1 Compiling and installing LyX
2 ============================
4 Quick compilation guide
5 -----------------------
7 These four steps will compile, test and install LyX:
9 0) Linux users beware: if compiling the Qt frontend, you need
10 qt and qt-devel packages of the same version to compile LyX.
13 configures LyX to your system. By default, LyX configures
14 the xforms frontend, use --with-frontend=qt to build a Qt
15 version. You may have to set
16 --with-qt-dir=<path-to-your-qt-installation>
17 if the environment variable QTDIR is not set.
23 runs the program so you can check it out.
26 will install it. You can use "make install-strip" instead
27 if you want a smaller binary.
30 Note for CVS checkouts
31 ----------------------
33 If you have checked this out from CVS, you need to have:
37 Then type "./autogen.sh" to build the needed configuration
38 files and proceed as stated below.
40 You will also probably need GNU m4 (perhaps installed as gm4).
45 First of all, you will also need a recent C++ compiler, where recent
46 means that the compilers are close to C++ standard conforming.
47 Compilers that are known to compile LyX are gcc 2.95.x and later
48 and Digital C++ version 6.1 and later. Please tell us your experience
51 It is _not_ possible to compile LyX with gcc 2.7.x and 2.8.x.
53 LyX 1.4.x makes great use of C++ Standard Template Library (STL).
54 This means that gcc users will have to install the relevant libstdc++
55 library to be able to compile this version of LyX. Users of gcc 2.95.x
56 will have to install the STLPort version of these libraries as the
57 ones that come with gcc 2.95.x are too broken for us to use.
61 Both an Xforms and Xpm libraries should be installed to compile LyX.
62 It is imperative that you have the correct versions of these
63 libraries, and their associated header files.
65 The xforms library has been very recently updated to version 1.0.
66 This version has been released under the LGPL (Lesser General Public
67 License), and the availability of the source means that many bugs that
68 have been plaguing LyX have been fixed in xforms. You are advised to
69 upgrade to xforms 1.0 to enjoy all these new fixes.
70 In fact, LyX 1.3.x no longer supports versions of xforms older than 0.89.5.
72 You can get the source from
73 http://world.std.com/~xforms/
74 ftp://ncmir.ucsd.edu/pub/xforms/OpenSource/xforms-1.0-release.tgz
75 ftp://ftp.lyx.org/pub/xforms/OpenSource/xforms-1.0-release.tgz
77 If you use a rpm-based linux distribution, such as RedHat or Mandrake,
78 we recommend that you grab a version of xforms from
79 ftp://ftp.lyx.org/pub/lyx/contrib
80 Look for the xforms-1.0-release.src.rpm or the binary libforms*.i386.rpm.
82 In addition, you must have libXpm version 4.7 or newer.
86 LyX has been tested with both Qt 2.x and 3.x libraries. The only special
87 point to make is that you must ensure that both LyX and the Qt libraries
88 are compiled with the same C++ compiler.
90 Note that if Qt is using Xft2/fontconfig, you may need to install the
91 latex-xft-fonts package (at ftp://ftp.lyx.org/pub/lyx/contrib/) to get
92 maths symbols displayed properly. To find out, type:
94 ldd `which lyx` | grep fontconfig
96 at the console. Both RH8 and Debian unstable distributions are known
99 If, however, your version of Qt does not use fontconfig, then the
100 /usr/local/share/lyx/xfonts directory (or equivalent) should be added to
101 the font path. This is done automatically by LyX if LyX is run on
102 the local machine, and the X server supports Postscript fonts. If, however,
103 you're running LyX remotely, then you'll have to do this step yourself.
104 'man xset' is your friend.
106 * Other things to note
108 If you make modifications to files in src/ (for example by applying a
109 patch), you will need to have the GNU gettext package installed, due
110 to some dependencies in the makefiles. You can get the latest version
112 ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/gettext/gettext-0.11.4.tar.gz
114 LyX contains a hack to work around this, but you should not rely too
117 To use the thesaurus, you will need to install libAikSaurus, available
119 http://aiksaurus.sourceforge.net/
121 The two following programs should be available at configuration time:
123 o Perl (at least 5.002) is needed for the reLyX script. reLyX will
124 not be installed if perl is not found. If the environment
125 variable PERL is set to point to some program, this value will be
126 used, even if the program does no exist (this can be useful if
127 the machine on which LyX is built is not the one where it will
130 o LaTeX2e should be correctly setup for the user you are logged in
131 as. Otherwise, LyX will not be able to run a number of tests. Note
132 that users can run these tests manually with Edit>Reconfigure.
134 Finally, you will need to have python 1.5.2 or newer installed to be
135 able to import older LyX files with the lyx2lyx script (this script is
136 called automatically when opening a file).
