\**\\Bin\\MSBuild.exe`
    ).toString().trim();
    return fs.existsSync(msbuildPath) ? msbuildPath : null;
  } catch (e) {
    return null;
  }
}

[oransel]

Please test and provide a pull request.