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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="http://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>The Meson build of Mesa is tested on Linux, macOS, Cygwin and Haiku, FreeBSD,
  35 DragonflyBSD, NetBSD, and should work on OpenBSD.</p>
  36
  37 <p>If Meson is not already installed on your system, you can typically
  38 install it with your package installer.  For example:</p>
  39 <pre>
  40 sudo apt-get install meson   # Ubuntu
  41 </pre>
  42 or
  43 <pre>
  44 sudo dnf install meson   # Fedora
  45 </pre>
  46
  47 <p><strong>Mesa requires Meson &gt;= 0.45.0 to build.</strong>
  48
  49 Some older versions of meson do not check that they are too old and will error
  50 out in odd ways.
  51 </p>
  52
  53 <p>You'll also need <a href="https://ninja-build.org/">Ninja</a>.
  54 If it's not already installed, use apt-get or dnf to install
  55 the <em>ninja-build</em> package.
  56 </p>
  57
  58 <h2 id="basic">2. Basic Usage</h2>
  59
  60 <p>
  61 The meson program is used to configure the source directory and generates
  62 either a ninja build file or Visual Studio® build files. The latter must
  63 be enabled via the <code>--backend</code> switch, as ninja is the default
  64 backend on all
  65 operating systems.
  66 </p>
  67
  68 <p>
  69 Meson only supports out-of-tree builds, and must be passed a
  70 directory to put built and generated sources into. We'll call that directory
  71 "build" here.
  72 It's recommended to create a
  73 <a href="http://mesonbuild.com/Using-multiple-build-directories.html">
  74 separate build directory</a> for each configuration you might want to use.
  75 </p>
  76
  77
  78
  79 <p>Basic configuration is done with:</p>
  80
  81 <pre>
  82 meson build/
  83 </pre>
  84
  85 <p>
  86 This will create the build directory.
  87 If any dependencies are missing, you can install them, or try to remove
  88 the dependency with a Meson configuration option (see below).
  89 </p>
  90
  91 <p>
  92 To review the options which Meson chose, run:
  93 </p>
  94 <pre>
  95 meson configure build/
  96 </pre>
  97
  98 <p>
  99 Meson does not currently support listing configuration options before
 100 running "meson build/" but this feature is being discussed upstream.
 101 For now, we have a <code>bin/meson-options.py</code> script that prints
 102 the options for you.
 103 If that script doesn't work for some reason, you can always look in the
 104 <a href="https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/mesa/mesa/blob/master/meson_options.txt">
 105 meson_options.txt</a> file at the root of the project.
 106 </p>
 107
 108 <p>
 109 With additional arguments <code>meson configure</code> can be used to change
 110 options for a previously configured build directory.
 111 All options passed to this command are in the form
 112 <code>-D "option"="value"</code>.
 113 For example:
 114 </p>
 115
 116 <pre>
 117 meson configure build/ -Dprefix=/tmp/install -Dglx=true
 118 </pre>
 119
 120 <p>
 121 Note that options taking lists (such as <code>platforms</code>) are
 122 <a href="http://mesonbuild.com/Build-options.html#using-build-options">a bit
 123 more complicated</a>, but the simplest form compatible with Mesa options
 124 is to use a comma to separate values (<code>-D platforms=drm,wayland</code>)
 125 and brackets to represent an empty list (<code>-D platforms=[]</code>).
 126 </p>
 127
 128 <p>
 129 Once you've run the initial <code>meson</code> command successfully you can use
 130 your configured backend to build the project in your build directory:
 131 </p>
 132
 133 <pre>
 134 ninja -C build/
 135 </pre>
 136
 137 <p>
 138 The next step is to install the Mesa libraries, drivers, etc.
 139 This also finishes up some final steps of the build process (such as creating
 140 symbolic links for drivers).  To install:
 141 </p>
 142
 143 <pre>
 144 ninja -C build/ install
 145 </pre>
 146
 147 <p>
 148 Note: autotools automatically updated translation files (used by the DRI
 149 configuration tool) as part of the build process,
 150 Meson does not do this.  Instead, you will need do this:
 151 </p>
 152 <pre>
 153 ninja -C build/ xmlpool-pot xmlpool-update-po xmlpool-gmo
 154 </pre>
 155
 156 <h2 id="advanced">3. Advanced Usage</h2>
 157
 158 <dl>
 159
 160 <dt>Installation Location</dt>
 161 <dd>
 162 <p>
 163 Meson default to installing libGL.so in your system's main lib/ directory
 164 and DRI drivers to a dri/ subdirectory.
 165 </p>
 166 <p>
 167 Developers will often want to install Mesa to a testing directory rather
 168 than the system library directory.
 169 This can be done with the --prefix option.  For example:
 170 </p>
 171 <pre>
 172 meson --prefix="${PWD}/build/install" build/
 173 </pre>
 174 <p>
 175 will put the final libraries and drivers into the build/install/
 176 directory.
