[edit] Abstract

This is an example for a ~/.bashrc file. Use it with your kde-devel account, it makes life much easier.

Please note the build type in cmakekde. 'debugfull' is recommended for development or advanced debugging. If you just want to build the latest KDE, 'relwithdebinfo' (the default when no build type is specified) will result in faster binaries, at the expense of some debugging ability. Also see here.

[edit] The Code

## A script to setup some needed variables and functions for KDE 4 development.
## This should normally go in the ~/.bashrc file of your kde-devel user, so
## that it is executed when a session for that user is started.
##
## If you don't use a separate user, the first section with the
## environment variables should go into a separate script.
 
prepend() { [ -d "$2" ] && eval $1=\"$2\$\{$1:+':'\$$1\}\" && export $1 ; }
 
# Other
# you might want to set a full value for PATH rather than prepend'ing, to make
# sure the your kde3 path isn't in here.
prepend PATH /usr/local/bin
 
# Qt
# only set Qt related variables if you compiled Qt on your own
# (which is discouraged). if you use the distro provided Qt, skip
# this section. Comment it if necessary.
export QTDIR=$HOME/qt-kde
 
prepend PATH $QTDIR/bin
prepend LD_LIBRARY_PATH $QTDIR/lib
prepend PKG_CONFIG_PATH $QTDIR/lib/pkgconfig
 
 
# KDE
export KDEDIR=$HOME/kde
export KDEHOME=$HOME/.kde4
export KDETMP=/tmp/kde4-$USER
mkdir -p $KDETMP
export KDEDIRS=$KDEDIR
prepend PATH $KDEDIR/bin
prepend LD_LIBRARY_PATH $KDEDIR/lib
prepend PKG_CONFIG_PATH $KDEDIR/lib/pkgconfig
prepend QT_PLUGIN_PATH $KDEDIR/lib/kde4/plugins
 
export PATH
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH
export PKG_CONFIG_PATH
export QT_PLUGIN_PATH
 
 
# CMake
# Make sure CMake searches the right places.
prepend CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH  $KDEDIR
prepend CMAKE_LIBRARY_PATH $KDEDIR/lib
prepend CMAKE_INCLUDE_PATH $KDEDIR/include
 
export CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH
export CMAKE_LIBRARY_PATH
export CMAKE_INCLUDE_PATH
 
 
# DBus
# only set DBUS related variables if you compiled dbus on your own
# (which is really discouraged). if you use the distro provided dbus,
# skip this variable. Uncomment it if necessary.
#export DBUSDIR=$KDEDIR
#prepend PKG_CONFIG_PATH $DBUSDIR/lib/pkgconfig
 
# only needed on some strange systems for compiling Qt. do not set
# it unless you have to.
#export YACC='byacc -d'
 
# XDG
unset XDG_DATA_DIRS # to avoid seeing kde3 files from /usr
unset XDG_CONFIG_DIRS
 
# you might want to change these:
export KDE_BUILD=$HOME/kde/build
export KDE_SRC=$HOME/kde/src
 
# make the debug output prettier
export KDE_COLOR_DEBUG=1
export QTEST_COLORED=1
 
# Make
# Tell many scripts how to switch from source dir to build dir:
export OBJ_REPLACEMENT="s#$KDE_SRC#$KDE_BUILD#"
# Use makeobj instead of make, to automatically switch to the build dir.
# If you don't have makeobj, install the package named kdesdk-scripts or
# kdesdk, or check out kdesdk/scripts from svn.
alias make=makeobj
 
# Uncomment the following lines if DBus does not work. DBus is not
# working if, when you run `dbus-uuidgen --ensure && qdbus`, you get an error.
#
# alias dbusstart="eval `PATH=$DBUSDIR/bin \
#  $DBUSDIR/bin/dbus-launch --auto-syntax`"
 
# A function to easily build the current directory of KDE.
#
# This builds only the sources in the current ~/{src,build}/KDE subdirectory.
# Usage: cs KDE/kdebase && cmakekde
#   will build/rebuild the sources in ~/src/KDE/kdebase
function cmakekde {
        local srcFolder current
 
        if test -n "$1"; then
                # srcFolder is defined via command line argument
                srcFolder="$1"
        else
                # get srcFolder for current dir
                srcFolder=`pwd | sed -e s,$KDE_BUILD,$KDE_SRC,`
        fi
        # we are in the src folder, change to build directory
        # Alternatively, we could just use makeobj in the commands below...
        current=`pwd`
        if [ "$srcFolder" = "$current" ]; then
                cb
        fi
        # To enable tests, uncomment -DKDE4_BUILD_TESTS=TRUE.
        # If you are building to debug or develop, it is reccommended to
        # uncomment the line -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=debugfull. Be sure to move
        # it above the -DKDE4_BUILD_TESTS=TRUE line if you leave that one
        # commented out. You can also change "debugfull" to "debug" to save
        # disk space.
        # Some distributions use a suffix for their library directory when
        # on x86_64 (i.e. /usr/lib64) if so, you have to add -DLIB_SUFFIX=64
        # for example.
        cmake "$srcFolder" -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=$KDEDIR \
               # -DKDE4_BUILD_TESTS=TRUE \
               # -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=debugfull
 
