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  11   The Mesa 3D Graphics Library
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  16
  17 <h1>Compilation and Installation Using Meson</h1>
  18
  19 <ul>
  20   <li><a href="#intro">Introduction</a></li>
  21   <li><a href="#basic">Basic Usage</a></li>
  22   <li><a href="#advanced">Advanced Usage</a></li>
  23   <li><a href="#cross-compilation">Cross-compilation and 32-bit builds</a></li>
  24 </ul>
  25
  26 <h2 id="intro">1. Introduction</h2>
  27
  28 <p>For general information about Meson see the
  29 <a href="https://mesonbuild.com/">Meson website</a>.</p>
  30
  31 <p><strong>Mesa's Meson build system is generally considered stable and ready
  32 for production.</strong></p>
  33
  34 <p><strong>Mesa requires Meson &gt;= 0.46.0 to build.</strong>
  35
  36 <p>The Meson build of Mesa is tested on Linux, macOS, Windows, Cygwin, Haiku, FreeBSD,
  37 DragonflyBSD, NetBSD, and should work on OpenBSD.</p>
  38
  39 <h4>Unix-like OSes</h4>
  40
  41 <p>If Meson is not already installed on your system, you can typically
  42 install it with your package installer.  For example:</p>
  43 <pre>
  44 sudo apt-get install meson   # Ubuntu
  45 </pre>
  46 or
  47 <pre>
  48 sudo dnf install meson   # Fedora
  49 </pre>
  50
  51 Some older versions of meson do not check that they are too old and will error
  52 out in odd ways.
  53 </p>
  54
  55 <p>You'll also need <a href="https://ninja-build.org/">Ninja</a>.
  56 If it's not already installed, use apt-get or dnf to install
  57 the <em>ninja-build</em> package.
  58 </p>
  59
  60 <h4>Windows</h4>
  61
  62 <p>
  63 You will need to install python3 and meson as a module using pip. This is
  64 because we use python for generating code, and rely on external modules
  65 (mako). You also need pkg-config (a hard dependency of meson), flex, and bison.
  66
  67 The easiest way to install everything you need is with <a
  68 href="https://chocolatey.org/">chocolatey</a>.
  69 </p>
  70 <pre>
  71   choco install python3 winflexbison pkgconfiglite
  72 </pre>
  73 <p>You can even use chocolatey to install mingw and ninja (ninja can be used with MSVC as well)</p>
  74 <pre>
  75   choco install ninja mingw
  76 </pre>
  77 <p>Then install meson using pip</p>
  78 <pre>
  79   py -3 -m pip install meson mako
  80 </pre>
  81
  82 You may need to add the python3 scripts directory to your path for meson.
  83
  84 <h2 id="basic">2. Basic Usage</h2>
  85
  86 <p>
  87 The meson program is used to configure the source directory and generates
  88 either a ninja build file or Visual Studio® build files. The latter must
  89 be enabled via the <code>--backend</code> switch, as ninja is the default
  90 backend on all operating systems.
  91 </p>
  92
  93 <p>
  94 Meson only supports out-of-tree builds, and must be passed a
  95 directory to put built and generated sources into. We'll call that directory
  96 "build" here.
  97 It's recommended to create a
  98 <a href="https://mesonbuild.com/Using-multiple-build-directories.html">
  99 separate build directory</a> for each configuration you might want to use.
 100 </p>
 101
 102
 103
 104 <p>Basic configuration is done with:</p>
 105
 106 <pre>
 107 meson build/
 108 </pre>
 109
 110 <p>
 111 This will create the build directory.
 112 If any dependencies are missing, you can install them, or try to remove
 113 the dependency with a Meson configuration option (see below).
 114 </p>
 115
 116 <p>
 117 To review the options which Meson chose, run:
 118 </p>
 119 <pre>
 120 meson configure build/
 121 </pre>
 122
 123 <p>
 124 Meson does not currently support listing configuration options before
 125 running "meson build/" but this feature is being discussed upstream.
 126 For now, we have a <code>bin/meson-options.py</code> script that prints
 127 the options for you.
 128 If that script doesn't work for some reason, you can always look in the
 129 <a href="https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/mesa/mesa/blob/master/meson_options.txt">
 130 meson_options.txt</a> file at the root of the project.
 131 </p>
 132
 133 <p>
 134 With additional arguments <code>meson configure</code> can be used to change
 135 options for a previously configured build directory.
