Compiling DFHACK

Here's how you build dfhack!

Contents

Dependencies
Building on Linux
Building on Windows
Build targets
Build types
Building the shared memory hook library (SHM)

Dependencies

cmake
A compiler for building the main lib and the various tools.
(Linux only) Veinlook requires the wide-character ncurses library (libncursesw)
(Linux only) You'll need X11 dev libraries.

Building on Linux

To run in the output folder (without installing) building the library is simple. Enter the build folder, run the tools. Like this:

cd build
cmake .. -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE:string=Release
make

This will build the library and its tools and place them in /output. You can also use a cmake-friendly IDE like KDevelop 4 or the cmake GUI program.

To be installed into the system or packaged:

cd build
cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE:string=Release \
    -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr \
    -DMEMXML_DATA_PATH:path=/usr/share/dfhack ..
make
make install

With this dfhack installs:

library to $CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX/lib
executables to $CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX/bin
The Memory.xml file to /usr/share/dfhack

See the section on the shared memory hook library (SHM).

Building on Windows

You need cmake. Get the win32 installer version from the official site: http://www.cmake.org/cmake/resources/software.html

It has the usual installer wizard thing.

Using mingw

You also need a compiler. I build dfhack using mingw. You can get it from the mingw site: http://www.mingw.org/

Get the automated installer, it will download newest version of mingw and set things up nicely.

You'll have to add C:\MinGW\ to your PATH variable.

Building

open up cmd and navigate to the dfhack\build folder, run cmake and the mingw version of make:

cd build
cmake .. -G"MinGW Makefiles" -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE:string=Release
mingw32-make

Using MSVC

open up cmd and navigate to the dfhack\build folder, run cmake:

cd build
cmake ..

This will generate MSVC solution and project files.

Note

You are working in the /build folder. Files added to projects from within MSVC will end up there! (and that's wrong). Any changes to the build system should be done by changing cmake configs and running cmake on them!

Using some other compiler

I'm afraid you are on your own. dfhack wasn't tested with any other compiler.

Try using a different cmake generator that's intended for your tools.

Build targets

dfhack has a few build targets:

If you're only after the library run make dfhack.
make will build everything.
make expbench will build the expbench testing program and the library.

Some of the utilities and the doxygen documentation won't be normally built. You can enable them by specifying some extra CMake variables:

BUILD_DFHACK_DOCUMENTATION - generate the documentation (really bad)
BUILD_DFHACK_EXAMPLES      - build tools from tools/examples
BUILD_DFHACK_PLAYGROUND    - build tools from tools/playground

Example:

cmake .. -DBUILD_DFHACK_EXAMPLES=ON

Build types

cmake allows you to pick a build type by changing this variable: CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE

cmake .. -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE:string=BUILD_TYPE

Without specifying a build type or 'None', cmake uses the CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS variable for building.

Valid an useful build types include 'Release', 'Debug' and 'RelWithDebInfo'. There are others, but they aren't really that useful.

Have fun.

Building the shared memory hook library (SHM)

Unlike the rest of DFHack, The SHM needs special treatment when it comes to compilation. Because it shares the memory space with DF itself, it has to be built with the same tools as DF and use the same C and C++/STL libraries.

For DF 31.01 - 31.12 on Windows, use MSVC 2008. You can get the Express edition for free from Microsoft.