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=[qt4, or gtk]
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 and 4.x. The only special point to
61 make is that you must ensure that both LyX and the Qt libraries are
62 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.
76 * Other things to note
78 If you make modifications to files in src/ (for example by applying a
79 patch), you will need to have the GNU gettext package installed, due
80 to some dependencies in the makefiles. You can get the latest version
82 ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/gettext/
84 To use the thesaurus, you will need to install libAikSaurus, available
86 http://aiksaurus.sourceforge.net/
88 The two following programs should be available at configuration time:
90 o LaTeX2e should be correctly setup for the user you are logged in
91 as. Otherwise, LyX will not be able to run a number of tests. Note
92 that users can run these tests manually with Edit>Reconfigure.
94 o Python 2.3 or newer installed to be able to import older LyX files
95 with the lyx2lyx script (this script is called automatically when
100 ---------------------
102 LyX can be configured using GNU autoconf utility which attempts to guess
103 the configuration needed to suit your system. The standard way to use it
104 is described in the file INSTALL.autoconf. In most cases you will be able
105 to create the Makefile by typing
109 For more complicated cases, LyX configure takes the following specific
112 o --with-frontend=FRONTEND that allows to specify which frontend you
113 want to use. There is no default value: this switch is required.
115 o --with-extra-lib=DIRECTORY that specifies the path where LyX will
116 find extra libraries (qt4, gtk) it needs. Defaults to NONE
117 (i.e. search in standard places). You can specify several
118 directories, separated by colons.
120 o --with-extra-inc=DIRECTORY that gives the place where LyX will find
121 extra headers. Defaults to NONE (i.e. search in standard places).
122 You can specify several directories, separated by colons.
124 o --with-extra-prefix[=DIRECTORY] that is equivalent to
125 --with-extra-lib=DIRECTORY/lib --with-extra-inc=DIRECTORY/include
126 If DIRECTORY is not specified, the current prefix is used.
128 o --with-version-suffix will install LyX as lyx-<version>, e.g. lyx-1.4.1
129 The LyX data directory will be something like <whatever>/lyx-1.4.1/.
130 Additionally your user configuration files will be found in e.g.
133 You can use this feature to install more than one version of LyX
134 on the same system. You can optionally specify a "version" of your
135 own, by doing something like :
136 ./configure --with-version-suffix=-latestsvn
138 Note that the standard configure options --program-prefix,
139 --program-suffix and the others will not affect the shared LyX
140 directory etc. so it is recommended that you use --with-version-suffix
141 (or --prefix) instead.
143 o --enable-optimization=VALUE enables you to set optimization to a
144 higher level as the default (-O), for example --enable-optimization=-O3.
146 o --disable-optimization - you can use this to disable compiler
147 optimization of LyX. The compile may be much quicker with some
148 compilers, but LyX will run more slowly.
150 There are also flags to control the internationalization support in
153 o --disable-nls suppresses all internationalization support,
154 yielding a somewhat smaller code.
156 o --with-included-gettext forces the use of the included GNU gettext
157 library, although you might have another one installed.
159 o --with-catgets allows to use the catget() functions which can
160 exist on your system. This can cause problems, though. Use with
163 o You can also set the environment variable LINGUAS to a list of
164 language in case you do not want to install all the translation
165 files. For example, if you are only interested in German and
166 Finnish, you can type (with sh or bash)
167 export LINGUAS='de fi'
168 before running configure.
170 Moreover, the following generic configure flags may be useful:
172 o --prefix=DIRECTORY specifies the root directory to use for
173 installation. [defaults to /usr/local]
175 o --datadir=DIRECTORY gives the directory where all extra LyX
176 files (lyxrc example, documentation, templates and layouts
177 definitions) will be installed.
178 [defaults to ${prefix}/share/lyx${program_suffix}]
180 o --bindir=DIRECTORY gives the directory where the lyx binary
181 will be installed. [defaults to ${prefix}/bin]
183 o --mandir=DIRECTORY gives the directory where the man pages will go.
184 [defaults to ${prefix}/man]
186 o --enable-maintainer-mode enables some code that automatically
187 rebuilds the configure script, makefiles templates and other useful
188 files when needed. This is off by default on releases, to avoid
191 Note that the --with-extra-* commands are not really robust when it
192 comes to use of relative paths. If you really want to use a relative path
193 here, you can prepend it with "`pwd`/".
195 If you do not like the default compile flags used (-g -O2 on gcc), you can
196 set CXXFLAGS variable to other values as follows:
198 o CXXFLAGS='-O2' (sh, bash)
199 o setenv CXXFLAGS '-O2' (csh, tcsh)
201 Similarly, if you want to force the use of some specific compiler, you can
202 give a value to the CXX variable.
204 If you encounter problems, please read the section 'Problems' at the end of
207 In particular, the following options could be useful in some desperate
210 o --enable-debug will add debug information to your binary. This
211 requires a lot more disk space, but is a must if you want to try to
212 debug problems in LyX. The default is to have debug information
213 for development versions and prereleases only.
215 o --enable-warnings that make the compiler output more warnings during
216 the compilation of LyX. Opposite is --disable-warnings. By default,
217 this flag is on for development versions only.
