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.
12 1) ./configure --with-frontend=[qt or xforms]
13 configures LyX according to your system.
14 When compiling for Qt, you may have to set
15 --with-qt-dir=<path-to-your-qt-installation>
16 if the environment variable QTDIR is not set.
22 runs the program so you can check it out.
25 will install it. You can use "make install-strip" instead
26 if you want a smaller binary.
29 Note for Subversion checkouts
30 -----------------------------
32 If you have checked this out from Subversion, you need to have:
36 Then type "./autogen.sh" to build the needed configuration
37 files and proceed as stated below.
39 You will also probably need GNU m4 (perhaps installed as gm4).
44 First of all, you will also need a recent C++ compiler, where recent
45 means that the compilers are close to C++ standard conforming.
46 Compilers that are known to compile LyX are gcc 2.95.x and later
47 and Digital C++ version 6.1 and later. Please tell us your experience
50 It is _not_ possible to compile LyX with gcc 2.7.x and 2.8.x.
52 LyX 1.4.x makes great use of C++ Standard Template Library (STL).
53 This means that gcc users will have to install the relevant libstdc++
54 library to be able to compile this version of LyX. Users of gcc 2.95.x
55 will have to install the STLPort version of these libraries as the
56 ones that come with gcc 2.95.x are too broken for us to use.
60 LyX has been tested with Qt 3.x, though Qt 2.x may happen to work too.
61 The only special point to make is that you must ensure that both LyX
62 and the Qt libraries are compiled with the same C++ compiler.
64 Note that if Qt is using Xft2/fontconfig, you may need to install the
65 latex-xft-fonts package (at ftp://ftp.lyx.org/pub/lyx/contrib/) to get
66 maths symbols displayed properly. To find out, type:
68 ldd `which lyx` | grep fontconfig
70 at the console. Both RH8 and Debian unstable distributions are known
73 If, however, your version of Qt does not use fontconfig, then TeX
74 fonts should be added to the font path. 'man xset' is your friend.
78 Both an Xforms and Xpm libraries should be installed to compile LyX.
79 It is imperative that you have the correct versions of these
80 libraries, and their associated header files.
82 The xforms library has been very recently updated to version 1.0.
83 This version has been released under the LGPL (Lesser General Public
84 License), and the availability of the source means that many bugs that
85 have been plaguing LyX have been fixed in xforms. You are advised to
86 upgrade to xforms 1.0 to enjoy all these new fixes.
87 In fact, LyX 1.4.x no longer supports versions of xforms older than 1.0.
89 You can get the source from
90 http://savannah.nongnu.org/download/xforms/
92 If you use a rpm-based linux distribution, such as RedHat or Mandrake,
93 we recommend that you grab a version of xforms from
94 ftp://ftp.lyx.org/pub/lyx/contrib
95 Look for the xforms-1.0-release.src.rpm or the binary libforms*.i386.rpm.
97 In addition, you must have libXpm version 4.7 or newer.
99 * Other things to note
101 If you make modifications to files in src/ (for example by applying a
102 patch), you will need to have the GNU gettext package installed, due
103 to some dependencies in the makefiles. You can get the latest version
105 ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/gettext/
107 To use the thesaurus, you will need to install libAikSaurus, available
109 http://aiksaurus.sourceforge.net/
111 The two following programs should be available at configuration time:
113 o LaTeX2e should be correctly setup for the user you are logged in
114 as. Otherwise, LyX will not be able to run a number of tests. Note
115 that users can run these tests manually with Edit>Reconfigure.
117 o Python 1.5.2 or newer installed to be able to import older LyX files
118 with the lyx2lyx script (this script is called automatically when
122 Creating the Makefile
123 ---------------------
125 LyX can be configured using GNU autoconf utility which attempts to guess
126 the configuration needed to suit your system. The standard way to use it
127 is described in the file INSTALL.autoconf. In most cases you will be able
128 to create the Makefile by typing
132 For more complicated cases, LyX configure takes the following specific
135 o --with-frontend=FRONTEND that allows to specify which frontend you
136 want to use. There is no default value: this switch is required.
138 o --with-extra-lib=DIRECTORY that specifies the path where LyX will
139 find extra libraries (Xpm, xforms, qt) it needs. Defaults to NONE
140 (i.e. search in standard places). You can specify several
141 directories, separated by colons.
143 o --with-extra-inc=DIRECTORY that gives the place where LyX will find
144 extra headers. Defaults to NONE (i.e. search in standard places).
