aseprite/INSTALL.md

# Table of contents

* [Platforms](#platforms)
* [Get the source code](#get-the-source-code)
* [Dependencies](#dependencies)
  * [Windows dependencies](#windows-dependencies)
  * [macOS dependencies](#macos-dependencies)
  * [Linux dependencies](#linux-dependencies)
* [Compiling](#compiling)
  * [Windows details](#windows-details)
    * [MinGW](#mingw)
  * [macOS details](#macos-details)
    * [Issues with Retina displays](#issues-with-retina-displays)
  * [Linux details](#linux-details)
* [Using shared third party libraries](#using-shared-third-party-libraries)

# Platforms

You should be able to compile Aseprite successfully on the following
platforms:

* Windows 10 + [Visual Studio Community 2019 + Windows 10.0 SDK (the latest version available)](https://imgur.com/a/7zs51IT) (we don't support [MinGW](#mingw))
* macOS 10.15.3 Catalina + Xcode 11.2.1 + macOS 10.15 SDK (older version might work)
* Linux + gcc 9.2 or clang 9.0

# Get the source code

You can get the source code downloading a `Aseprite-v1.x-Source.zip`
file from the latest Aseprite release (*in that case please follow the
compilation instructions inside the `.zip` file*):

https://github.com/aseprite/aseprite/releases

Or you can clone the repository and all its submodules using the
following command:

    git clone --recursive https://github.com/aseprite/aseprite.git

To update an existing clone you can use the following commands:

    cd aseprite
    git pull
    git submodule update --init --recursive

You can use [Git for Windows](https://git-for-windows.github.io/) to
clone the repository on Windows.

# Dependencies

To compile Aseprite you will need:

* The latest version of [CMake](https://cmake.org) (3.14 or greater)
* [Ninja](https://ninja-build.org) build system
* And a compiled version of the `aseprite-m81` branch of
  the [Skia library](https://github.com/aseprite/skia#readme).
  There are [pre-built packages available](https://github.com/aseprite/skia/releases).
  You can get some extra information in
  the [*laf* dependencies](https://github.com/aseprite/laf#dependencies) page.

## Windows dependencies

* Windows 10 (we don't support cross-compiling)
* [Visual Studio Community 2019](https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/downloads/) (we don't support [MinGW](#mingw))
* The [Desktop development with C++ item + Windows 10.0.18362.0 SDK](https://imgur.com/a/7zs51IT)
  from the Visual Studio installer

## macOS dependencies

On macOS you will need macOS 10.15 SDK and Xcode 11.2.1 (older
versions might work).

## Linux dependencies

You will need the following dependencies on Ubuntu/Debian:

    sudo apt-get install -y g++ cmake ninja-build libx11-dev libxcursor-dev libxi-dev libgl1-mesa-dev libfontconfig1-dev

On Fedora:

    sudo dnf install -y gcc-c++ cmake ninja-build libX11-devel libXcursor-devel libXi-devel mesa-libGL-devel fontconfig-devel

On Arch:

    sudo pacman -S gcc cmake ninja libx11 libxcursor mesa-libgl fontconfig

# Compiling

1. [Get Aseprite code](#get-the-source-code), put it in a folder like
   `C:\aseprite`, and create a `build` directory inside to leave all
   the files that are result of the compilation process (`.exe`,
   `.lib`, `.obj`, `.a`, `.o`, etc).

        cd C:\aseprite
        mkdir build

   In this way, if you want to start with a fresh copy of Aseprite
   source code, you can remove the `build` directory and start again.

2. Enter in the new directory and execute `cmake`:

        cd C:\aseprite\build
        cmake -G Ninja -DLAF_BACKEND=skia ..

   Here `cmake` needs different options depending on your
   platform. You must check the details for
   [Windows](#windows-details), [macOS](#macos-details), and
   [Linux](#linux-details). Some `cmake` options can be modified using tools like
   [`ccmake`](https://cmake.org/cmake/help/latest/manual/ccmake.1.html)
   or [`cmake-gui`](https://cmake.org/cmake/help/latest/manual/cmake-gui.1.html).

