Difference between revisions of "Building"

From GnuCash
Jump to: navigation, search
(Ubuntu 12.04 (Precise Pangolin): added LTS to title; sorry if I broke someone's URL)
(Reverse commands: format)
(32 intermediate revisions by 11 users not shown)
Line 2: Line 2:
  
 
===Disclaimer===
 
===Disclaimer===
This page deals with building the '''developers version''' of GnuCash from the ''Subversion repository''. If you are searching instructions for the ''stable version'', you should read [[GnuCash#Installation]].
+
This page deals with building the '''developers version''' of GnuCash from the ''[[Git]] repository''. If you are searching instructions for the ''stable version'', you should read [[GnuCash#Installation]].
  
 
This page deals also not with optional modules of third parties like the Perl module Finance::Quote.
 
This page deals also not with optional modules of third parties like the Perl module Finance::Quote.
  
 
===Get and Configure the Sources===
 
===Get and Configure the Sources===
For the very latest source code, [[Subversion|get the sources from Subversion]] (but you need to think about the appropriate branch: 2.4 or trunk); alternatively, use the latest release source file of type <tt>gnucash-<version>.tar.gz</tt>. Examine the [[Dependencies]] wiki page and the [http://svn.gnucash.org/trac/file/gnucash/trunk/README.dependencies README.dependencies] file for the list of build dependencies for your distribution, the [http://svn.gnucash.org/trac/file/gnucash/trunk/README.svn README.svn] file for notes on compiling gnucash, and the [http://svn.gnucash.org/trac/file/gnucash/trunk/HACKING HACKING] file for notes on hacking the code.
+
For the very latest source code, get the sources from [[Git]] or use the latest release source file of type <tt>gnucash-<version>.tar.gz</tt> from [https://sourceforge.net/projects/gnucash/files/ Sourceforge]. '''Do not attempt to use tarballs from GitHub.''' Examine the [[Dependencies]] wiki page and the [https://github.com/Gnucash/gnucash/blob/trunk/README.dependencies README.dependencies] file for the list of build dependencies for your distribution, the [https://github.com/Gnucash/gnucash/blob/trunk/README.git README.git] file for notes on compiling gnucash, and the [https://github.com/Gnucash/gnucash/blob/trunk/HACKING HACKING] file for notes on hacking the code.
  
 
Here are the basic steps one might end up taking:
 
Here are the basic steps one might end up taking:
Line 13: Line 13:
 
1. Change to gnucash directory
 
1. Change to gnucash directory
 
   cd gnucash
 
   cd gnucash
2. If this code was retrieved from [[Subversion|SVN]], generate the configure script (otherwise skip this step)
+
2. If this code was retrieved from [[Git]], generate the configure script (otherwise skip this step)
 
   ./autogen.sh  
 
   ./autogen.sh  
 
3. Look at available configure options
 
3. Look at available configure options
Line 24: Line 24:
 
     --enable-error-on-warning --enable-compile-warnings \
 
     --enable-error-on-warning --enable-compile-warnings \
 
     [--enable-ofx [...]]
 
     [--enable-ofx [...]]
 +
;--prefix: Where should the package be installed? If you install for test purposes, you might consider to install it below your home directory to avoid ''sudo''ing. You should never use the same path as you distribution!
 
5. Compile and install
 
5. Compile and install
 
   make
 
   make
 +
:optional - if you changed something in the sources:
 +
  make check
 +
:If your prefix was below $HOME:
 
   make install
 
   make install
 +
:else
 +
  sudo make install
 +
:Sudo will ask you for the administrator password.
 +
 
6. Run
 
6. Run
   /opt/gnucash-devel/bin/gnucash
+
   /opt/gnucash-devel/bin/gnucash [options]
 +
:Again use the option ''--help'' to see a list.
  
 
=== Using separate build directory ===
 
=== Using separate build directory ===
Line 43: Line 52:
  
 
Then you can run ''make'', and ''make install'' as normal.
 
Then you can run ''make'', and ''make install'' as normal.
 +
 +
=== Reverse commands ===
 +
In case you dislike your '''installation''', run from your build directory
 +
[sudo] make uninstall
 +
to remove it, ''before'' you change relevant options like the prefix.
 +
 +
To clean up your '''build''' directory, run
 +
make clean
 +
If you use a separate build directory, you can remove its content instead.
 +
 +
In some cases, that might not be sufficient, then clean your '''git''' gnucash directory with
 +
git clean -f
 +
 +
To remove everything not part of the repo, including directories and ignored files, run
 +
git clean -fdx -e /.project  -e /.cproject -e /.autotools -e /.settings/
 +
'''Note:''' The exceptions are only necessary for Eclipse users. Else all their project information would be lost.
 +
 +
In this case you will have to start with ./autogen-sh again.
  
 
== Distro-specific Information ==
 
== Distro-specific Information ==
See the [http://svn.gnucash.org/trac/file/gnucash/trunk/README.dependencies README.dependencies] file for library dependency notes.
+
See the [https://github.com/Gnucash/gnucash/blob/trunk/README.dependencies README.dependencies] file for library dependency notes.
 
Also check out [[Dependencies|the dependencies page]].
 