139 Creating the Makefile
140 ---------------------
142 LyX can be configured using GNU autoconf utility which attempts to guess
143 the configuration needed to suit your system. The standard way to use it
144 is described in the file INSTALL.autoconf. In most cases you will be able
145 to create the Makefile by typing
149 For more complicated cases, LyX configure takes the following specific
152 o --with-frontend=FRONTEND that allows to specify which frontend you
153 want to use. Default is "xforms", and the other possible value is
156 o --with-extra-lib=DIRECTORY that specifies the path where LyX will
157 find extra libraries (Xpm, xforms, qt) it needs. Defaults to NONE
158 (i.e. search in standard places). You can specify several
159 directories, separated by colons.
161 o --with-extra-inc=DIRECTORY that gives the place where LyX will find
162 xforms headers. Defaults to NONE (i.e. search in standard places).
163 You can specify several directories, separated by colons.
165 o --with-extra-prefix[=DIRECTORY] that is equivalent to
166 --with-extra-lib=DIRECTORY/lib --with-extra-inc=DIRECTORY/include
167 If DIRECTORY is not specified, the current prefix is used.
169 o --with-version-suffix will install LyX as lyx-<version>, e.g. lyx-1.3.1
170 The LyX data directory will be something like <whatever>/lyx-1.3.1/.
171 Additionally your user configuration files will be found in e.g.
174 You can use this feature to install more than one version of LyX
175 on the same system. You can optionally specify a "version" of your
176 own, by doing something like :
177 ./configure --with-version-suffix=-latestcvs
179 Note that the standard configure options --program-prefix,
180 --program-suffix and the others will not affect the shared LyX
181 directory etc. so it is recommended that you use --with-version-suffix
182 (or --prefix) instead.
184 o --enable-optimization=VALUE enables you to set optimization to a
185 higher level as the default (-O), for example --enable-optimization=-O3.
187 o --disable-optimization - you can use this to disable compiler
188 optimization of LyX. The compile may be much quicker with some
189 compilers, but LyX will run more slowly.
191 o --enable-debug will add debug information to your binary. This
192 requires a lot more disk space, but is a must if you want to try to
193 debug problems in LyX. The default is to have debug information
194 for development versions and prereleases only.
196 There are also flags to control the internationalization support in
199 o --disable-nls suppresses all internationalization support,
200 yielding a somewhat smaller code.
202 o --with-included-gettext forces the use of the included GNU gettext
203 library, although you might have another one installed.
205 o --with-catgets allows to use the catget() functions which can
206 exist on your system. This can cause problems, though. Use with
209 o You can also set the environment variable LINGUAS to a list of
210 language in case you do not want to install all the translation
211 files. For example, if you are only interested in German and
212 Finnish, you can type (with sh or bash)
213 export LINGUAS='de fi'
214 before running configure.
216 Moreover, the following generic configure flags may be useful:
218 o --prefix=DIRECTORY specifies the root directory to use for
219 installation. [defaults to /usr/local]
221 o --datadir=DIRECTORY gives the directory where all extra LyX
222 files (lyxrc example, documentation, templates and layouts
223 definitions) will be installed.
224 [defaults to ${prefix}/share/lyx${program_suffix}]
226 o --bindir=DIRECTORY gives the directory where the lyx binary
227 will be installed. [defaults to ${prefix}/bin]
229 o --mandir=DIRECTORY gives the directory where the man pages will go.
230 [defaults to ${prefix}/man]
232 o --enable-maintainer-mode enables some code that automatically
233 rebuilds the configure script, makefiles templates and other useful
234 files when needed. This is off by default on releases, to avoid
237 Note that the --with-extra-* commands are not really robust when it
238 comes to use of relative paths. If you really want to use a relative path
239 here, you can prepend it with "`pwd`/".
241 If you do not like the default compile flags used (-g -O2 on gcc), you can
242 set CXXFLAGS variable to other values as follows:
244 o CXXFLAGS='-O2' (sh, bash)
245 o setenv CXXFLAGS '-O2' (csh, tcsh)
247 Similarly, if you want to force the use of some specific compiler, you can
248 give a value to the CXX variable.
250 If you encounter problems, please read the section 'Problems' at the end of
253 In particular, the following options could be useful in some desperate
256 o --enable-warnings that make the compiler output more warnings during
257 the compilation of LyX. Opposite is --disable-warnings. By default,
258 this flag is on for development versions only.
260 o --enable-assertions that make the compiler generate run-time
261 code which checks that some variables have sane values. Opposite
262 is --disable-assertions. By default, this flag is on for
263 development versions only.
265 o --without-latex-config that disables the automatic detection of your
266 latex configuration. This detection is automatically disabled if
267 latex cannot be found. If you find that you have to use this
268 flag, please report it as a bug.
271 Compiling and installing LyX
272 ----------------------------
274 Once you've got the Makefile created, you just have to type:
281 Since the binaries with debug information tend to be huge (although
282 this does not affect the run-time memory footprint), you might want
283 to strip the lyx binary. In this case replace "make install" with
287 BTW: in the images subdirectory there is also a small icon "lyx.xpm",
288 that can be used to display lyx-documents in filemanagers.
290 If configure fails for some strange reason
291 ------------------------------------------
293 Even when configure fails, it creates a Makefile. You always can check
294 the contents of this file, modify it and run 'make'.
