1 =========================
2 Building LyX with SCons
3 =========================
8 The GNU Build System (autoconf, automake and make) has been used to build
9 and distribute lyx. These de facto *nix tools are readily available and
10 widely supported on the *nix systems, but not so under windows. They are
11 not necessarily easy to use and maintain (at least to non-m4 experts)
12 either. Because of these, a scons (http://www.scons.org) build system has
13 been set up as an alternative way to build lyx. As of writing, this system
14 only supports the qt4 frontend.
16 This file is organized as follows:
17 1. General usage of scons
18 2. *nix systems (Linux, Solaris and Mac OSX)
26 1. General usage of scons
27 =========================
33 Python >= 1.5.2 is required to run scons, but Python >= 2.3 is used by
34 lyx itself so the newer version is needed. Python is widely
35 available on non-windows systems. Windows users can download and install
36 python from http://www.python.org.
39 scons >= 0.96.92 is needed. You can either use a full system-wide scons
40 distribution or a light-weight one (called scons-local) installed along
41 with the lyx source tree. Both variants of scons are freely available
42 from http://www.scons.org. Note that LyX source may ship with scons-base
46 These include zlib (required), qt4 (required), gettext
47 (optional), boost (optional), aspell (optional) and Aiksaurus
48 (optional). Please refer to the system-specific sections regarding the
49 availability and installation of them.
55 The scons system resides under development/scons. You can invoke it from
56 either development/scons by, for example:
57 > cd development/scons
58 > scons frontend=qt4 qt_dir=d:/qt4 -j3 lyx
59 or from top source directory by:
60 > scons -f development/scons/SConstruct frontend=qt4 all
62 There are three types of command line options:
63 * key=value are user options. They are used to tell scons which
64 frontend to use, whether or not use included boost libraries etc.
65 You can use 'scons -h' to list all of the options.
66 * parameters start with - or -- are scons options. Useful ones include
67 -j3 (with three threads) and --config=force (force reconfiguration).
68 * others options are targets, which are lyx objects to build.
74 Here I only list important options that you will likely use. Full option
75 list with detailed description and default value can be displayed using
78 Components to use/build:
80 * frontend=qt4: qt4 is the only option right now.
81 * mode=debug/release: lyx will be built under the debug or release
82 directory, with different default build options.
83 * boost=included/system/auto: whether or not use included boost, system
84 boost, or try to detect system boost first. Note that boost=included
85 is safer if system boost has a different version from the included
87 * gettext=included/system/auto
88 * nls=yes/no whether or not enable natural language support.
89 * spell=aspell/pspell/ispell/auto: spell engine
92 Paths: Most of them will be probed if not specified.
94 * qt_dir: top level directory of qt (with at least subdirectory bin
95 containing commands uic and moc)
96 * qt_lib_path: path to the qt library, use only if there is no
98 * qt_inc_path: path to qt include directory, use only if there is no
100 * extra_inc_path, extra_inc_path1, extra_lib_path, extra_lib_path1:
101 additional paths to other libraries
102 * extra_bin_path: a convenient way to add an extra path to $PATH
107 * fast_start=yes/no: if true, bypass initial configuration step and use
108 existing src/config.h
109 * load_option=yes/no/opt1,opt2/-opt1,opt2: if true, load previously saved
110 command line options so you can run 'scons install' directly after a
111 long 'scons all' building command. You can load selected options using
112 load_option=opt1,opt2,... or exclude options using the - version of it.
113 * rebuild=target1,target2... By default, scons will exam all components
114 when you build lyx. You can free scons from some hard work and save
115 yourself some time by telling scons to rebuild only specified
116 component(s). rebuild=no, none, yes or all can be used as well.
117 * log_file: a log file of executed commands, default to scons_lyx.log
120 Installation options:
122 * prefix: directory where lyx will be installed
123 * exec_dir: directory where lyx binaries will be installed.
124 Default to $prefix/bin
125 * dest_dir: if specified, install to this directory instead of $prefix.
126 * version_suffix=yes/no/something : if specified, this suffix will be
127 appended to the user data directory.
130 Compiler choice and flags:
131 * use_vc: use msvc instead of mingw g++ under windows
132 * optimization: optimization flag to use (e.g. -O2)
133 * CC, LINK, CPP, CXX, CCFLAGS, LINKFLAGS etc: compiler commands and
134 flags. Setting CCFLAGS etc will replace default flags. These variables
135 can be set as environment variables as well.
141 You can specify one or more of the following targets:
143 Static libraries (names correspond to their directories):
144 boost, intl, support, mathed, insets, frontends, graphics,
145 controllers, client, qt4, lyxbase
147 tex2lyx, client, lyx, all = tex2lyx + client + lyx
149 po, install = all + po
153 Your built targets are put into $build_dir, which is debug (mode=debug),
154 release (mode=release) or any name specified via build_dir=name. The
155 directory structure is:
157 - common: most of the intermediate files, mostly object files
158 - libs: all static libraries
159 - qt4 etc: lyx executable built with the frontend
160 - executables: lyxclient, tex2lyx, lyx
162 MSVS projects will be put to development/scons (and you should invoke
163 scons from there for this target).
166 A typical working sequence:
167 ---------------------------
169 > cd development/scons
170 > scons frontend=qt4 qt_dir=/path/to/qt4
171 (build lyx, and all needed libraries...)
