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 qt3 and qt4 frontends.
16 This file is organized as follows:
17 1. General usage of scons
18 2. *nix systems (Linux, Solaris and Mac OSX)
22 6. Other versions of lyx (1.4.x)
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), qt3 or 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=qt3/qt4: qt3 is the default for all *nix systems including
81 windows cygwin. qt4 is the default for windows/mingw and windows/
82 msvc. xform and gtk are not currently supported.
83 * mode=debug/release: lyx will be built under the debug or release
84 directory, with different default build options.
85 * boost=included/system/auto: whether or not use included boost, system
86 boost, or try to detect system boost first. Note that boost=included
87 is safer if system boost has a different version from the included
89 * gettext=included/system/auto
90 * nls=yes/no whether or not enable natural language support.
91 * spell=aspell/pspell/ispell/auto: spell engine
94 Paths: Most of them will be probed if not specified.
96 * qt_dir: top level directory of qt (with at least subdirectory bin
97 containing commands uic and moc)
98 * qt_lib_path: path to the qt library, use only if there is no
100 * qt_inc_path: path to qt include directory, use only if there is no
102 * extra_inc_path, extra_inc_path1, extra_lib_path, extra_lib_path1:
103 additional paths to other libraries
104 * extra_bin_path: a convenient way to add an extra path to $PATH
109 * fast_start=yes/no: if true, bypass initial configuration step and use
110 existing src/config.h
111 * load_option=yes/no/opt1,opt2/-opt1,opt2: if true, load previously saved
112 command line options so you can run 'scons install' directly after a
113 long 'scons all' building command. You can load selected options using
114 load_option=opt1,opt2,... or exclude options using the - version of it.
115 * rebuild=target1,target2... By default, scons will exam all components
116 when you build lyx. You can free scons from some hard work and save
117 yourself some time by telling scons to rebuild only specified
119 * log_file: a log file of executed commands, default to scons_lyx.log
122 Installation options:
124 * prefix: directory where lyx will be installed
125 * exec_dir: directory where lyx binaries will be installed.
126 Default to $prefix/bin
127 * dest_dir: if specified, install to this directory instead of $prefix.
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, qt3, 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 - qt3 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 the qt3 library in the cygwin
248 distribution does not work with the current cygwin dll (version 1.5.19-4
249 as of June 2006) due to broken threading support. You should either wait
250 for the forthcoming 1.5.20 version or install a recent snapshot from
251 http://cygwin.com/snapshots.
253 To build lyx for cygwin, you should
255 * install (using the cygwin setup program) at least the following
256 packages and all other packages pulled in by dependencies:
258 aspell grep libintl1 qt3-bin tar
259 coreutils jbigkit libintl2 qt3-devel libiconv
260 diffutils jpeg libpng python
261 gettext libintl libpng2 sed
263 * run scons as you would do under linux.
265 Note: cygwin/qt does not follow the usual $qt_dir/include, $qt_dir/bin,
266 $qt_dir/lib directory structure. For example, cygwin/qt3 uses directories
267 /usr/include/qt3, /usr/lib/qt3/bin and /usr/lib/qt3/lib. If these
268 directories can not be detected automatically, use options, for example,
269 qt_dir=/usr/lib/qt3 qt_inc_path=/usr/include/qt3
276 To build lyx with msvc, you should
279 It is recommended that you use MSVC2005 Express edition which is
280 freely available from microsoft.
282 * get windows platform SDK
283 Please follow the link in the MSVC webpage to download and configure.
284 It is important that you add SDK paths to %INCLUDE% and %LIB% in, e.g.,
285 C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\Common7\Tools\vsvars32.bat.
286 If you plan to use the MSVS IDE, you should also update the Visual C++
287 directories in VCProjectEngine.dll.express.config, as suggested in
288 http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/visualc/usingpsdk/.
291 - download qt4 source from trolltech (not the binary version, which
292 only works with mingw)
293 - get q../free patch for qt4
294 - compile qt4 as instructed
296 * download and install the official zlib library from www.zlib.org.
298 * optionally install iconv, gettext, aspell, aiksaurus following
299 the mingw instructions.
301 * start from msvc command prompt, use the use_vc option to build lyx.
302 You may need to use extra_inc_path etc to point to zlib paths.
304 * you can use the msvs_projects target to obtain msvc project files
305 for each lyx component.
306 - go to development/scons (important)
308 > scons [other options] msvs_projects
310 - The resulting project files will use scons to build lyx
311 - All command line options, including rebuild, can be used as usual
312 (when msvs invoke scons).
313 - To use the msvc debugger, you have to use mode=debug (default).
316 6. Other versions of lyx (1.4.x)
317 ================================
319 The scons build system is not yet distributed with lyx1.4.x. Support for
320 the qt2 frontend of lyx1.4.x is, however, added to the trunk (1.5.x). If
321 you have checked out both 1.4.x and the trunk, you can build lyx 1.4.x
322 using commands similar to
325 > scons -f ../lyx-1.5.x/development/scons/SConstruct
327 Note that lyx 1.4.x does not use the latest version of the boost library
328 so option boost=included is recommended.
334 When you get an error:
336 Q. Some path is not found.
337 A, Try options such as extra_inc_path, extra_lib_path.
339 Q. A test fails (failed to find zlib etc).
340 A. Have a look at config.log.
342 Q. I get a linking error.
343 A. Get the command sequence from scons_lyx.log and see what could
344 have gone wrong. You usually only need to tweak the last linking
347 Q. Still can not figure it out.
348 A. Send an email to lyx-devel mailing list.
350 Q. Feeling too impatient/adventurous to wait for list response.
351 A. Read SConstruct and SConscript and see what went wrong. Trust me, they
352 are much easier to decipher than the autoconf/m4 files.