Also check out [[Dependencies|the dependencies page]].
 +
 +
=== Slackware ===
 +
 +
Slackware installation is covered on [[Slackware|this page]].
  
 
=== Debian ===
 
=== Debian ===
Line 67: Line 98:
 
  postgresql-dev (to enable sql support)
 
  postgresql-dev (to enable sql support)
  
If you are building from svn, you will also need the following installed before running autogen.sh:
+
If you are building from git, you will also need the following installed before running autogen.sh:
  
 
  automake
 
  automake
Line 83: Line 114:
 
=== Ubuntu ===
 
=== Ubuntu ===
  
Ubuntu releases are supported for various lengths of time; Wikipedia has a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Ubuntu_releases#Release_history handy chart showing which versions are still supported].
+
Ubuntu releases are supported for various lengths of time; Wikipedia has a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Ubuntu_releases#Table_of_versions handy chart showing which versions are still supported].
 +
 
 +
'''Note:''' Dear Ubunteros, please do not copy and paste whole paragraphs. Instead adjust single sections in the form
 +
:Version x and newer:
 +
::do this
 +
:Version x-1 and before:
 +
::do that.
 +
:Can someone of you clean up this chapter and later remove this note?
  
 
==== Compiling Newer Ubuntu Packages on an Older Release ("self-backporting") ====
 
==== Compiling Newer Ubuntu Packages on an Older Release ("self-backporting") ====
  
If you are on an older version of Ubuntu (or Debian for that matter) such as Lucid with long-term support and need certain packages that are not available from the "official" backports repositories, do not fretYou can easily compile them yourself (essentially backporting them yourself).  Make sure you have a line of the form
+
If you are on an older version of Ubuntu (or Debian for that matter) such as Trusty 14.04 LTS, you may be able to compile a newer Ubuntu or Debian version yourself (essentially backporting it yourself). 
 +
 
 +
If the newer package is available in Utopic 14.10, add a line in your /etc/apt/sources.list (or for newer versions of Ubuntu, include a new file in the /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ directory) with the correct format. For Utopic, the line would be:
 +
 
 +
deb-src <nowiki>http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu</nowiki> utopic main restricted universe
 +
 
 +
You want the version (Utopic in above example) to be newer than the system release you have installed.  Then you can use the following lines to compile and install whatever software version is in the newer Ubuntu release, "backporting" the newer software to your older release of Ubuntu.  
 +
 
 +
cd ~/src/
 +
sudo aptitude update
 +
sudo apt-get install build-essential fakeroot
 +
  sudo apt-get build-dep gnucash
 +
apt-get --compile source gnucash
 +
sudo dpkg -i *.deb
 +
 
 +
Easy as 1-2-3!*
 +
 
 +
* If <code>apt-get build-dep</code> fails on the gnucash packages with a message like "E: Build-Depends dependency for gnucash cannot be satisfied because the package XXXXX cannot be found" then that means you need additional updated libraries on your system in order to backport the software. Unless you know there are only one or two new libraries needed, it's most likely MUCH easier just to build GnuCash from source. (See directions below.)
 +
 
 +
* If dpkg -i *.deb fails because it lists a bunch of dependencies (this happens if you've never installed gnucash before) the easiest way to get apt to bring them in is using -f (fix broken) install:
 +
sudo apt-get -f install
 +
 
 +
==== Ubuntu 14.04 LTS (Trusty Tahr) ====
 +
 
 +
To build from the source tarball download the source code tarball from http://www.gnucash.org/download.phtml and extract to an appropriate directory.
 +
 
 +
Next install the build dependencies
 +
  sudo apt-get build-dep gnucash
 +
 
 +
(On a fresh install I also needed to purge guile-2.0 and install these packages as well follow the guide below for issues with slib)
 +
sudo apt-get purge guile-2.0
 +
sudo apt-get install slib libgnomeui-common libgnomeui-dev guile-1.8 guile-1.8-dev checkinstall
  
  deb-src <nowiki>http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu</nowiki> precise main restricted universe
+
if want to use the alternative database backends then:
 +
  sudo apt-get install libdbd-{sqlite3,pgsql,mysql}
  
in your /etc/apt/sources.list.  You want the version (Precise in above example) to be a newer release than what you have installed.  Then you can use the following lines to compile and install whatever software version is in the newer Ubuntu release, "backporting" the newer software to your older release of Ubuntu.
+
In a terminal cd to the gnucash directory and run
 +
./configure --prefix=/path/to/install/gnucash/to --enable-compile-warnings --with-html-engine=webkit
 +
make
 +
sudo checkinstall
  
  cd /usr/src
+
The prefix might be, for example,
sudo aptitude build-dep ''$packageyouwant''
+
  --prefix=/usr/bin/gnucash2.4
apt-get --compile source ''$packageyouwant''
 
dpkg -i ''$packageyouwant''.deb
 
  
Easy as 1-2-3!
+
Running checkinstall will ask you some options on how the package is named, etc.  This will produce a .DEB which you can then simply install (adjust the path/filename accordingly)
 +
sudo dpkg -i /path/to/deb/gnucash_2.4.15-1_amd64.deb
  
 
==== Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (Precise Pangolin) ====
 
==== Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (Precise Pangolin) ====
Line 107: Line 179:
 
  git clone  git://github.com/Gnucash/gnucash.git gnucash
 
  git clone  git://github.com/Gnucash/gnucash.git gnucash
 
which will make a git repository in a directory gnucash.
 
which will make a git repository in a directory gnucash.
 