 136 All options passed to this command are in the form
 137 <code>-D "option"="value"</code>.
 138 For example:
 139 </p>
 140
 141 <pre>
 142 meson configure build/ -Dprefix=/tmp/install -Dglx=true
 143 </pre>
 144
 145 <p>
 146 Note that options taking lists (such as <code>platforms</code>) are
 147 <a href="https://mesonbuild.com/Build-options.html#using-build-options">a bit
 148 more complicated</a>, but the simplest form compatible with Mesa options
 149 is to use a comma to separate values (<code>-D platforms=drm,wayland</code>)
 150 and brackets to represent an empty list (<code>-D platforms=[]</code>).
 151 </p>
 152
 153 <p>
 154 Once you've run the initial <code>meson</code> command successfully you can use
 155 your configured backend to build the project in your build directory:
 156 </p>
 157
 158 <pre>
 159 ninja -C build/
 160 </pre>
 161
 162 <p>
 163 The next step is to install the Mesa libraries, drivers, etc.
 164 This also finishes up some final steps of the build process (such as creating
 165 symbolic links for drivers).  To install:
 166 </p>
 167
 168 <pre>
 169 ninja -C build/ install
 170 </pre>
 171
 172 <p>
 173 Note: autotools automatically updated translation files (used by the DRI
 174 configuration tool) as part of the build process,
 175 Meson does not do this.  Instead, you will need do this:
 176 </p>
 177 <pre>
 178 ninja -C build/ xmlpool-pot xmlpool-update-po xmlpool-gmo
 179 </pre>
 180
 181 <h4>Windows specific instructions</h4>
 182
 183 <p>
 184 On windows you have a couple of choices for compilers. If you installed mingw
 185 with chocolatey and want to use ninja you should be able to open any shell
 186 and follow the instructions above. If you want to you MSVC, clang-cl, or ICL
 187 (the Intel Compiler), read on.
 188 </p>
 189 <p>
 190 Both ICL and MSVC come with shell environments, the easiest way to use meson
 191 with these it to open a shell. For clang-cl you will need to open an MSVC
 192 shell, and then override the compilers, either using a <a
 193 href="https://mesonbuild.com/Native-environments.html">native file</a>, or
 194 with the CC and CXX environment variables.
 195 </p>
 196 <p>
 197 All of these compilers are tested and work with ninja, but if you want visual
 198 studio integration or you just like msbuild, passing
 199 <code>--backend=vs</code> to meson will generate a visual studio solution. If
 200 you want to use ICL or clang-cl with the vsbackend you will need meson 0.52.0
 201 or greater. Older versions always use the microsoft compiler.
 202 </p>
 203
 204 <h2 id="advanced">3. Advanced Usage</h2>
 205
 206 <dl>
 207
 208 <dt>Installation Location</dt>
 209 <dd>
 210 <p>
 211 Meson default to installing libGL.so in your system's main lib/ directory
 212 and DRI drivers to a dri/ subdirectory.
 213 </p>
 214 <p>
 215 Developers will often want to install Mesa to a testing directory rather
 216 than the system library directory.
 217 This can be done with the --prefix option.  For example:
 218 </p>
 219 <pre>
 220 meson --prefix="${PWD}/build/install" build/
 221 </pre>
 222 <p>
 223 will put the final libraries and drivers into the build/install/
 224 directory.
 225 Then you can set LD_LIBRARY_PATH and LIBGL_DRIVERS_PATH to that location
 226 to run/test the driver.
 227 </p>
 228 <p>
 229 Meson also honors <code>DESTDIR</code> for installs.
 230 </p>
 231 </dd>
 232
 233 <dt>Compiler Options</dt>
 234 <dd>
 235 <p>Meson supports the common CFLAGS, CXXFLAGS, etc. environment
 236 variables but their use is discouraged because of the many caveats
 237 in using them.
 238 </p>
 239 <p>Instead, it is recomended to use <code>-D${lang}_args</code> and
 240 <code>-D${lang}_link_args</code>. Among the benefits of these options
 241 is that they are guaranteed to persist across rebuilds and reconfigurations.
 242 </p>
 243 <p>
 244 This example sets -fmax-errors for compiling C sources and -DMAGIC=123
 245 for C++ sources:
 246 </p>
 247 <pre>
 248 meson builddir/ -Dc_args=-fmax-errors=10 -Dcpp_args=-DMAGIC=123
 249 </pre>
 250 </dd>
 251
 252
 253 <dt>Compiler Specification</dt>
 254 <dd>
 255 <p>
 256 Meson supports the standard CC and CXX environment variables for
 257 changing the default compiler.  Note that Meson does not allow
 258 changing the compilers in a configured builddir so you will need
 259 to create a new build dir for a different compiler.
