Getting Started/Build

Warning

These pages are currently being completely re-written to reflect the new KDE infrastructure and may not be in a consistent state. Information and commands on some page may no longer be valid and should be used with care.

Getting Started/Build

Introduction

This page provides an overview of the KDE build process.

Extra Information

The build process described in these pages is kept as simple and generic as possible, but it is generally assumed you are building KDE4 on Linux. Extra information about building KDE Software on specific distributions or platforms, or certain conditions can be found at the following links:

Build Steps

This section will briefly explain the concepts and steps involved in building software so you are not being asked to blindly follow some recipes you do not understand.

It is assumed you are at least familiar with the basics of using the command line.

Once you have read the summary you can see a worked example here.

Source

The Source step is obtaining a local copy of the source code that you want to build. For a detailed explanation of where to obtain the source code and how KDE stores and organizes our source code please read the KDE Sources section.

The two main options here are to use either a snapshot tarball of the code, or to directly access the source code repository. For developing on the unstable branch of the KDE SC it is recommended you directly access the required repositories.

Configure

Build

Install

Update

Scripted Builds

The easiest way to build the KDE SC from scratch is to use one of the build scripts that are available. This approach is highly recommended for those new to building KDE SC as it takes care of the Source, Configure, Build, Install and Update steps for you. The builds remain compatible with the manual methods of building KDE SC so you can change later if you want.

The kdesrc-bld script by Michael Pyne
The build-tool script by Michael Jansen

Getting Ready

Manually building KDE Software requires that you first set up the build environment and install the required development tools and libraries.

Set up your Build Environment
Install the Build Requirements
Install or build Qt
Install or build kdesupport

Building From Source

This section still to be updated.

Short version: Using exactly the same recipe and environment you used to build kdesupport build the core KDE modules from Git in the following order:

kdelibs
kdepimlibs
kde-runtime
kde-workspace
kde-baseapps
konsole
kate

After this you are able to build whatever module you are interested in from the appropriate Git or Subversion repository.

The old instructions can be found here:

Troubleshooting The Build

Compile and Linking errors are frequent sources of discouragement. Make careful note of the first occurrence of an error in your build process. It could be as simple as a bad environment variable, an unexpected version of a library or missing prerequisite. Please read the instructions carefully.

Please review your logs and do searches for fixes. If you cannot find a solution, try the Troubleshooting page. If you still cannot resolve the problem then please ask for help on IRC or a Mailing List.