The main branch in git is conventionally named master, whereas in this repository it is named trunk (due to the fact that it is derived from a subversion repository I believe). This is not a problem but if you would rather have it named master then cd into the gnucash directory and
 
 
git branch -t master refs/remotes/origin/trunk
 
git checkout master
 
  
 
Next install the build dependencies
 
Next install the build dependencies
 
  sudo apt-get build-dep gnucash
 
  sudo apt-get build-dep gnucash
 
and a few required or useful tools
 
and a few required or useful tools
  sudo apt-get install libtool swig subversion libgnomeui-dev xsltproc
+
  sudo apt-get install libtool swig git libgnomeui-dev xsltproc libxslt-dev doxygen
  
 
if want to use the alternative database backends then:
 
if want to use the alternative database backends then:
Line 153: Line 220:
 
  sudo apt-get build-dep gnucash
 
  sudo apt-get build-dep gnucash
 
and a few required or useful tools
 
and a few required or useful tools
  sudo apt-get install libtool swig subversion
+
  sudo apt-get install libtool swig git
  
 
if want to use the alternative database backends then:
 
if want to use the alternative database backends then:
Line 179: Line 246:
  
 
==== Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (Lucid Lynx) ====
 
==== Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (Lucid Lynx) ====
 
The instructions is very similar to Ubuntu 9.10.
 
  
 
First, we need install all dependencies of building GnuCash.
 
First, we need install all dependencies of building GnuCash.
  
 
  sudo aptitude build-dep gnucash
 
  sudo aptitude build-dep gnucash
  sudo aptitude install texinfo subversion intltool libdbi0-dev libdbd-{sqlite3,pgsql,mysql} guile-1.8 guile-1.8-dev doxygen libwebkit-dev
+
  sudo aptitude install texinfo git intltool libdbi0-dev libdbd-{sqlite3,pgsql,mysql} guile-1.8 guile-1.8-dev doxygen libwebkit-dev
  
 
Since Ubuntu/Debian doesn't have guile-1.8-slib, which is actually just a softlink to slib, we create the softlink and generate the catalog manually.
 
Since Ubuntu/Debian doesn't have guile-1.8-slib, which is actually just a softlink to slib, we create the softlink and generate the catalog manually.
Line 193: Line 258:
 
  sudo guile -c "(use-modules (ice-9 slib)) (require 'new-catalog)"
 
  sudo guile -c "(use-modules (ice-9 slib)) (require 'new-catalog)"
  
And then we create the directories for source code and installation, and check out source code from SVN trunk:
+
And then we create the directories for source code and installation, and check out source code from git master
  
 
  mkdir -p ~/unstable ~/development
 
  mkdir -p ~/unstable ~/development
 
  rm -rf ~/unstable/gnucash ~/development/gnucash
 
  rm -rf ~/unstable/gnucash ~/development/gnucash
 
  cd ~/development
 
  cd ~/development
  svn co http://svn.gnucash.org/repo/gnucash/trunk gnucash
+
  git clone https://github.com/Gnucash/gnucash/ gnucash
 
  cd gnucash
 
  cd gnucash
  
Line 207: Line 272:
 
  make all install
 
  make all install
  
If there is no any errors, we can run it:
+
If there are no errors, we can run it:
  
 
  ~/unstable/gnucash/bin/gnucash
 
  ~/unstable/gnucash/bin/gnucash
 
==== Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala) ====
 
 
the same instructions apply as for 9.04, except that the dependencies have changed
 
 
sudo aptitude install build-essential devscripts fakeroot libaqbanking29-dev aqbanking29-plugins*
 
sudo aptitude build-dep gnucash
 
sudo aptitude install gettext texinfo subversion autoconf libgconf2-dev libxml++2.6-dev intltool libtool swig \
 
slib guile-1.6-slib guile-1.6-dev doxygen libgtk2.0-dev libgnomeui-dev libglade2-dev libgoffice-0-8-dev \
 
libgtkhtml3.14-dev libofx-dev libfinance-quote-perl libdate-manip-perl
 
 
The above will allow GnuCash to be built, with or without libaqbanking support. If it is required to build libaqbanking itself the this is also required:
 
 
sudo aptitude build-dep libaqbanking
 
 
If building version 2.2.9 a compile error is generated if libgoffice-0-8-dev is installed (goffice/graph/gog-style.h: No such file or directory).  To avoid this uninstall libgoffice-0-8-dev (only) and install libgoffice-0-dev instead.  Gnucash version 2.3.x can still be built with the replacement package installed.
 
 
==== Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope) ====
 
 
The following commands will download and compile the latest version of gnucash (trunk) source to a brand-new installation of Ubuntu 9.04.
 