 177 Then you can set LD_LIBRARY_PATH and LIBGL_DRIVERS_PATH to that location
 178 to run/test the driver.
 179 </p>
 180 <p>
 181 Meson also honors <code>DESTDIR</code> for installs.
 182 </p>
 183 </dd>
 184
 185 <dt>Compiler Options</dt>
 186 <dd>
 187 <p>Meson supports the common CFLAGS, CXXFLAGS, etc. environment
 188 variables but their use is discouraged because of the many caveats
 189 in using them.
 190 </p>
 191 <p>Instead, it is recomended to use <code>-D${lang}_args</code> and
 192 <code>-D${lang}_link_args</code>. Among the benefits of these options
 193 is that they are guaranteed to persist across rebuilds and reconfigurations.
 194 </p>
 195 <p>
 196 This example sets -fmax-errors for compiling C sources and -DMAGIC=123
 197 for C++ sources:
 198 </p>
 199 <pre>
 200 meson builddir/ -Dc_args=-fmax-errors=10 -Dcpp_args=-DMAGIC=123
 201 </pre>
 202 </dd>
 203
 204
 205 <dt>Compiler Specification</dt>
 206 <dd>
 207 <p>
 208 Meson supports the standard CC and CXX environment variables for
 209 changing the default compiler.  Note that Meson does not allow
 210 changing the compilers in a configured builddir so you will need
 211 to create a new build dir for a different compiler.
 212 </p>
 213 <p>
 214 This is an example of specifying the clang compilers and cleaning
 215 the build directory before reconfiguring with an extra C option:
 216 </p>
 217 <pre>
 218 CC=clang CXX=clang++ meson build-clang
 219 ninja -C build-clang
 220 ninja -C build-clang clean
 221 meson configure build -Dc_args="-Wno-typedef-redefinition"
 222 ninja -C build-clang
 223 </pre>
 224 <p>
 225 The default compilers depends on your operating system. Meson supports most of
 226 the popular compilers, a complete list is available
 227 <a href="http://mesonbuild.com/Reference-tables.html#compiler-ids">here</a>.
 228 </p>
 229 </dd>
 230
 231 <dt>LLVM</dt>
 232 <dd><p>Meson includes upstream logic to wrap llvm-config using its standard
 233 dependency interface.
 234 </p></dd>
 235
 236 <dd><p>
 237 As of meson 0.49.0 meson also has the concept of a
 238 <a href="https://mesonbuild.com/Native-environments.html">"native file"</a>,
 239 these files provide information about the native build environment (as opposed
 240 to a cross build environment). They are ini formatted and can override where to
 241 find llvm-config:
 242 </p>
 243
 244 custom-llvm.ini
 245 <pre>
 246     [binaries]
 247     llvm-config = '/usr/local/bin/llvm/llvm-config'
 248 </pre>
 249
 250 Then configure meson:
 251
 252 <pre>
 253     meson builddir/ --native-file custom-llvm.ini
 254 </pre>
 255 </dd>
 256
 257 <dd><p>
 258 For selecting llvm-config for cross compiling a
 259 <a href="https://mesonbuild.com/Cross-compilation.html#defining-the-environment">"cross file"</a>
 260 should be used. It uses the same format as the native file above:
 261 </p>
 262
 263 <p>cross-llvm.ini</p>
 264 <pre>
 265     [binaries]
 266     ...
 267     llvm-config = '/usr/lib/llvm-config-32'
 268 </pre>
 269
 270 <p>Then configure meson:</p>
 271 <pre>
 272     meson builddir/ --cross-file cross-llvm.ini
 273 </pre>
 274
 275 See the <a href="#cross-compilation">Cross Compilation</a> section for more information.
 276 </dd>
 277
 278 <dd><p>
 279 For older versions of meson <code>$PATH</code> (or <code>%PATH%</code> on
 280 windows) will be searched for llvm-config (and llvm-config$version and
 281 llvm-config-$version), you can override this environment variable to control
 282 the search: <code>PATH=/path/with/llvm-config:$PATH meson build</code>.
 283 </p></dd>
 284
 285 <dt><code>PKG_CONFIG_PATH</code></dt>
 286 <dd><p>The
 287 <code>pkg-config</code> utility is a hard requirement for configuring and
 288 building Mesa on Unix-like systems. It is used to search for external libraries
 289 on the system. This environment variable is used to control the search path for
 290 <code>pkg-config</code>. For instance, setting
 291 <code>PKG_CONFIG_PATH=/usr/X11R6/lib/pkgconfig</code> will search for package
 292 metadata in <code>/usr/X11R6</code> before the standard directories.</p>
 293 </dd>
 294 </dl>
 295
 296 <p>
 297 One of the oddities of meson is that some options are different when passed to
 298 the <code>meson</code> than to <code>meson configure</code>. These options are
 299 passed as --option=foo to <code>meson</code>, but -Doption=foo to <code>meson
 300 configure</code>. Mesa defined options are always passed as -Doption=foo.
