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 any other directory and use -f option to point to the SConstruct
63 > scons -f ../development/scons/SConstruct frontend=qt4 all
65 There are three types of command line options:
66 * key=value are user options. They are used to tell scons which
67 frontend to use, whether or not use included boost libraries etc.
68 You can use 'scons -h' to list all of the options.
69 * parameters start with - or -- are scons options. Useful ones include
70 -j3 (with three threads) and --config=force (force reconfiguration).
71 * others options are targets, which are lyx objects to build.
77 Here I only list important options that you will likely use. Full option
78 list with detailed description and default value can be displayed using
81 Components to use/build:
83 * frontend=qt4: qt4 is the only option right now.
84 * mode=debug/release: lyx will be built under the debug or release
85 directory, with different default build options.
86 * boost=included/system/auto: whether or not use included boost, system
87 boost, or try to detect system boost first. Note that boost=included
88 is safer if system boost has a different version from the included
90 * gettext=included/system/auto
91 * nls=yes/no whether or not enable natural language support.
92 * spell=aspell/pspell/ispell/auto: spell engine
95 Paths: Most of them will be probed if not specified.
97 * qt_dir: top level directory of qt (with at least subdirectory bin
98 containing commands uic and moc)
99 * qt_lib_path: path to the qt library, use only if there is no
101 * qt_inc_path: path to qt include directory, use only if there is no
103 * extra_inc_path, extra_inc_path1, extra_lib_path, extra_lib_path1:
104 additional paths to other libraries
105 * extra_bin_path: a convenient way to add an extra path to $PATH
110 * load_option=yes/no/opt1,opt2/-opt1,opt2: if true, load previously saved
111 command line options so you can run 'scons install' directly after a
112 long 'scons all' building command. You can load selected options using
113 load_option=opt1,opt2,... or exclude options using the - version of it.
114 * rebuild=target1,target2... By default, scons will exam all components
115 when you build lyx. You can free scons from some hard work and save
116 yourself some time by telling scons to rebuild only specified
117 component(s). rebuild=no, none, yes or all can be used as well.
118 * log_file: a log file of executed commands, default to scons_lyx.log
121 Installation options:
123 * prefix: directory where lyx will be installed
124 * exec_dir: directory where lyx binaries will be installed.
125 Default to $prefix/bin
126 * DESTDIR: if specified, install to this directory instead of $prefix.
127 * version_suffix=yes/no/something : if specified, this suffix will be
128 appended to the user data directory.
129 * win_installer: if specified under windows, and if 'installer' target
130 is given, generate NSIS installer specifed as win_installer which can
131 be a full path name. The default is lyx-version-timestamp-Installer.exe
132 for a development version, and lyx-version-Installer.exe for a released
136 Compiler choice and flags:
137 * use_vc: use msvc instead of mingw g++ under windows
138 * optimization: optimization flag to use (e.g. -O2)
139 * CC, LINK, CPP, CXX, CCFLAGS, LINKFLAGS etc: compiler commands and
140 flags. Setting CCFLAGS etc will replace default flags. These variables
141 can be set as environment variables as well.
147 You can specify one or more of the following targets:
149 Static libraries (names correspond to their directories):
150 boost, intl, support, mathed, insets, frontends, graphics,
151 controllers, client, qt4, lyxbase
153 tex2lyx, client, lyx, all = tex2lyx + client + lyx
155 po, install = all + po, installer (windows only, need NSIS)
159 Your built targets are put into $build_dir, which is debug (mode=debug),
160 release (mode=release) or any name specified via build_dir=name. The
161 directory structure is:
163 - common: most of the intermediate files, mostly object files
164 - libs: all static libraries
165 - executables: lyxclient, tex2lyx, lyx
167 MSVS projects will be put to development/scons (and you should invoke
168 scons from there for this target).
171 A typical working sequence:
172 ---------------------------
174 > cd development/scons
175 > scons frontend=qt4 qt_dir=/path/to/qt4
176 (build lyx, and all needed libraries...)
178 (build lyx, client and tex2lyx, options like qt_dir will be carried
180 > scons rebuild=lyxbase
181 (working on lyx_main.C, so only need to rebuild lyxbase)
183 (build again, only lyxbase will be rebuilt)
184 > scons prefix=/usr/site DESTDIR=/install/dir
185 (lyx is built for /usr/site, but install to /install/dir)
188 2. *nix systems (Linux, Solaris and Mac OSX)
189 ============================================
191 Proper use of extra_inc_path, qt_dir etc should solve most of the
198 * install mingw with the following packages:
199 binutils-2.16.91-...tar.gz
200 gcc-core-3.4.5-...tar.gz
201 gcc-g++-3.4.5-...tar.gz
202 mingw-runtime-3.9.tar.gz
203 mingw-utils-0.3.tar.gz
208 * install the latest Qt official "open source" binary package for
209 Windows/Mingw (required)
211 * install mingw/zlib (required):
212 Download zlib binaries and developer files (zlib-1.2.3-bin.zip and
213 zlib-1.2.3-lib.zip) from http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/packages/zlib.htm .
