How to get the code

DFHack doesn't have any kind of system of code snapshots in place, so you will have to get code from the github repository using git. Having a 'git' package installed is the minimal requirement, but some sort of git gui or git integration for your favorite text editor/IDE will certainly help.

The code resides here: https://github.com/DFHack/dfhack

If you just want to compile DFHack or work on it by contributing patches, it's quite enough to clone from the read-only address:

git clone git://github.com/DFHack/dfhack.git
cd dfhack
git submodule init
git submodule update

If you want to get really involved with the development, create an account on github, make a clone there and then use that as your remote repository instead. Detailed instructions are beyond the scope of this document. If you need help, join us on IRC (#dfhack channel on freenode).

Dependencies

DFHack is meant to be installed into an existing DF folder, so get one ready.

For building, you need a 32-bit version of GCC. For example, to build DFHack on a 64-bit distribution like Arch, you'll need the multilib development tools and libraries.

Before you can build anything, you'll also need cmake. It is advisable to also get ccmake on distributions that split the cmake package into multiple parts.

For the code generation parts, you need perl and the XML::LibXML and XML::LibXSLT perl packages. You should be able to find them in your distro repositories (on Arch linux 'perl-xml-libxml' and 'perl-xml-libxslt').

Build

Building is fairly straightforward. Enter the build folder and start the build like this:

cd build
cmake .. -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE:string=Release -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/home/user/DF
make install

Obviously, replace the install path with path to your DF. This will build the library along with the normal set of plugins and install them into your DF folder.

Alternatively, you can use ccmake instead of cmake:

cd build
ccmake ..
make install

This will show a curses-based interface that lets you set all of the extra options.

You can also use a cmake-friendly IDE like KDevelop 4 or the cmake-gui program.

Fixing the libstdc++ version bug

When compiling dfhack yourself, it builds against your system libc. When Dwarf Fortress runs, it uses a libstdc++ shipped with the binary, which is usually way older, and incompatible with your dfhack. This manifests with the error message:

./libs/Dwarf_Fortress: /pathToDF/libs/libstdc++.so.6: version
    `GLIBCXX_3.4.15' not found (required by ./hack/libdfhack.so)

To fix this, simply remove the libstdc++ shipped with DF, it will fall back to your system lib and everything will work fine:

cd /path/to/DF/
rm libs/libstdc++.so.6

Snow Leopard Changes

1. Add a step 6.2a (before Install XML::LibXSLT)::

   In a separate Terminal window or tab, run: sudo ln -s /usr/include/libxml2/libxml /usr/include/libxml

2. Add a step 7a (before building)::

   In <dfhack directory>/library/LuaTypes.cpp, change line 467 to

   int len = strlen((char*)ptr);

How to get the code

DFHack doesn't have any kind of system of code snapshots in place, so you will have to get code from the github repository using git. You will need some sort of Windows port of git, or a GUI. Some examples:

• http://msysgit.github.io/ - this is a command line version of git for windows. Most tutorials on git usage will apply.
• http://code.google.com/p/tortoisegit/ - this puts a pretty, graphical face on top of msysgit :)

The code resides here: https://github.com/DFHack/dfhack

If you just want to compile DFHack or work on it by contributing patches, it's quite enough to clone from the read-only address:

git clone git://github.com/DFHack/dfhack.git
cd dfhack
git submodule init
git submodule update

The tortoisegit GUI should have the equivalent options included.

If you want to get really involved with the development, create an account on github, make a clone there and then use that as your remote repository instead. Detailed instructions are beyond the scope of this document. If you need help, join us on IRC (#dfhack channel on freenode).

Dependencies

First, 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. Make sure you let it add its binary folder to your binary search PATH so the tool can be later run from anywhere.

You'll need a copy of Microsoft Visual C++ 2010. The Express version is sufficient. Grab it from Microsoft's site.

You'll also need the Visual Studio 2010 SP1 update.

For the code generation parts, you'll need perl with XML::LibXML and XML::LibXSLT. Strawberry Perl works nicely for this: http://strawberryperl.com/

If you already have a different version of perl (for example the one from cygwin), you can run into some trouble. Either remove the other perl install from PATH, or install libxml and libxslt for it instead. Strawberry perl works though and has all the required packages.

Build

There are several different batch files in the build folder along with a script that's used for picking the DF path.

First, run set_df_path.vbs and point the dialog that pops up at your DF folder that you want to use for development. Next, run one of the scripts with generate prefix. These create the MSVC solution file(s):

• all will create a solution with everything enabled (and the kitchen sink).
• gui will pop up the cmake gui and let you pick and choose what to build. This is probably what you want most of the time. Set the options you are interested in, then hit configure, then generate. More options can appear after the configure step.
• minimal will create a minimal solution with just the bare necessities - the main library and standard plugins.

Then you can either open the solution with MSVC or use one of the msbuild scripts:

• Scripts with build prefix will only build.
• Scripts with install prefix will build DFHack and install it to the previously selected DF path.
• Scripts with package prefix will build and create a .zip package of DFHack.

When you open the solution in MSVC, make sure you never use the Debug builds. Those aren't binary-compatible with DF. If you try to use a debug build with DF, you'll only get crashes. So pick either Release or RelWithDebInfo build and build the INSTALL target.

The debug scripts actually do RelWithDebInfo builds.

DF data structure definitions

DFHack uses information about the game data structures, represented via xml files in the library/xml/ submodule.

Data structure layouts are described in files following the df.*.xml name pattern. This information is transformed by a perl script into C++ headers describing the structures, and associated metadata for the Lua wrapper. These headers and data are then compiled into the DFHack libraries, thus necessitating a compatibility break every time layouts change; in return it significantly boosts the efficiency and capabilities of DFHack code.

Global object addresses are stored in symbols.xml, which is copied to the dfhack release package and loaded as data at runtime.

Remote access interface

DFHack supports remote access by exchanging Google protobuf messages via a TCP socket. Both the core and plugins can define remotely accessible methods. The dfhack-run command uses this interface to invoke ordinary console commands.

Currently the supported set of requests is limited, because the developers don't know what exactly is most useful.

Protocol client implementations exist for Java and C#.

Contributing to DFHack

Several things should be kept in mind when contributing to DFHack.