 
On a clean installation of 9.04, a few packages (and their dependencies) need to be installed prior to building gnucash from source.  The packages here will also enable downloading stock quotes and importing ofx files.
 
sudo aptitude install gettext texinfo subversion autoconf \
 
  libgconf2-dev libxml++2.6-dev intltool libtool swig \
 
  slib guile-1.6-slib guile-1.6-dev doxygen libgtk2.0-dev \
 
  libgnomeui-dev libglade2-dev libgoffice-0-6-dev \
 
  libgtkhtml3.14-dev libofx-dev libfinance-quote-perl libdate-manip-perl
 
 
Now create the necessary directories, clear out any old source code, download the latest gnucash source via svn, and compile.
 
mkdir -p $HOME/unstable $HOME/development
 
rm -rf $HOME/unstable/gnucash $HOME/development/gnucash
 
cd $HOME/development
 
svn checkout http://svn.gnucash.org/repo/gnucash/trunk gnucash
 
cd gnucash
 
./autogen.sh
 
./configure --prefix=$HOME/unstable/gnucash --enable-debug --enable-doxygen --enable-error-on-warning --enable-compile-warnings
 
make all install
 
 
To enable database support, you will need to install the DBI development files, install an appropriate driver, and enable support during configuration:
 
sudo aptitude install libdbi0-dev libdbd-{sqlite3,pgsql,mysql}
 
./configure [options as above] --enable-dbi
 
./make all install
 
 
Now, assuming there were no errors during configure/build, fire it up!
 
~/unstable/gnucash/bin/gnucash
 
 
==== Ubuntu 8.04 LTS (Hardy Heron) ====
 
 
The build instructions provided for Ubuntu 7.04 (Feisty Fawn) are reported to work with GnuCash 2.2.9.
 
 
==== Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon) ====
 
 
See [[BuildGutsy]]
 
 
==== Ubuntu 7.04 (Feisty Fawn) ====
 
'''Get Dependencies'''
 
sudo aptitude install build-essential checkinstall guile-1.6-dev guile-1.6-slib libgoffice-0-dev libgtkhtml3.14-dev texinfo gettext intltool libtool swig libofx-dev
 
 
'''Get GnuCash 2.2 Source'''
 
wget <nowiki>http://www.gnucash.org/pub/gnucash/sources/stable/gnucash-2.2.9.tar.gz</nowiki>
 
tar zxvf gnucash-2.2.9.tar.gz
 
cd gnucash-2.2.9
 
 
'''Create make files (only if checking out from SVN)'''
 
./autogen.sh
 
 
'''Configure'''
 
./configure
 
If this command complains about not finding libraries (it shouldn't), then you can probably find them in Synaptic.
 
 
'''Build .deb for GnuCash 2.2'''
 
checkinstall --default --install=no
 
This will take maybe 10 minutes, and it will build an installer file called  "gnucash_2.2.9-1_i386.deb".
 
(If it's got a different name, substitute that into the next step.)
 
 
'''Install the .deb that you built'''
 
sudo dpkg -i gnucash_2.2.9-1_i386.deb
 
If you get errors about dpkg not being able to overwrite files (I did), you can override them with this version:
 
sudo dpkg -i --force-overwrite gnucash_2.2.9-1_i386.deb
 
 
'''Run GnuCash'''
 
gnucash
 
 
'''Build and install Documentation'''
 
 
If you want the GnuCash documentation, you have to build and install that separately.  I couldn't get "checkinstall" to build a deb for the documentation, so I had to use make and make install as follows:
 
 
Comment: I got it to work by firering "make" first (after configure) and "checkinstall --default --install=no" afterwords.
 
 
wget <nowiki>http://www.gnucash.org/pub/gnucash/sources/stable/gnucash-docs-2.2.0.tar.gz</nowiki>
 
tar zxvf gnucash-docs-2.2.0.tar.gz
 
cd gnucash-docs-2.2.0
 
./configure
 
make
 
sudo make install
 
 
 
'''Warning (place this comment in a better place):''' In package ''guile-1.6-dev'', the script ''/usr/bin/guile-config'' is missing. This script is used by Gnucash's ''./configure'' in the building steps to determine the specific structure of ubuntu guile installation. Its absence causes ''./configure'' to break with a "Check your guile config" even if all is perfectly installed. To solve this problem, I have downloaded the debian counterpart package of ''guile-dev 1.6.8'', then extracted from it the seeked ''guile-config'' file and finally placed it in ''/usr/bin/''. Gnucash 2.2.1 building was then perfect. You can extract easily a file from a ''.deb'' using ''alien -t debfile.deb'' (you have to install alien) to obtain a ''.tgz'' file. Hope this helps others.
 
 
==== Dapper Flight 7 ====
 
 
'''get necessary packages'''
 
 
On a fresh install of Ubuntu/Dapper, do the following to be able to compile trunk gnucash:
 
 
sudo aptitude install libguile-dev libgwrapguile-dev guile-www
 
 
There are possibly other dependencies (that I already had installed), but this should get you started.
 