        # uncomment the following two lines to make builds wait after
        # configuration step, so that the user can check configure output
        #echo "Press <ENTER> to continue..."
        #read userinput
 
        # Note: To speed up compiling, change 'make -j2' to 'make -jx',
        #   where x is your number of processors +1
        nice make -j2 && make install
        RETURN=$?
        cs
        return ${RETURN}
}
 
# for the lazy ones (aren't we all?)
function cmakekdeall {
        local folders
 
        folders="kdesupport KDE/kdelibs KDE/kdebase \
                KDE/kdepimlibs KDE/kdepim KDE/kdesdk \
                KDE/kdegraphics KDE/kdevplatform KDE/kdevelop \
                "
                # Add others or remove to taste, e.g.
                # KDE/kdemultimedia KDE/kdenetwork KDE/kdeutils \
 
        cd && cs # go to src root
        svn up $folders
 
        for f in $folders; do
            # Remove the "|| return" part if you don't want to
            # stop the build whenever a single module fails.
            cs $f && cmakekde || return
        done
}
 
# A function to easily change to the build directory.
# Usage: cb KDE/kdebase
#   will change to $KDE_BUILD/KDE/kdebase
# Usage: cb
#   will simply go to the build folder if you are currently in a src folder
#   Example:
#     $ pwd
#     /home/user/src/KDE/kdebase
#     $ cb && pwd
#     /home/user/build/KDE/kdebase
function cb {
        local dest
 
        # Make sure build directory exists.
        mkdir -p "$KDE_BUILD"
 
        # command line argument
        if test -n "$1"; then
                cd "$KDE_BUILD/$1"
                return
        fi
        # substitute src dir with build dir
        dest=`pwd | sed -e s,$KDE_SRC,$KDE_BUILD,`
        if test ! -d "$dest"; then
                # build directory does not exist, create
                mkdir -p "$dest"
        fi
        cd "$dest"
}
 
# Change to the source directory.  Same as cb, except this
# switches to $KDE_SRC instead of $KDE_BUILD.
# Usage: cs KDE/kdebase
#   will change to $KDE_SRC/KDE/kdebase
# Usage: cs
#   will simply go to the source folder if you are currently in a build folder
#   Example:
#     $ pwd
#     /home/user/build/KDE/kdebase
#     $ cs && pwd
#     /home/user/src/KDE/kdebase
function cs {
        local dest current
 
        # Make sure source directory exists.
        mkdir -p "$KDE_SRC"
 
        # command line argument
        if test -n "$1"; then
                cd "$KDE_SRC/$1"
        else
                # substitute build dir with src dir
                dest=`pwd | sed -e s,$KDE_BUILD,$KDE_SRC,`
                current=`pwd`
                if [ "$dest" = "$current" ]; then
                        cd "$KDE_SRC"
                else
                        cd "$dest"
                fi
        fi
}
 
# Add autocompletion to cs function
function _cs_scandir
{
        local base ext
 
        base=$1
        ext=$2
        if [ -d $base ]; then
                for d in `ls $base`; do
                        if [ -d $base/$d ]; then
                                dirs="$dirs $ext$d/"
                        fi
                done
        fi
}
 
function _cs()
{
        local cur dirs
        _cs_scandir "$KDE_SRC"
        _cs_scandir "$KDE_SRC/KDE" "KDE/"
        COMPREPLY=()
        cur="${COMP_WORDS[COMP_CWORD]}"
        COMPREPLY=( $(compgen -W "${dirs}" -- ${cur}) )
}
 
# Remove comment on next line to enable cs autocompletion
#complete -F _cs cs
 
function start3app {
        mkdir -p /tmp/$USER-kde
        export PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/bin/X11:/usr/games
        export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=
        export KDETMP=/tmp/$USER-kde
        export KDEVARTMP=/var/tmp/$USER-kde
        export KDEHOME=$HOME/.kde
        export KDEDIR=/usr
        export KDEDIRS=$KDEDIR
        export DISPLAY=:0
        eval "$@"
        source $HOME/.bashrc   #Reset environment variables again
}

[edit] Needed changes

• If you are running x64 SUSE Linux, you may want to add -DLIB_SUFFIX=64 to your cmakekde function (see the comments). This makes sure not only /lib and /usr/lib is searched for libraries, but also /lib64 and /usr/lib64. You may also need to set your PKG_CONFIG_PATH to $KDEDIR/lib64/pkgconfig.
• If you are using the same user to run the KDE4 installed through your system package management, you must also export the KDESYCOCA variable (for example export KDESYCOCA=$KDEVARTMP/kdesycoca-custom) or change the cache-$hostname symlink in this $KDEHOME to a real directory. This also ensures a further encapsulation of the development environment (but will cause slowdowns if your $HOME is on an NFS share)