215 * install iconv (optional):
216 Download libiconv from http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/packages/libiconv.htm
217 The complete package (without source) is recommended.
219 You may also try the windows binary (libiconv-x.x.x.bin.woe32.zip) of
220 iconv from one of the GNU mirrors listed in http://www.gnu.org/prep/ftp.html.
222 * install gettext (optional):
223 Download gettext from http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/packages/gettext.htm
224 The complete package (without source) is recommended.
226 You may also try the windows binary (gettext-runtime-x.x.x.bin.woe32.zip
227 and gettext-tools-x.x.x.bin.woe32.zip) from one of the GNU mirrors
228 (e.g. http://mirrors.usc.edu/pub/gnu/gettext/).
230 * install aspell (optional):
231 LyX uses aspell 0.60.4 and there is no, as of now, official windows
232 version. If you do not want to compile aspell from source by yourself,
233 your best bet is using Abdel's lyx 1.5.0svn experimental package located
234 at http://wiki.lyx.org/Windows/LyX150Experimental. The link to his
235 pre-built aspell package is http://younes.a.free.fr/Lyx-15-experimental
237 * install aiksaurus (optional):
238 Try to build aiksaurus from source (both mingw or msvc should work),
239 or look for pre-built package from the lyx 1.5.0svn experimental page.
241 * Open a mingw xterm, and start scons as usual.
243 Note: gettext, iconv and zlib are usually decompressed to c:/mingw so no
244 extra_inc_path etc is needed.
250 LyX should be easy to compile, but you must use the most recent cygwin
251 dll (version 1.5.20-1 as of July 2006) because qt library in older
252 cygwin distribution does not work with previous versions due to broken
255 To build lyx for cygwin, you should
257 * install (using the cygwin setup program) at least the following
258 packages and all other packages pulled in by dependencies:
260 aspell gzip libiconv qt4-bin
261 aspell-dev jpeg libpng qt4-devel
263 gettext libintl1 jpeg
264 gettext-devel libintl2 python
266 * install aiksaurus (http://aiksaurus.sourceforge.net/, optional):
267 There is no cygwin package for aiksaurus, so you should build it from
268 source. However, aiksaurus builds smoothly on cygwin.
270 * run scons as you would do under linux.
272 Note: cygwin/qt does not follow the usual $qt_dir/include, $qt_dir/bin,
273 $qt_dir/lib directory structure. For example, cygwin/qt4 uses directories
274 /usr/include/qt4, /usr/lib/qt4/bin and /usr/lib/qt4/lib. If these
275 directories can not be detected automatically, use options, for example,
276 qt_dir=/usr/lib/qt4 qt_inc_path=/usr/include/qt4
282 To build lyx with msvc, you should
285 It is recommended that you use MSVC2005 Express edition which is
286 freely available from microsoft.
288 * get windows platform SDK
289 Please follow the link in the MSVC webpage to download and configure.
290 It is important that you add SDK paths to %INCLUDE% and %LIB% in, e.g.,
291 C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\Common7\Tools\vsvars32.bat.
292 If you plan to use the MSVS IDE, you should also update the Visual C++
293 directories in VCProjectEngine.dll.express.config, as suggested in
294 http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/visualc/usingpsdk/.
297 - download qt4 source from trolltech (not the binary version, which
298 only works with mingw)
299 - get q../free patch for qt4
300 - compile qt4 as instructed
302 * download and install the official zlib library from www.zlib.org.
304 * optionally install iconv, gettext, aspell, aiksaurus following
305 the mingw instructions.
307 * start from msvc command prompt, use the use_vc option to build lyx.
308 You may need to use extra_inc_path etc to point to zlib paths.
310 * you can use the msvs_projects target to obtain msvc project files
311 for each lyx component.
312 - go to development/scons (important)
314 > scons [other options] msvs_projects
316 - The resulting project files will use scons to build lyx
317 - All command line options, including rebuild, can be used as usual
318 (when msvs invoke scons).
319 - To use the msvc debugger, you have to use mode=debug (default).
325 * Using external boost libraries (install boost libraries and use
326 option boost=system) can speed up scons' starting time a lot, since
327 the boost headers will then be considered as system headers and will
328 not be included in the dependency tree.
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.