173 (build lyx, client and tex2lyx, options like qt_dir will be carried
175 > scons rebuild=lyxbase
176 (working on lyx_main.C, so only need to rebuild lyxbase)
178 (build again, only lyxbase will be rebuilt)
179 > scons fast_start=no --config=force
180 (need to regenerate src/config.h)
181 > scons prefix=/usr/site dest_dir=/install/dir
182 (lyx is built for /usr/site, but install to /install/dir)
185 2. *nix systems (Linux, Solaris and Mac OSX)
186 ============================================
188 Proper use of extra_inc_path, qt_dir etc should solve most of the
195 * install mingw with the following packages:
196 binutils-2.16.91-...tar.gz
197 gcc-core-3.4.5-...tar.gz
198 gcc-g++-3.4.5-...tar.gz
199 mingw-runtime-3.9.tar.gz
200 mingw-utils-0.3.tar.gz
205 * install the latest Qt official "open source" binary package for
206 Windows/Mingw (required)
208 * install mingw/zlib (required):
209 Download zlib binaries and developer files (zlib-1.2.3-bin.zip and
210 zlib-1.2.3-lib.zip) from http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/packages/zlib.htm .
212 * install iconv (optional):
213 Download libiconv from http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/packages/libiconv.htm
214 The complete package (without source) is recommended.
216 You may also try the windows binary (libiconv-x.x.x.bin.woe32.zip) of
217 iconv from one of the GNU mirrors listed in http://www.gnu.org/prep/ftp.html.
219 * install gettext (optional):
220 Download gettext from http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/packages/gettext.htm
221 The complete package (without source) is recommended.
223 You may also try the windows binary (gettext-runtime-x.x.x.bin.woe32.zip
224 and gettext-tools-x.x.x.bin.woe32.zip) from one of the GNU mirrors
225 (e.g. http://mirrors.usc.edu/pub/gnu/gettext/).
227 * install aspell (optional):
228 LyX uses aspell 0.60.4 and there is no, as of now, official windows
229 version. If you do not want to compile aspell from source by yourself,
230 your best bet is using Abdel's lyx 1.5.0svn experimental package located
231 at http://wiki.lyx.org/Windows/LyX150Experimental. The link to his
232 pre-built aspell package is http://younes.a.free.fr/Lyx-15-experimental
234 * install aiksaurus (optional):
235 Try to build aiksaurus from source (both mingw or msvc should work),
236 or look for pre-built package from the lyx 1.5.0svn experimental page.
238 * Open a mingw xterm, and start scons as usual.
240 Note: gettext, iconv and zlib are usually decompressed to c:/mingw so no
241 extra_inc_path etc is needed.
247 LyX should be easy to compile, but you must use the most recent cygwin
248 dll (version 1.5.20-1 as of July 2006) because qt library in older
249 cygwin distribution does not work with previous versions due to broken
252 To build lyx for cygwin, you should
254 * install (using the cygwin setup program) at least the following
255 packages and all other packages pulled in by dependencies:
257 aspell gzip libiconv qt4-bin
258 aspell-dev jpeg libpng qt4-devel
260 gettext libintl1 jpeg
261 gettext-devel libintl2 python
263 * install aiksaurus (http://aiksaurus.sourceforge.net/, optional):
264 There is no cygwin package for aiksaurus, so you should build it from
265 source. However, aiksaurus builds smoothly on cygwin.
267 * run scons as you would do under linux.
269 Note: cygwin/qt does not follow the usual $qt_dir/include, $qt_dir/bin,
270 $qt_dir/lib directory structure. For example, cygwin/qt4 uses directories
271 /usr/include/qt4, /usr/lib/qt4/bin and /usr/lib/qt4/lib. If these
272 directories can not be detected automatically, use options, for example,
273 qt_dir=/usr/lib/qt4 qt_inc_path=/usr/include/qt4
279 To build lyx with msvc, you should
282 It is recommended that you use MSVC2005 Express edition which is
283 freely available from microsoft.
285 * get windows platform SDK
286 Please follow the link in the MSVC webpage to download and configure.
287 It is important that you add SDK paths to %INCLUDE% and %LIB% in, e.g.,
288 C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\Common7\Tools\vsvars32.bat.
289 If you plan to use the MSVS IDE, you should also update the Visual C++
290 directories in VCProjectEngine.dll.express.config, as suggested in
291 http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/visualc/usingpsdk/.
294 - download qt4 source from trolltech (not the binary version, which
295 only works with mingw)
296 - get q../free patch for qt4
297 - compile qt4 as instructed
299 * download and install the official zlib library from www.zlib.org.
301 * optionally install iconv, gettext, aspell, aiksaurus following
302 the mingw instructions.
304 * start from msvc command prompt, use the use_vc option to build lyx.
305 You may need to use extra_inc_path etc to point to zlib paths.
307 * you can use the msvs_projects target to obtain msvc project files
308 for each lyx component.
309 - go to development/scons (important)
311 > scons [other options] msvs_projects
313 - The resulting project files will use scons to build lyx
314 - All command line options, including rebuild, can be used as usual
315 (when msvs invoke scons).
316 - To use the msvc debugger, you have to use mode=debug (default).
322 * Using external boost libraries (install boost libraries and use
323 option boost=system) can speed up scons' starting time a lot, since
324 the boost headers will then be considered as system headers and will
325 not be included in the dependency tree.
331 When you get an error:
333 Q. Some path is not found.
334 A, Try options such as extra_inc_path, extra_lib_path.
336 Q. A test fails (failed to find zlib etc).
337 A. Have a look at config.log.
339 Q. I get a linking error.
340 A. Get the command sequence from scons_lyx.log and see what could
341 have gone wrong. You usually only need to tweak the last linking
344 Q. Still can not figure it out.
345 A. Send an email to lyx-devel mailing list.
347 Q. Feeling too impatient/adventurous to wait for list response.
348 A. Read SConstruct and SConscript and see what went wrong. Trust me, they
349 are much easier to decipher than the autoconf/m4 files.