 
The below was ok for Flight 5
 
sudo aptitude install libgnomeui-dev libofx-dev libgsf-1-dev \
 
libgtkhtml3.8-dev guile-g-wrap libltdl3-dev g-wrap doxygen \
 
libgsf-gnome-1-dev automake1.9 texinfo build-essential intltool \
 
libtool subversion libfinance-quote-perl
 
 
For straight Dapper, I needed:
 
sudo aptitude install libglib2.0-dev intltool automake1.9 autoconf libtool libgconf2-dev swig slib libxml2
 
 
'''Create development tree'''
 
mkdir -p $HOME/development/gnucash
 
mkdir -p $HOME/unstable/gnucash
 
 
'''Check out gnucash trunk'''
 
cd $HOME/development/gnucash
 
svn checkout http://svn.gnucash.org/repo/gnucash/trunk gnucash
 
 
'''Compile gnucash'''
 
cd gnucash
 
./autogen.sh
 
 
./configure --prefix=$HOME/unstable/gnucash \
 
    --enable-debug --enable-doxygen \
 
    --enable-error-on-warning --enable-compile-warnings
 
 
make all install
 
 
'''Start newly compiled gnucash'''
 
cd $HOME/unstable/gnucash/bin
 
./gnucash
 
 
==== Ubuntu 5.10 (Breezy Badger) ====
 
 
Please see the [[BreezyBadgerInstallation]] page for more information on installing a beta snapshot of GnuCash on Breezy Badger.
 
  
 
=== Gentoo ===
 
=== Gentoo ===
Line 382: Line 304:
  
 
  sudo yum-builddep gnucash -y
 
  sudo yum-builddep gnucash -y
  sudo yum install texinfo subversion intltool libdbi-devel libdbi guile guile-devel doxygen gtkhtml3-devel -y
+
  sudo yum install texinfo git intltool libdbi-devel libdbi guile guile-devel doxygen gtkhtml3-devel -y
  
And then we create the directories for source code, and check out source code from SVN trunk:
+
And then we create the directories for source code, and check out source code from git master
  
 
  mkdir -p ~/development
 
  mkdir -p ~/development
 
  cd ~/development
 
  cd ~/development
  svn co http://svn.gnucash.org/repo/gnucash/trunk gnucash
+
  git clone https://github.com/Gnucash/gnucash/ gnucash
 
  cd gnucash
 
  cd gnucash
  
Line 448: Line 370:
 
This section describes how to build a plugin from scratch.
 
This section describes how to build a plugin from scratch.
  
A plugin is a runtime loadable module which provides optional functions for GnuCash.
+
A plugin is a runtime loadable module which provides optional functions for GnuCash. There are a couple of plugins plus a skeleton example in src/plugins. To add your own plugin:
 
 
=== in-tree approach ===
 
* checkout trunk from svn into folder $trunk
 
  e.g. svn co http://svn.gnucash.org/repo/gnucash/trunk gnucash-trunk
 
* download plugin-template.tgz to folder $downloads
 
  e.g. wget http://tellico.dyndns.org/gnucash/plugin-template.tgz
 
 
 
  cd $trunk/src
 
  mkdir plugins
 
  cd plugins
 
* extract all files/folders from plugin-template.tgz
 
  tar xzf $downloads/plugin-template.tgz
 
* include the new folder into the build process
 
  cd $trunk/src
 
  echo SUBDIRS+=plugins >> Makefile.am
 
  cd $trunk
 
* edit configure.in
 
insert the following line just before AC_OUTPUT
 
:AC_CONFIG_FILES(src/plugins/Makefile src/plugins/TEST1/Makefile src/plugins/TEST1/ui/Makefile src/plugins/TEST1/glade/Makefile)
 
* execute
 
./autogen.sh
 
./configure
 
make
 
make install
 
  
 +
* Copy the example to a new plugin subdirectory:
 +
  cd src/plugins
 +
  cp -R example your-plugin-name
 +
* edit Makefile.am to add your-plugin-name to the subdirs list
 +
* edit configure.ac, inserting the following line near the end just before AC_OUTPUT:
 +
  AC_CONFIG_FILES(src/plugins/your-plugin-name/Makefile src/plugins/your-plugin-name/ui/Makefile src/plugins/your-plugin-name/glade/Makefile)
 +
* edit the source files in your-plugin-name to actually do what you want, rename them to make sense, and adjust the filenames in the three Makefile.am to match.
 +
* Rebuild GnuCash:
 +
  cd ../..
 +
  ./autogen.sh
 +
  ./configure --whatever options you usually use
 +
  make
 +
  make install
 
* to force GnuCash to load the plugin upon start
 
* to force GnuCash to load the plugin upon start
   echo '(gnc:module-load "gnucash/plugins/TEST1" 0)' >> ~/.gnucash/config.user
+
   echo '(gnc:module-load "gnucash/plugins/your-plugin-name" 0)' >> ~/.gnucash/config.user
  
Now, a new command in menu Tools appears (which does nothing in this template).
+
The result will be your new plugin being available in the Tools menu, or wherever you added it in the UI file.
  
 
==Microsoft Windows==
 
==Microsoft Windows==
  
 
Compiling GnuCash in Windows is possible, but much more difficult than in linux. For details, see [[Windows|GnuCash on Microsoft Windows]].
 
Compiling GnuCash in Windows is possible, but much more difficult than in linux. For details, see [[Windows|GnuCash on Microsoft Windows]].

Revision as of 20:35, 7 January 2016

General Instructions

Disclaimer

This page deals with building the developers version of GnuCash from the Git repository. If you are searching instructions for the stable version, you should read GnuCash#Installation.