145 You can specify several directories, separated by colons.
147 o --with-extra-prefix[=DIRECTORY] that is equivalent to
148 --with-extra-lib=DIRECTORY/lib --with-extra-inc=DIRECTORY/include
149 If DIRECTORY is not specified, the current prefix is used.
151 o --with-version-suffix will install LyX as lyx-<version>, e.g. lyx-1.4.1
152 The LyX data directory will be something like <whatever>/lyx-1.4.1/.
153 Additionally your user configuration files will be found in e.g.
156 You can use this feature to install more than one version of LyX
157 on the same system. You can optionally specify a "version" of your
158 own, by doing something like :
159 ./configure --with-version-suffix=-latestsvn
161 Note that the standard configure options --program-prefix,
162 --program-suffix and the others will not affect the shared LyX
163 directory etc. so it is recommended that you use --with-version-suffix
164 (or --prefix) instead.
166 o --enable-optimization=VALUE enables you to set optimization to a
167 higher level as the default (-O), for example --enable-optimization=-O3.
169 o --disable-optimization - you can use this to disable compiler
170 optimization of LyX. The compile may be much quicker with some
171 compilers, but LyX will run more slowly.
173 There are also flags to control the internationalization support in
176 o --disable-nls suppresses all internationalization support,
177 yielding a somewhat smaller code.
179 o --with-included-gettext forces the use of the included GNU gettext
180 library, although you might have another one installed.
182 o --with-catgets allows to use the catget() functions which can
183 exist on your system. This can cause problems, though. Use with
186 o You can also set the environment variable LINGUAS to a list of
187 language in case you do not want to install all the translation
188 files. For example, if you are only interested in German and
189 Finnish, you can type (with sh or bash)
190 export LINGUAS='de fi'
191 before running configure.
193 Moreover, the following generic configure flags may be useful:
195 o --prefix=DIRECTORY specifies the root directory to use for
196 installation. [defaults to /usr/local]
198 o --datadir=DIRECTORY gives the directory where all extra LyX
199 files (lyxrc example, documentation, templates and layouts
200 definitions) will be installed.
201 [defaults to ${prefix}/share/lyx${program_suffix}]
203 o --bindir=DIRECTORY gives the directory where the lyx binary
204 will be installed. [defaults to ${prefix}/bin]
206 o --mandir=DIRECTORY gives the directory where the man pages will go.
207 [defaults to ${prefix}/man]
209 o --enable-maintainer-mode enables some code that automatically
210 rebuilds the configure script, makefiles templates and other useful
211 files when needed. This is off by default on releases, to avoid
214 Note that the --with-extra-* commands are not really robust when it
215 comes to use of relative paths. If you really want to use a relative path
216 here, you can prepend it with "`pwd`/".
218 If you do not like the default compile flags used (-g -O2 on gcc), you can
219 set CXXFLAGS variable to other values as follows:
221 o CXXFLAGS='-O2' (sh, bash)
222 o setenv CXXFLAGS '-O2' (csh, tcsh)
224 Similarly, if you want to force the use of some specific compiler, you can
225 give a value to the CXX variable.
227 If you encounter problems, please read the section 'Problems' at the end of
230 In particular, the following options could be useful in some desperate
233 o --enable-debug will add debug information to your binary. This
234 requires a lot more disk space, but is a must if you want to try to
235 debug problems in LyX. The default is to have debug information
236 for development versions and prereleases only.
238 o --enable-warnings that make the compiler output more warnings during
239 the compilation of LyX. Opposite is --disable-warnings. By default,
240 this flag is on for development versions only.
242 o --enable-assertions that make the compiler generate run-time
243 code which checks that some variables have sane values. Opposite
244 is --disable-assertions. By default, this flag is on for
245 development versions only.
247 o --enable-stdlib-debug adds some debug code in the standard
248 library; this slows down the code, but has been helpful in the
249 past to find bugs. By default, this flag is on for development
252 o --enable-concept-checks adds some compile-time checks. There is no
253 run-time penalty. By default, this flag is on for development
256 o --without-latex-config that disables the automatic detection of your
257 latex configuration. This detection is automatically disabled if
258 latex cannot be found. If you find that you have to use this
259 flag, please report it as a bug.