296 Compiling For Multiple Architectures
297 ------------------------------------
299 You can compile LyX for more than one kind of computer at the same
300 time, by placing the object files for each architecture in their own
301 directory. To do this, you must use a version of `make' that supports
302 the `VPATH' variable, such as GNU `make'. `cd' to the directory where
303 you want the object files and executables to go and run the
304 `configure' script. `configure' automatically checks for the source
305 code in the directory that `configure' is in and in `..'.
307 If you have to use a `make' that does not supports the `VPATH'
308 variable, you have to compile LyX for one architecture at a time in
309 the source code directory. After you have installed LyX for one
310 architecture, use `make distclean' before reconfiguring for another
313 Preparing a binary distribution for the use of others
314 ------------------------------------------------------
316 o Compile LyX with the right compiler switches for your
317 architecture. Make sure you use the --without-latex-config switch
318 of configure, since others might not be interested by your
321 o Create a file README.bin describing your distribution and
322 referring to *you* if problems arise. As a model, you can use the
323 file development/tools/README.bin.example, which can be a good
326 o Type `make bindist'. This will create a file
327 lyx-1.xx.yy-bin.tar.gz. Rename it to reflect you architecture
328 and the peculiarities of your build (e.g. static vs. dynamic).
330 o Check that everything is correct by unpacking the distribution
331 in some private place and running it. In particular, check the
332 output of `ldd lyx' to know which libraries are really needed.
334 o Upload your binary file to ftp.devel.lyx.org:/pub/incoming, and
335 notify larsbj@lyx.org.
341 This section provides several hints that have been submitted by LyX
342 team member or users to help compiling on some particular
343 architectures. If you find that some of this hints are wrong, please
346 o If you have problems indicating that configure cannot find a part of
347 the xforms or Xpm library, use the --with-extra-lib and --with-extra-inc
348 options of configure to specify where these libraries reside.
350 o Configure will seemingly fail to find xpm.h and forms.h on linux
351 if the kernel headers are not available. Two cases are possible:
353 - you have not installed the kernel sources. Then you should
354 install them or at least the kernel-headers package (or
355 whatever it is called in your distribution).
357 - you have the sources, but you did a 'make mrproper' in the
358 kernel directory (this this removes some symbolic links that
359 are needed for compilation). A 'make symlinks' in linux kernel
362 o if you are using RedHat Linux 7.x, you must make sure you have the
363 latest updated gcc and related packages installed (at least -85),
364 or LyX will not compile or will be mis-compiled.
366 o if you get an error message when compiling LyX that looks like this :
368 ../../src/minibuffer.h:17: using directive `Object' introduced
369 ambiguous type `_ObjectRec *'
371 then you need to upgrade the version of the xforms library you have
374 o On SUN Sparc Solaris 8, you need gnumake. The LyX makefiles do not
375 work with Solaris make.
377 The Solaris ar seg-faults trying to build the insets library. You
378 will need to use the ar from the GNU binutils for this subdirectory.
380 o LyX can be compiled on Tru64 Unix with either GNU's gcc or the default
383 There are no Alpha-specific problems with gcc.
385 The following notes all refer to compilation with the Compaq cxx compiler.
387 LyX cannot be compiled on Tru64 Unix 4.0d or 4.0e with the default cxx
388 compiler. You should upgrade to at least cxx V6.2, to be found at
389 ftp::/ftp.compaq.com/pub/products/C-CXX/tru64/cxx/CXX622V40.tar. Users
390 running Tru64 Unix 4.0f and greater should have no real problems compiling
393 cxx V6.2 will compile LyX out of the box.
394 cxx V6.3-020 is also known to work, although there is a bug in
395 /usr/include/cxx/deque that will break compilation in FormPreferences.C.
396 Compaq are investigating, but a patch that works /now/ is:
398 --- /usr/include/cxx/deque_safe Mon Mar 4 21:09:50 2002
399 +++ /usr/include/cxx/deque Mon Mar 4 21:09:00 2002
402 if (size() >= x.size())
403 erase(copy(x.begin(), x.end(), begin()), end());
405 - copy(x.begin() + size(), x.end(),
406 - inserter(*this,copy(x.begin(),x.begin()+size(),begin())));
408 + const_iterator mid = x.begin() + difference_type(size());
409 + copy(x.begin(), mid, begin());
410 + insert(end(), mid, x.end());
416 At the time of writing, cxx V6.5-026 is the latest cxx compiler. It is
417 /not/ recommended. The compiler itself appears to be both buggy and
418 extremely bloated (trebling the size of the stripped LyX binary).
420 In order to compile LyX with the cxx compiler, you should run configure
421 with the following flags:
422 CXX='cxx -std strict_ansi'
423 CXXFLAGS='-nopure_cname -nocleanup -ptr /tmp/lyx_cxx_repository -O2'
425 The -nopure_cname flag is needed for compilers V6.3 and above because
426 LyX makes use of functions like popen, pclose that are defined in the
427 c version of <stdio.h> but are not formally part of any c/c++ standard.
428 They are not, therefore, included in the <cstdio> header file.