This page deals also not with optional modules of third parties like the Perl module Finance::Quote.

Get and Configure the Sources

For the very latest source code, get the sources from Git or use the latest release source file of type gnucash-<version>.tar.gz from Sourceforge. Do not attempt to use tarballs from GitHub. Examine the Dependencies wiki page and the README.dependencies file for the list of build dependencies for your distribution, the README.git file for notes on compiling gnucash, and the HACKING file for notes on hacking the code.

Here are the basic steps one might end up taking:

1. Change to gnucash directory

 cd gnucash

2. If this code was retrieved from Git, generate the configure script (otherwise skip this step)

 ./autogen.sh 

3. Look at available configure options

 ./configure --help
(Note: There are issues with the guile configuration of slib which will cause configure to fail on many distributions. See: #slib Issues)

4. For an "in-tree" build (where the compiled files are located in the same directories as the source code files), run configure with the appropriate options. Alternatively, create a separate build directory as explained below. Some example options for configure might look as follows

 ./configure --prefix=/opt/gnucash-devel \
    --enable-debug --enable-doxygen \
    --enable-error-on-warning --enable-compile-warnings \
    [--enable-ofx [...]]
--prefix
Where should the package be installed? If you install for test purposes, you might consider to install it below your home directory to avoid sudoing. You should never use the same path as you distribution!

5. Compile and install

 make
optional - if you changed something in the sources:
 make check
If your prefix was below $HOME:
 make install
else
 sudo make install
Sudo will ask you for the administrator password.

6. Run

 /opt/gnucash-devel/bin/gnucash [options]
Again use the option --help to see a list.

Using separate build directory

It is possible, and even preferable, to separate the directories containing source code, build files, and installed files.

To build in another directory, cd to it before starting, then call the configure script by the relative path. For example:

cd gnucash
./autogen.sh

These steps were identical to the description above. Now the part which is different:

mkdir build        # Create the separate build directory
cd build

From within the build directory, you now have to call configure by its relative path. In this example, this is

../configure --prefix...    # and all the other options

Then you can run make, and make install as normal.

Reverse commands

In case you dislike your installation, run from your build directory

[sudo] make uninstall

to remove it, before you change relevant options like the prefix.

To clean up your build directory, run

make clean

If you use a separate build directory, you can remove its content instead.

In some cases, that might not be sufficient, then clean your git gnucash directory with

git clean -f

To remove everything not part of the repo, including directories and ignored files, run

git clean -fdx -e /.project  -e /.cproject -e /.autotools -e /.settings/

Note: The exceptions are only necessary for Eclipse users. Else all their project information would be lost.

In this case you will have to start with ./autogen-sh again.

Distro-specific Information

See the README.dependencies file for library dependency notes. Also check out the dependencies page.

Slackware

Slackware installation is covered on this page.

Debian

If you are lucky, running

 aptitude build-dep gnucash

will install everything you need to build gnucash.

On Debian, the packages you'll probably need are (among many others):

guile-1.6-dev
swig
libgnome2-dev
libgnomeui-dev
goffice-0-dev
libgsf-1-dev
libgtkhtml3.2-dev (3.6, 3.8, or 3.14 will also do)
libofx-dev (to enable ofx support)
libaqbanking16-dev (to enable aqbanking support. Don't use the newer libaqbanking20-dev - see AqBanking#Compatibility)
postgresql-dev (to enable sql support)

If you are building from git, you will also need the following installed before running autogen.sh:

automake
intltool
libtool
guile-1.6-dev

For the 2.0-branch of GnuCash you need additionally:

libgwrapguile-dev OR
guile-g-wrap

If you see the error "<unnamed port>: no code for module (g-wrap gw standard)" at runtime, see this particular FAQ.

Ubuntu

Ubuntu releases are supported for various lengths of time; Wikipedia has a handy chart showing which versions are still supported.

Note: Dear Ubunteros, please do not copy and paste whole paragraphs. Instead adjust single sections in the form

Version x and newer:
do this
Version x-1 and before:
do that.
Can someone of you clean up this chapter and later remove this note?

Compiling Newer Ubuntu Packages on an Older Release ("self-backporting")

If you are on an older version of Ubuntu (or Debian for that matter) such as Trusty 14.04 LTS, you may be able to compile a newer Ubuntu or Debian version yourself (essentially backporting it yourself).

If the newer package is available in Utopic 14.10, add a line in your /etc/apt/sources.list (or for newer versions of Ubuntu, include a new file in the /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ directory) with the correct format. For Utopic, the line would be:

deb-src http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu utopic main restricted universe

You want the version (Utopic in above example) to be newer than the system release you have installed. Then you can use the following lines to compile and install whatever software version is in the newer Ubuntu release, "backporting" the newer software to your older release of Ubuntu.

cd ~/src/
sudo aptitude update
sudo apt-get install build-essential fakeroot
sudo apt-get build-dep gnucash
apt-get --compile source gnucash
sudo dpkg -i *.deb

Easy as 1-2-3!*

  • If apt-get build-dep fails on the gnucash packages with a message like "E: Build-Depends dependency for gnucash cannot be satisfied because the package XXXXX cannot be found" then that means you need additional updated libraries on your system in order to backport the software. Unless you know there are only one or two new libraries needed, it's most likely MUCH easier just to build GnuCash from source. (See directions below.)
  • If dpkg -i *.deb fails because it lists a bunch of dependencies (this happens if you've never installed gnucash before) the easiest way to get apt to bring them in is using -f (fix broken) install:
sudo apt-get -f install

Ubuntu 14.04 LTS (Trusty Tahr)

To build from the source tarball download the source code tarball from http://www.gnucash.org/download.phtml and extract to an appropriate directory.