3. After you have executed and configured `cmake`, you have to compile
   the project:

        cd C:\aseprite\build
        ninja aseprite

4. When `ninja` finishes the compilation, you can find the executable
   inside `C:\aseprite\build\bin\aseprite.exe`.

## Windows details

Open a [developer command prompt](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/framework/tools/developer-command-prompt-for-vs)
or in the command line (`cmd.exe`) call:

    call "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\Community\Common7\Tools\VsDevCmd.bat" -arch=x64

And then

    cd aseprite
    mkdir build
    cd build
    cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=RelWithDebInfo -DLAF_BACKEND=skia -DSKIA_DIR=C:\deps\skia -DSKIA_LIBRARY_DIR=C:\deps\skia\out\Release-x64 -DSKIA_LIBRARY=C:\deps\skia\out\Release-x64\skia.lib -G Ninja ..
    ninja aseprite

In this case, `C:\deps\skia` is the directory where Skia was compiled
or uncompressed.

### MinGW

We don't support MinGW compiler and it might bring some problems into
the compilation process. If you see that the detected C++ compiler by
cmake is `C:\MinGW\bin\c++.exe` or something similar, you have to get
rid of MinGW path (`C:\MinGW\bin`) from the `PATH` environment
variable and run cmake again from scratch, so the Visual Studio C++
compiler (`cl.exe`) is used instead.

You can define the `CMAKE_IGNORE_PATH` variable when running cmake for
the first time in case that you don't know or don't want to modify the
`PATH` variable, e.g.:

    cmake -DCMAKE_IGNORE_PATH=C:\MinGW\bin ...

More information in [issue #2449](https://github.com/aseprite/aseprite/issues/2449)

## macOS details

Run `cmake` with the following parameters and then `ninja`:

    cd aseprite
    mkdir build
    cd build
    cmake \
      -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=RelWithDebInfo \
      -DCMAKE_OSX_ARCHITECTURES=x86_64 \
      -DCMAKE_OSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET=10.9 \
      -DCMAKE_OSX_SYSROOT=/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/MacOSX.platform/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.15.sdk \
      -DLAF_BACKEND=skia \
      -DSKIA_DIR=$HOME/deps/skia \
      -DSKIA_LIBRARY_DIR=$HOME/deps/skia/out/Release-x64 \
      -DSKIA_LIBRARY=$HOME/deps/skia/out/Release-x64/libskia.a \
      -G Ninja \
      ..
    ninja aseprite

In this case, `$HOME/deps/skia` is the directory where Skia was
compiled or downloaded.  Make sure that `CMAKE_OSX_SYSROOT` is
pointing to the correct SDK directory (in this case
`/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/MacOSX.platform/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.15.sdk`),
but it could be different in your Mac.

### Issues with Retina displays

If you have a Retina display, check the following issue:

  https://github.com/aseprite/aseprite/issues/589

## Linux details

Run `cmake` with the following parameters and then `ninja`:

    cd aseprite
    mkdir build
    cd build
    cmake \
      -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=RelWithDebInfo \
      -DLAF_BACKEND=skia \
      -DSKIA_DIR=$HOME/deps/skia \
      -DSKIA_LIBRARY_DIR=$HOME/deps/skia/out/Release-x64 \
      -DSKIA_LIBRARY=$HOME/deps/skia/out/Release-x64/libskia.a \
      -G Ninja \
      ..
    ninja aseprite

In this case, `$HOME/deps/skia` is the directory where Skia was
compiled or uncompressed.

# Using shared third party libraries

If you don't want to use the embedded code of third party libraries
(i.e. to use your installed versions), you can disable static linking
configuring each `USE_SHARED_` option.

After running `cmake -G`, you can edit `build/CMakeCache.txt` file,
and enable the `USE_SHARED_` flag (set its value to `ON`) of the
library that you want to be linked dynamically.