# Windows Deployment Guide (.exe)

To ensure the client is a lightweight `.exe` that consumes less than 256MB of RAM, follow these build instructions.

## 🛠 Build Process

1. **Environment Setup**:
   - Install [Rust](https://rustup.rs/).
   - Install [LLVM](https://llvm.org/build/) (required for some networking crates).

2. **Optimization Flags**:
   To keep the binary small and memory usage low, use the following `Cargo.toml` profile:
   ```toml
   [profile.release]
   opt-level = 'z'     # Optimize for size
   lto = true          # Link Time Optimization
   codegen-units = 1   # Maximize optimization
   panic = 'abort'     # Remove stack unwinding (saves space/RAM)
   strip = true        # Remove symbols from the binary
   ```

3. **Building the .exe**:
   ```bash
   cargo build --release
   ```
   The resulting executable will be in `target/release/meshvpn-client.exe`.

## 📦 Resource Constraints (< 256MB RAM)
To guarantee low memory usage:
- **Asynchronous Runtime**: Using `tokio` with the `current_thread` scheduler instead of `multi_thread` to reduce thread overhead.
- **Zero-Copy**: Using `bytes` crate for packet handling to avoid unnecessary memory allocations.
- **No GUI**: By keeping it a CLI tool, we avoid the massive overhead of Electron or similar frameworks.

## 🚦 Administrator Requirements
The `.exe` must be run as **Administrator** to:
1. Load the `wintun.dll`.
2. Create the virtual network adapter.
3. Set routing table entries.