Next install the build dependencies

sudo apt-get build-dep gnucash

(On a fresh install I also needed to purge guile-2.0 and install these packages as well follow the guide below for issues with slib)

sudo apt-get purge guile-2.0
sudo apt-get install slib libgnomeui-common libgnomeui-dev guile-1.8 guile-1.8-dev checkinstall

if want to use the alternative database backends then:

sudo apt-get install libdbd-{sqlite3,pgsql,mysql}

In a terminal cd to the gnucash directory and run

./configure --prefix=/path/to/install/gnucash/to --enable-compile-warnings --with-html-engine=webkit
make
sudo checkinstall

The prefix might be, for example,

--prefix=/usr/bin/gnucash2.4

Running checkinstall will ask you some options on how the package is named, etc. This will produce a .DEB which you can then simply install (adjust the path/filename accordingly)

sudo dpkg -i /path/to/deb/gnucash_2.4.15-1_amd64.deb

Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (Precise Pangolin)

To build using the git repository first install git

sudo apt-get install git

then in an appropriate directory run

git clone  git://github.com/Gnucash/gnucash.git gnucash

which will make a git repository in a directory gnucash.

Next install the build dependencies

sudo apt-get build-dep gnucash

and a few required or useful tools

sudo apt-get install libtool swig git libgnomeui-dev xsltproc libxslt-dev doxygen

if want to use the alternative database backends then:

sudo apt-get install libdbd-{sqlite3,pgsql,mysql}

In a terminal cd to the gnucash directory and checkout the version that you want, so to get the latest 2.4 branch version:

git checkout 2.4

or to build a released version, for example:

git checkout 2.4.9

Then to build it

./autogen.sh
./configure --prefix=/path/to/install/to/gnucash --enable-compile-warnings --with-html-engine=webkit --disable-error-on-warning
make
sudo make install

The prefix might be, for example,

--prefix=/usr/bin/gnucash2.4

Then to run it, assuming there were no errors

/usr/bin/gnucash2.4/bin/gnucash

Ubuntu 11.10 (Oneiric Ocelot)

To build using the git repository first install git-core

sudo apt-get install git-core

then in an appropriate directory run

git clone  git://github.com/Gnucash/gnucash.git gnucash

which will make a git repository in a directory gnucash.

The main branch in git is conventionally named master, whereas in this repository it is named trunk (due to the fact that it is derived from a subversion repository I believe). This is not a problem but if you would rather have it named master then cd into the gnucash directory and

git branch -t master refs/remotes/origin/trunk
git checkout master 

Next install the build dependencies

sudo apt-get build-dep gnucash

and a few required or useful tools

sudo apt-get install libtool swig git

if want to use the alternative database backends then:

sudo apt-get install libdbd-{sqlite3,pgsql,mysql}

In a terminal cd to the gnucash directory and checkout the version that you want, so to get the latest 2.4 branch version:

git checkout 2.4

or to build a released version, for example:

git checkout 2.4.7

Then to build it

./autogen.sh
./configure --prefix=/path/to/install/to/gnucash --enable-compile-warnings --with-html-engine=webkit
make
sudo make install

The prefix might be, for example,

--prefix=/usr/bin/gnucash2.4

Then to run it, assuming there were no errors

/usr/bin/gnucash2.4/bin/gnucash

Ubuntu 10.10 (Maverick Meerkat)

Follow the steps described for #Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (Lucid Lynx).

Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (Lucid Lynx)

First, we need install all dependencies of building GnuCash.

sudo aptitude build-dep gnucash
sudo aptitude install texinfo git intltool libdbi0-dev libdbd-{sqlite3,pgsql,mysql} guile-1.8 guile-1.8-dev doxygen libwebkit-dev

Since Ubuntu/Debian doesn't have guile-1.8-slib, which is actually just a softlink to slib, we create the softlink and generate the catalog manually.

cd /usr/share/guile/1.8
sudo ln -s ../../slib slib
sudo guile -c "(use-modules (ice-9 slib)) (require 'new-catalog)"

And then we create the directories for source code and installation, and check out source code from git master

mkdir -p ~/unstable ~/development
rm -rf ~/unstable/gnucash ~/development/gnucash
cd ~/development
git clone https://github.com/Gnucash/gnucash/ gnucash
cd gnucash

Then, we build it by following commands:

./autogen.sh
./configure --prefix=$HOME/unstable/gnucash --enable-debug --enable-doxygen --enable-error-on-warning --enable-compile-warnings
make all install

If there are no errors, we can run it:

~/unstable/gnucash/bin/gnucash

Gentoo

Gentoo instructions can be found on Gnucash-svn installation on Gentoo.

