The Meson Build System
http://mesonbuild.com/
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103 lines
3.4 KiB
103 lines
3.4 KiB
--- |
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title: Quick guide |
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short-description: Guide to get started using meson |
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... |
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# Using Meson |
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Meson has been designed to be as easy to use as possible. This page |
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outlines the basic use cases. For more advanced cases refer to Meson's |
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command line help which is accessible with the command `meson --help`. |
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Requirements |
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-- |
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Meson has two main dependencies. |
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* [Python 3](https://python.org) |
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* [Ninja](https://github.com/ninja-build/ninja/) |
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Ninja is only needed if you use the Ninja backend. Meson can also |
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generate native VS and XCode project files. |
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On Ubuntu these can be easily installed with the following command: |
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```console |
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$ sudo apt-get install python3 ninja-build |
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``` |
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The best way to get Meson is to `pip install` it for your user |
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```console |
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$ pip3 install --user meson |
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``` |
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You can also use Meson as packaged by your distro, but beware that due |
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to our frequent release cycle and development speed this version might |
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be out of date. |
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Another option is to clone the git repository and run it directly from |
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there. |
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Compiling a Meson project |
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-- |
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The most common use case of Meson is compiling code on a code base you |
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are working on. The steps to take are very simple. |
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```console |
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$ cd /path/to/source/root |
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$ meson builddir && cd builddir |
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$ ninja |
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$ ninja test |
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``` |
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The only thing to note is that you need to create a separate build |
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directory. Meson will not allow you to build source code inside your |
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source tree. All build artifacts are stored in the build |
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directory. This allows you to have multiple build trees with different |
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configurations at the same time. This way generated files are not |
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added into revision control by accident. |
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To recompile after code changes, just type `ninja`. The build command |
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is always the same. You can do arbitrary changes to source code and |
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build system files and Meson will detect those and will do the right |
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thing. If you want to build optimized binaries, just use the argument |
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`--buildtype=debugoptimized` when running Meson. It is recommended |
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that you keep one build directory for unoptimized builds and one for |
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optimized ones. To compile any given configuration, just go into the |
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corresponding build directory and run `ninja`. |
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Meson will automatically add compiler flags to enable debug |
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information and compiler warnings (i.e. `-g` and `-Wall`). This means |
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the user does not have to deal with them and can instead focus on |
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coding. |
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Using Meson as a distro packager |
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-- |
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Distro packagers usually want total control on the build flags |
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used. Meson supports this use case natively. The commands needed to |
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build and install Meson projects are the following. |
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```console |
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$ cd /path/to/source/root |
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$ CFLAGS=... CXXFLAGS=... LDFLAGS=.. meson --prefix /usr --buildtype=plain builddir |
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$ ninja -v -C builddir |
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$ ninja -C builddir test |
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$ DESTDIR=/path/to/staging/root ninja -C builddir install |
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``` |
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The command line switch `--buildtype=plain` tells Meson not to add its |
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own flags to the command line. This gives the packager total control |
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on used flags. |
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This is very similar to other build systems. The only difference is |
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that the `DESTDIR` variable is passed as an environment variable |
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rather than as an argument to `ninja install`. |
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As distro builds happen always from scratch, you might consider |
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enabling [unity builds](Unity-builds.md) on your packages because they |
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are faster and produce better code. However there are many projects |
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that do not build with unity builds enabled so the decision to use |
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unity builds must be done by the packager on a case by case basis.
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