 301 </p>
 302
 303 <p>For those coming from autotools be aware of the following:</p>
 304
 305 <dl>
 306 <dt><code>--buildtype/-Dbuildtype</code></dt>
 307 <dd><p>This option will set the compiler debug/optimisation levels to aid
 308 debugging the Mesa libraries.</p>
 309
 310 <p>Note that in meson this defaults to <code>debugoptimized</code>, and
 311 not setting it to <code>release</code> will yield non-optimal
 312 performance and binary size. Not using <code>debug</code> may interfere
 313 with debugging as some code and validation will be optimized away.
 314 </p>
 315
 316 <p> For those wishing to pass their own optimization flags, use the <code>plain</code>
 317 buildtype, which causes meson to inject no additional compiler arguments, only
 318 those in the C/CXXFLAGS and those that mesa itself defines.</p>
 319 </dd>
 320
 321 <dt><code>-Db_ndebug</code></dt>
 322 <dd><p>This option controls assertions in meson projects. When set to <code>false</code>
 323 (the default) assertions are enabled, when set to true they are disabled. This
 324 is unrelated to the <code>buildtype</code>; setting the latter to
 325 <code>release</code> will not turn off assertions.
 326 </p>
 327 </dd>
 328 </dl>
 329
 330 <h2 id="cross-compilation">4. Cross-compilation and 32-bit builds</h2>
 331
 332 <p><a href="https://mesonbuild.com/Cross-compilation.html">Meson supports
 333 cross-compilation</a> by specifying a number of binary paths and
 334 settings in a file and passing this file to <code>meson</code> or
 335 <code>meson configure</code> with the <code>--cross-file</code>
 336 parameter.</p>
 337
 338 <p>This file can live at any location, but you can use the bare filename
 339 (without the folder path) if you put it in $XDG_DATA_HOME/meson/cross or
 340 ~/.local/share/meson/cross</p>
 341
 342 <p>Below are a few example of cross files, but keep in mind that you
 343 will likely have to alter them for your system.</p>
 344
 345 <p>
 346 Those running on ArchLinux can use the AUR-maintained packages for some
 347 of those, as they'll have the right values for your system:
 348 </p>
 349 <ul>
 350   <li><a href="https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/meson-cross-x86-linux-gnu">meson-cross-x86-linux-gnu</a></li>
 351   <li><a href="https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/meson-cross-aarch64-linux-gnu">meson-cross-aarch64-linux-gnu</a></li>
 352 </ul>
 353
 354 <p>
 355 32-bit build on x86 linux:
 356 </p>
 357 <pre>
 358 [binaries]
 359 c = '/usr/bin/gcc'
 360 cpp = '/usr/bin/g++'
 361 ar = '/usr/bin/gcc-ar'
 362 strip = '/usr/bin/strip'
 363 pkgconfig = '/usr/bin/pkg-config-32'
 364 llvm-config = '/usr/bin/llvm-config32'
 365
 366 [properties]
 367 c_args = ['-m32']
 368 c_link_args = ['-m32']
 369 cpp_args = ['-m32']
 370 cpp_link_args = ['-m32']
 371
 372 [host_machine]
 373 system = 'linux'
 374 cpu_family = 'x86'
 375 cpu = 'i686'
 376 endian = 'little'
 377 </pre>
 378
 379 <p>
 380 64-bit build on ARM linux:
 381 </p>
 382 <pre>
 383 [binaries]
 384 c = '/usr/bin/aarch64-linux-gnu-gcc'
 385 cpp = '/usr/bin/aarch64-linux-gnu-g++'
 386 ar = '/usr/bin/aarch64-linux-gnu-gcc-ar'
 387 strip = '/usr/bin/aarch64-linux-gnu-strip'
 388 pkgconfig = '/usr/bin/aarch64-linux-gnu-pkg-config'
 389 exe_wrapper = '/usr/bin/qemu-aarch64-static'
 390
 391 [host_machine]
 392 system = 'linux'
 393 cpu_family = 'aarch64'
 394 cpu = 'aarch64'
 395 endian = 'little'
 396 </pre>
 397
 398 <p>
 399 64-bit build on x86 windows:
 400 </p>
 401 <pre>
 402 [binaries]
 403 c = '/usr/bin/x86_64-w64-mingw32-gcc'
 404 cpp = '/usr/bin/x86_64-w64-mingw32-g++'
 405 ar = '/usr/bin/x86_64-w64-mingw32-ar'
 406 strip = '/usr/bin/x86_64-w64-mingw32-strip'
 407 pkgconfig = '/usr/bin/x86_64-w64-mingw32-pkg-config'
 408 exe_wrapper = 'wine'
 409
 410 [host_machine]
 411 system = 'windows'
 412 cpu_family = 'x86_64'
 413 cpu = 'i686'
 414 endian = 'little'
 415 </pre>
 416
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