 260 </p>
 261 <p>
 262 This is an example of specifying the clang compilers and cleaning
 263 the build directory before reconfiguring with an extra C option:
 264 </p>
 265 <pre>
 266 CC=clang CXX=clang++ meson build-clang
 267 ninja -C build-clang
 268 ninja -C build-clang clean
 269 meson configure build -Dc_args="-Wno-typedef-redefinition"
 270 ninja -C build-clang
 271 </pre>
 272 <p>
 273 The default compilers depends on your operating system. Meson supports most of
 274 the popular compilers, a complete list is available
 275 <a href="https://mesonbuild.com/Reference-tables.html#compiler-ids">here</a>.
 276 </p>
 277 </dd>
 278
 279 <dt>LLVM</dt>
 280 <dd><p>Meson includes upstream logic to wrap llvm-config using its standard
 281 dependency interface.
 282 </p></dd>
 283
 284 <dd><p>
 285 As of meson 0.49.0 meson also has the concept of a
 286 <a href="https://mesonbuild.com/Native-environments.html">"native file"</a>,
 287 these files provide information about the native build environment (as opposed
 288 to a cross build environment). They are ini formatted and can override where to
 289 find llvm-config:
 290 </p>
 291
 292 custom-llvm.ini
 293 <pre>
 294     [binaries]
 295     llvm-config = '/usr/local/bin/llvm/llvm-config'
 296 </pre>
 297
 298 Then configure meson:
 299
 300 <pre>
 301     meson builddir/ --native-file custom-llvm.ini
 302 </pre>
 303 </dd>
 304
 305 <dd><p>
 306 Meson &lt; 0.49 doesn't support native files, so to specify a custom
 307 <code>llvm-config</code> you need to modify your <code>$PATH</code> (or
 308 <code>%PATH%</code> on windows), which will be searched for
 309 <code>llvm-config</code>, <code>llvm-config<i>$version</i></code>,
 310 and <code>llvm-config-<i>$version</i></code>:
 311 </p>
 312 <pre>
 313 PATH=/path/to/folder/with/llvm-config:$PATH meson build
 314 </pre>
 315 </dd>
 316
 317 <dd><p>
 318 For selecting llvm-config for cross compiling a
 319 <a href="https://mesonbuild.com/Cross-compilation.html#defining-the-environment">"cross file"</a>
 320 should be used. It uses the same format as the native file above:
 321 </p>
 322
 323 <p>cross-llvm.ini</p>
 324 <pre>
 325     [binaries]
 326     ...
 327     llvm-config = '/usr/lib/llvm-config-32'
 328 </pre>
 329
 330 <p>Then configure meson:</p>
 331 <pre>
 332     meson builddir/ --cross-file cross-llvm.ini
 333 </pre>
 334
 335 See the <a href="#cross-compilation">Cross Compilation</a> section for more information.
 336 </dd>
 337
 338 <dt><code>PKG_CONFIG_PATH</code></dt>
 339 <dd><p>The
 340 <code>pkg-config</code> utility is a hard requirement for configuring and
 341 building Mesa on Unix-like systems. It is used to search for external libraries
 342 on the system. This environment variable is used to control the search path for
 343 <code>pkg-config</code>. For instance, setting
 344 <code>PKG_CONFIG_PATH=/usr/X11R6/lib/pkgconfig</code> will search for package
 345 metadata in <code>/usr/X11R6</code> before the standard directories.</p>
 346 </dd>
 347 </dl>
 348
 349 <p>
 350 One of the oddities of meson is that some options are different when passed to
 351 the <code>meson</code> than to <code>meson configure</code>. These options are
 352 passed as --option=foo to <code>meson</code>, but -Doption=foo to <code>meson
 353 configure</code>. Mesa defined options are always passed as -Doption=foo.
 354 </p>
 355
 356 <p>For those coming from autotools be aware of the following:</p>
 357
 358 <dl>
 359 <dt><code>--buildtype/-Dbuildtype</code></dt>
 360 <dd><p>This option will set the compiler debug/optimisation levels to aid
 361 debugging the Mesa libraries.</p>
 362
 363 <p>Note that in meson this defaults to <code>debugoptimized</code>, and
 364 not setting it to <code>release</code> will yield non-optimal
 365 performance and binary size. Not using <code>debug</code> may interfere
 366 with debugging as some code and validation will be optimized away.