Mac OS X

Mac OS X instructions can be found on MacOSX/Quartz (This is the procedure used for building the binary packages) or gnucash installation from source on Mac OS X.

Fedora

Fedora Core 5

At least the following packages are required to build GnuCash from source on FC5:

libtool-ltdl-devel
guile-devel
g-wrap-devel
libgnomeprint22-devel
libgnomeprintui22-devel
gtkhtml3-devel

Suggested way to satify all requirements:

# yum install libtool-ltdl-devel guile-devel g-wrap-devel libgnomeprint22-devel \
  libgnomeprintui22-devel gtkhtml3-devel

Please note that while the configure script only checks for GtkHTML up to 3.8, recent versions of GtkHTML ship with "libgtkhtml-3.8.pc" so yes, you CAN use gtkhtml3-3.10 on FC5.

Fedora 13

On Fedora 13, the build instructions are very similar to the ones for Ubuntu 10.04 (above). First, we need install all dependencies of building GnuCash.

sudo yum-builddep gnucash -y
sudo yum install texinfo git intltool libdbi-devel libdbi guile guile-devel doxygen gtkhtml3-devel -y

And then we create the directories for source code, and check out source code from git master

mkdir -p ~/development
cd ~/development
git clone https://github.com/Gnucash/gnucash/ gnucash
cd gnucash

Then, we build it by following commands:

./autogen.sh
./configure --prefix=$HOME/unstable/gnucash --enable-debug --enable-doxygen --enable-error-on-warning --enable-compile-warnings
make all install

If there are no errors, we can run it:

~/unstable/gnucash/bin/gnucash

slib Issues

Ubuntu Hardy and Intrepid, and if the mailing lists are to be believed, many other distributions as well, produce the following error when running the configure script:

configure:27495: checking for SLIB support
configure:27509: error:
Cannot find SLIB. Are you sure you have it installed?
See http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=347922
...

This is not a problem with gnucash! The issue seems to be that the slib installation does not properly configure guile. Two items need to be fixed: a guile initialization file has an incorrect path, and the initialization of the slib catalog is not done. On Ubuntu, the initialization file is /usr/share/guile/1.8/ice-9/slib.scm. There is no guarantee that this will be the same on another distribution. This file references the guile.init file supplied by slib to hook slib into guile. Look in the file to find:

(load-from-path "slib/guile.init")

This line must be changed to reflect the correct location of the guile.init file:

(load-from-path "/usr/share/slib/init/guile.init")

This path is correct for Ubuntu. It will probably not be the same on other distributions. Once this is fixed, slib must be invoked from guile to initialize the catalog:

sudo guile -c "(use-modules (ice-9 slib)) (require 'printf)"

Then, if there were no errors, the returned status will be "0". We can check this by echoing the status variable from the environment:

echo $?

Which should return 0. If it does, then the configure script should now get past the section which checks for slib. Note that since standard users probably do not have write permissions to the slib and guile directories, the catalog initialization will fail unless you sudo! I recently discovered (7/1/09) that upgrading Ubuntu from Hardy to Intrepid silently breaks slib by undoing this change, forcing you to repeat the fix.

Finally, there are several additional suggestions that can be gleaned from others who have had this problem. I've listed these below in case they are needed on some distributions. As far as I can tell, on Ubuntu at least, all of these additional actions are superfluous.

Environment Strings:
export SCM_INIT_PATH=/usr/share/slib/init/guile.init
export SCHEME_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/share/slib
export GUILE_LOAD_PATH=/usr/share/guile/site /usr/share/guile/1.8 /usr/share/guile
Symbolic Links:
ln -s /usr/share/guile/1.8/ /usr/share/guile/site
ln -s /usr/share/slib/ /usr/share/guile/1.8/slib

Obviously, the paths here refer to the Ubuntu install. Yours may differ.

Tutorial on Plugins

This section describes how to build a plugin from scratch.

A plugin is a runtime loadable module which provides optional functions for GnuCash. There are a couple of plugins plus a skeleton example in src/plugins. To add your own plugin:

  • Copy the example to a new plugin subdirectory:
 cd src/plugins
 cp -R example your-plugin-name
  • edit Makefile.am to add your-plugin-name to the subdirs list
  • edit configure.ac, inserting the following line near the end just before AC_OUTPUT:
 AC_CONFIG_FILES(src/plugins/your-plugin-name/Makefile src/plugins/your-plugin-name/ui/Makefile src/plugins/your-plugin-name/glade/Makefile)
  • edit the source files in your-plugin-name to actually do what you want, rename them to make sense, and adjust the filenames in the three Makefile.am to match.
  • Rebuild GnuCash:
 cd ../..
 ./autogen.sh
 ./configure --whatever options you usually use
 make
 make install
  • to force GnuCash to load the plugin upon start
 echo '(gnc:module-load "gnucash/plugins/your-plugin-name" 0)' >> ~/.gnucash/config.user

The result will be your new plugin being available in the Tools menu, or wherever you added it in the UI file.

Microsoft Windows

Compiling GnuCash in Windows is possible, but much more difficult than in linux. For details, see GnuCash on Microsoft Windows.