219 o --enable-assertions that make the compiler generate run-time
220 code which checks that some variables have sane values. Opposite
221 is --disable-assertions. By default, this flag is on for
222 development versions only.
224 o --enable-stdlib-debug adds some debug code in the standard
225 library; this slows down the code, but has been helpful in the
226 past to find bugs. By default, this flag is on for development
229 o --enable-concept-checks adds some compile-time checks. There is no
230 run-time penalty. By default, this flag is on for development
233 o --without-latex-config that disables the automatic detection of your
234 latex configuration. This detection is automatically disabled if
235 latex cannot be found. If you find that you have to use this
236 flag, please report it as a bug.
239 Compiling and installing LyX
240 ----------------------------
242 Once you've got the Makefile created, you just have to type:
249 Since the binaries with debug information tend to be huge (although
250 this does not affect the run-time memory footprint), you might want
251 to strip the lyx binary. In this case replace "make install" with
255 BTW: in the images subdirectory there is also a small icon "lyx.xpm",
256 that can be used to display lyx-documents in filemanagers.
258 If configure fails for some strange reason
259 ------------------------------------------
261 Even when configure fails, it creates a Makefile. You always can check
262 the contents of this file, modify it and run 'make'.
264 Compiling For Multiple Architectures
265 ------------------------------------
267 You can compile LyX for more than one kind of computer at the same
268 time, by placing the object files for each architecture in their own
269 directory. To do this, you must use a version of `make' that supports
270 the `VPATH' variable, such as GNU `make'. `cd' to the directory where
271 you want the object files and executables to go and run the
272 `configure' script. `configure' automatically checks for the source
273 code in the directory that `configure' is in and in `..'.
275 If you have to use a `make' that does not supports the `VPATH'
276 variable, you have to compile LyX for one architecture at a time in
277 the source code directory. After you have installed LyX for one
278 architecture, use `make distclean' before reconfiguring for another
281 Preparing a binary distribution for the use of others
282 ------------------------------------------------------
284 o Compile LyX with the right compiler switches for your
285 architecture. Make sure you use the --without-latex-config switch
286 of configure, since others might not be interested by your
289 o Create a file README.bin describing your distribution and
290 referring to *you* if problems arise. As a model, you can use the
291 file development/tools/README.bin.example, which can be a good
294 o Type `make bindist'. This will create a file
295 lyx-1.xx.yy-bin.tar.gz. Rename it to reflect you architecture
296 and the peculiarities of your build (e.g. static vs. dynamic).
298 o Check that everything is correct by unpacking the distribution
299 in some private place and running it. In particular, check the
300 output of `ldd lyx' to know which libraries are really needed.
302 o Upload your binary file to ftp.devel.lyx.org:/pub/incoming, and
303 notify larsbj@lyx.org.
309 This section provides several hints that have been submitted by LyX
310 team member or users to help compiling on some particular
311 architectures. If you find that some of this hints are wrong, please
314 o On SUN Sparc Solaris 8, you need gnumake. The LyX makefiles do not
315 work with Solaris make.
317 The Solaris ar seg-faults trying to build the insets library. You
318 will need to use the ar from the GNU binutils for this subdirectory.
320 o LyX can be compiled on Tru64 Unix with either GNU's gcc or the default
323 There are no Alpha-specific problems with gcc.
325 The following notes all refer to compilation with the Compaq cxx compiler.
327 LyX cannot be compiled on Tru64 Unix 4.0d or 4.0e with the default cxx
328 compiler. You should upgrade to at least cxx V6.2, to be found at
329 ftp::/ftp.compaq.com/pub/products/C-CXX/tru64/cxx/CXX622V40.tar. Users
330 running Tru64 Unix 4.0f and greater should have no real problems compiling
333 cxx V6.2 will compile LyX out of the box.
334 cxx V6.3-020 is also known to work, although there is a bug in
335 /usr/include/cxx/deque that will break compilation in FormPreferences.C.
336 Compaq are investigating, but a patch that works /now/ is:
338 --- /usr/include/cxx/deque_safe Mon Mar 4 21:09:50 2002
339 +++ /usr/include/cxx/deque Mon Mar 4 21:09:00 2002
342 if (size() >= x.size())
343 erase(copy(x.begin(), x.end(), begin()), end());
345 - copy(x.begin() + size(), x.end(),
346 - inserter(*this,copy(x.begin(),x.begin()+size(),begin())));
348 + const_iterator mid = x.begin() + difference_type(size());
349 + copy(x.begin(), mid, begin());
350 + insert(end(), mid, x.end());
356 At the time of writing, cxx V6.5-026 is the latest cxx compiler. It is
357 /not/ recommended. The compiler itself appears to be both buggy and
358 extremely bloated (trebling the size of the stripped LyX binary).
360 In order to compile LyX with the cxx compiler, you should run configure
361 with the following flags:
362 CXX='cxx -std strict_ansi'
363 CXXFLAGS='-nopure_cname -nocleanup -ptr /tmp/lyx_cxx_repository -O2'
365 The -nopure_cname flag is needed for compilers V6.3 and above because
366 LyX makes use of functions like popen, pclose that are defined in the
367 c version of <stdio.h> but are not formally part of any c/c++ standard.
368 They are not, therefore, included in the <cstdio> header file.