 367 </p>
 368
 369 <p> For those wishing to pass their own optimization flags, use the <code>plain</code>
 370 buildtype, which causes meson to inject no additional compiler arguments, only
 371 those in the C/CXXFLAGS and those that mesa itself defines.</p>
 372 </dd>
 373
 374 <dt><code>-Db_ndebug</code></dt>
 375 <dd><p>This option controls assertions in meson projects. When set to <code>false</code>
 376 (the default) assertions are enabled, when set to true they are disabled. This
 377 is unrelated to the <code>buildtype</code>; setting the latter to
 378 <code>release</code> will not turn off assertions.
 379 </p>
 380 </dd>
 381 </dl>
 382
 383 <h2 id="cross-compilation">4. Cross-compilation and 32-bit builds</h2>
 384
 385 <p><a href="https://mesonbuild.com/Cross-compilation.html">Meson supports
 386 cross-compilation</a> by specifying a number of binary paths and
 387 settings in a file and passing this file to <code>meson</code> or
 388 <code>meson configure</code> with the <code>--cross-file</code>
 389 parameter.</p>
 390
 391 <p>This file can live at any location, but you can use the bare filename
 392 (without the folder path) if you put it in $XDG_DATA_HOME/meson/cross or
 393 ~/.local/share/meson/cross</p>
 394
 395 <p>Below are a few example of cross files, but keep in mind that you
 396 will likely have to alter them for your system.</p>
 397
 398 <p>
 399 Those running on ArchLinux can use the AUR-maintained packages for some
 400 of those, as they'll have the right values for your system:
 401 </p>
 402 <ul>
 403   <li><a href="https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/meson-cross-x86-linux-gnu">meson-cross-x86-linux-gnu</a></li>
 404   <li><a href="https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/meson-cross-aarch64-linux-gnu">meson-cross-aarch64-linux-gnu</a></li>
 405 </ul>
 406
 407 <p>
 408 32-bit build on x86 linux:
 409 </p>
 410 <pre>
 411 [binaries]
 412 c = '/usr/bin/gcc'
 413 cpp = '/usr/bin/g++'
 414 ar = '/usr/bin/gcc-ar'
 415 strip = '/usr/bin/strip'
 416 pkgconfig = '/usr/bin/pkg-config-32'
 417 llvm-config = '/usr/bin/llvm-config32'
 418
 419 [properties]
 420 c_args = ['-m32']
 421 c_link_args = ['-m32']
 422 cpp_args = ['-m32']
 423 cpp_link_args = ['-m32']
 424
 425 [host_machine]
 426 system = 'linux'
 427 cpu_family = 'x86'
 428 cpu = 'i686'
 429 endian = 'little'
 430 </pre>
 431
 432 <p>
 433 64-bit build on ARM linux:
 434 </p>
 435 <pre>
 436 [binaries]
 437 c = '/usr/bin/aarch64-linux-gnu-gcc'
 438 cpp = '/usr/bin/aarch64-linux-gnu-g++'
 439 ar = '/usr/bin/aarch64-linux-gnu-gcc-ar'
 440 strip = '/usr/bin/aarch64-linux-gnu-strip'
 441 pkgconfig = '/usr/bin/aarch64-linux-gnu-pkg-config'
 442 exe_wrapper = '/usr/bin/qemu-aarch64-static'
 443
 444 [host_machine]
 445 system = 'linux'
 446 cpu_family = 'aarch64'
 447 cpu = 'aarch64'
 448 endian = 'little'
 449 </pre>
 450
 451 <p>
 452 64-bit build on x86 windows:
 453 </p>
 454 <pre>
 455 [binaries]
 456 c = '/usr/bin/x86_64-w64-mingw32-gcc'
 457 cpp = '/usr/bin/x86_64-w64-mingw32-g++'
 458 ar = '/usr/bin/x86_64-w64-mingw32-ar'
 459 strip = '/usr/bin/x86_64-w64-mingw32-strip'
 460 pkgconfig = '/usr/bin/x86_64-w64-mingw32-pkg-config'
 461 exe_wrapper = 'wine'
 462
 463 [host_machine]
 464 system = 'windows'
 465 cpu_family = 'x86_64'
 466 cpu = 'i686'
 467 endian = 'little'
 468 </pre>
 469
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