[wiki:libcaca << back to libcaca]

= libcaca development notes =

This page explains how to build and hack on libcaca.

== Getting the source code ==

The source code is managed in a Subversion repository. You can [/browser/libcaca/trunk browse it online] for a quick overview of what is happening.

Use the following command to retrieve the source code:

{{{
#!sh
svn co svn://svn.zoy.org/caca/libcaca/trunk libcaca
}}}

== Building using the autotools ==

Using the autotools solution is the preferred way to build libcaca. It is complicated but you can trust us to maintain it properly. Building libcaca is then a 3-step operation: bootstrapping, configuring and building.

{{{
#!sh
./bootstrap
./configure
make
}}}

This will build [wiki:libcaca] and a few example programs.

== Developing using Visual Studio ==

A `libcaca.sln` Visual Studio solution is also provided, but not actively maintained. Its primary purpose is to debug libcaca on the Windows platform.

== Developing on Mac OS X ==

By default libcaca is built only for the CPU architecture specified by `--host` (which defaults to `--build`, which defaults to the CPU architecture on which you ran configure, i.e. `i386-apple-darwin`''version'' or `powerpc-apple-darwin`''version''). You can override this in order to build a "Universal" i386 + ppc libcaca like this:

{{{
#!sh
./bootstrap
export MACOSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET MACOSX_SDK PKG_CONFIG ARCH CFLAGS
MACOSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET=10.4
MACOSX_SDK=/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.4u.sdk
PKG_CONFIG=false
ARCH='-arch ppc -arch i386'
CFLAGS='-L/usr/lib -I/usr/include -arch ppc -arch i386'
./configure --disable-dependency-tracking  --disable-slang
make
}}}

The resulting binary should run on Intel or PowerPC CPUs on Mac OS X 10.4 and up.

Also by default libcaca is built against the following Mac OS X SDK versions, provided the Cocoa driver is not disabled by ./configure --disable-cocoa:

 * '''ppc''' host: `MACOSX_SDK=/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.3.9.sdk` ''(the oldest SDK with X11 support on ppc)''
 * '''i386''' host: `MACOSX_SDK=/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.4u.sdk` ''(the oldest SDK with i386 support)''
 * '''x86_64''' host: `MACOSX_SDK=/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.5.sdk` ''(the oldest SDK with Cocoa support on x86_64)''
 * '''ppc64''' host: no idea. Does Cocoa even work there?