262 Compiling and installing LyX
263 ----------------------------
265 Once you've got the Makefile created, you just have to type:
272 Since the binaries with debug information tend to be huge (although
273 this does not affect the run-time memory footprint), you might want
274 to strip the lyx binary. In this case replace "make install" with
278 BTW: in the images subdirectory there is also a small icon "lyx.xpm",
279 that can be used to display lyx-documents in filemanagers.
281 If configure fails for some strange reason
282 ------------------------------------------
284 Even when configure fails, it creates a Makefile. You always can check
285 the contents of this file, modify it and run 'make'.
287 Compiling For Multiple Architectures
288 ------------------------------------
290 You can compile LyX for more than one kind of computer at the same
291 time, by placing the object files for each architecture in their own
292 directory. To do this, you must use a version of `make' that supports
293 the `VPATH' variable, such as GNU `make'. `cd' to the directory where
294 you want the object files and executables to go and run the
295 `configure' script. `configure' automatically checks for the source
296 code in the directory that `configure' is in and in `..'.
298 If you have to use a `make' that does not supports the `VPATH'
299 variable, you have to compile LyX for one architecture at a time in
300 the source code directory. After you have installed LyX for one
301 architecture, use `make distclean' before reconfiguring for another
304 Preparing a binary distribution for the use of others
305 ------------------------------------------------------
307 o Compile LyX with the right compiler switches for your
308 architecture. Make sure you use the --without-latex-config switch
309 of configure, since others might not be interested by your
312 o Create a file README.bin describing your distribution and
313 referring to *you* if problems arise. As a model, you can use the
314 file development/tools/README.bin.example, which can be a good
317 o Type `make bindist'. This will create a file
318 lyx-1.xx.yy-bin.tar.gz. Rename it to reflect you architecture
319 and the peculiarities of your build (e.g. static vs. dynamic).
321 o Check that everything is correct by unpacking the distribution
322 in some private place and running it. In particular, check the
323 output of `ldd lyx' to know which libraries are really needed.
325 o Upload your binary file to ftp.devel.lyx.org:/pub/incoming, and
326 notify larsbj@lyx.org.
332 This section provides several hints that have been submitted by LyX
333 team member or users to help compiling on some particular
334 architectures. If you find that some of this hints are wrong, please
337 o On SUN Sparc Solaris 8, you need gnumake. The LyX makefiles do not
338 work with Solaris make.
340 The Solaris ar seg-faults trying to build the insets library. You
341 will need to use the ar from the GNU binutils for this subdirectory.
343 o LyX can be compiled on Tru64 Unix with either GNU's gcc or the default
346 There are no Alpha-specific problems with gcc.
348 The following notes all refer to compilation with the Compaq cxx compiler.
350 LyX cannot be compiled on Tru64 Unix 4.0d or 4.0e with the default cxx
351 compiler. You should upgrade to at least cxx V6.2, to be found at
352 ftp::/ftp.compaq.com/pub/products/C-CXX/tru64/cxx/CXX622V40.tar. Users
353 running Tru64 Unix 4.0f and greater should have no real problems compiling
356 cxx V6.2 will compile LyX out of the box.
357 cxx V6.3-020 is also known to work, although there is a bug in
358 /usr/include/cxx/deque that will break compilation in FormPreferences.C.
359 Compaq are investigating, but a patch that works /now/ is:
361 --- /usr/include/cxx/deque_safe Mon Mar 4 21:09:50 2002
362 +++ /usr/include/cxx/deque Mon Mar 4 21:09:00 2002
365 if (size() >= x.size())
366 erase(copy(x.begin(), x.end(), begin()), end());
368 - copy(x.begin() + size(), x.end(),
369 - inserter(*this,copy(x.begin(),x.begin()+size(),begin())));
371 + const_iterator mid = x.begin() + difference_type(size());
372 + copy(x.begin(), mid, begin());
373 + insert(end(), mid, x.end());
379 At the time of writing, cxx V6.5-026 is the latest cxx compiler. It is
380 /not/ recommended. The compiler itself appears to be both buggy and
381 extremely bloated (trebling the size of the stripped LyX binary).
383 In order to compile LyX with the cxx compiler, you should run configure
384 with the following flags:
385 CXX='cxx -std strict_ansi'
386 CXXFLAGS='-nopure_cname -nocleanup -ptr /tmp/lyx_cxx_repository -O2'
388 The -nopure_cname flag is needed for compilers V6.3 and above because
389 LyX makes use of functions like popen, pclose that are defined in the
390 c version of <stdio.h> but are not formally part of any c/c++ standard.
391 They are not, therefore, included in the <cstdio> header file.