1 Compilation and Installation Using Meson
2 ========================================
7 For general information about Meson see the `Meson
8 website <https://mesonbuild.com/>`__.
10 **Mesa's Meson build system is generally considered stable and ready for
15 Mesa requires Meson >= 0.53.0 to build.
17 If your distribution doesn't have something recent enough in its
18 repositories, you can `try the methods suggested here
19 <https://mesonbuild.com/Getting-meson.html>`__ to install the
20 current version of Meson.
22 The Meson build of Mesa is tested on Linux, macOS, Windows, Cygwin,
23 Haiku, FreeBSD, DragonflyBSD, NetBSD, and should work on OpenBSD.
28 If Meson is not already installed on your system, you can typically
29 install it with your package installer. For example:
31 .. code-block:: console
33 sudo apt-get install meson # Ubuntu
37 .. code-block:: console
39 sudo dnf install meson # Fedora
41 Some older versions of Meson do not check that they are too old and will
42 error out in odd ways.
44 You'll also need `Ninja <https://ninja-build.org/>`__. If it's not
45 already installed, use apt-get or dnf to install the *ninja-build*
51 You will need to install Python 3 and Meson as a module using pip. This
52 is because we use Python for generating code, and rely on external
53 modules (Mako). You also need pkg-config (a hard dependency of Meson),
54 Flex, and Bison. The easiest way to install everything you need is with
55 `Chocolatey <https://chocolatey.org/>`__.
57 .. code-block:: console
59 choco install python3 winflexbison pkgconfiglite
61 You can even use Chocolatey to install MinGW and Ninja (Ninja can be
62 used with MSVC as well)
64 .. code-block:: console
66 choco install ninja mingw
68 Then install Meson using pip
70 .. code-block:: console
72 py -3 -m pip install meson mako
74 You may need to add the Python 3 scripts directory to your path for
80 The Meson program is used to configure the source directory and
81 generates either a Ninja build file or Visual Studio® build files. The
82 latter must be enabled via the ``--backend`` switch, as Ninja is the
83 default backend on all operating systems.
85 Meson only supports out-of-tree builds, and must be passed a directory
86 to put built and generated sources into. We'll call that directory
87 "build" here. It's recommended to create a `separate build
88 directory <https://mesonbuild.com/Using-multiple-build-directories.html>`__
89 for each configuration you might want to use.
91 Basic configuration is done with:
93 .. code-block:: console
97 This will create the build directory. If any dependencies are missing,
98 you can install them, or try to remove the dependency with a Meson
99 configuration option (see below).
101 To review the options which Meson chose, run:
103 .. code-block:: console
105 meson configure build/
107 Meson does not currently support listing configuration options before
108 running "meson build/" but this feature is being discussed upstream. For
109 now, we have a ``bin/meson-options.py`` script that prints the options
110 for you. If that script doesn't work for some reason, you can always
112 `meson_options.txt <https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/mesa/mesa/-/blob/main/meson_options.txt>`__
113 file at the root of the project.
115 With additional arguments ``meson configure`` can be used to change
116 options for a previously configured build directory. All options passed
117 to this command are in the form ``-D "option"="value"``. For example:
119 .. code-block:: console
121 meson configure build/ -Dprefix=/tmp/install -Dglx=true
123 Note that options taking lists (such as ``platforms``) are `a bit more
124 complicated <https://mesonbuild.com/Build-options.html#using-build-options>`__,
125 but the simplest form compatible with Mesa options is to use a comma to
126 separate values (``-D platforms=drm,wayland``) and brackets to represent
127 an empty list (``-D platforms=[]``).
129 Once you've run the initial ``meson`` command successfully you can use
130 your configured backend to build the project in your build directory:
132 .. code-block:: console
136 The next step is to install the Mesa libraries, drivers, etc. This also
137 finishes up some final steps of the build process (such as creating
138 symbolic links for drivers). To install:
140 .. code-block:: console
142 ninja -C build/ install
144 Windows specific instructions
145 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
147 On Windows you have a couple of choices for compilers. If you installed
148 MinGW with Chocolatey and want to use Ninja you should be able to open
149 any shell and follow the instructions above. If you want to you MSVC,
150 clang-cl, or ICL (the Intel Compiler), read on.
152 Both ICL and MSVC come with shell environments, the easiest way to use
153 Meson with these it to open a shell. For clang-cl you will need to open
154 an MSVC shell, and then override the compilers, either using a `native
155 file <https://mesonbuild.com/Native-environments.html>`__, or with the
156 CC and CXX environment variables.
158 All of these compilers are tested and work with Ninja, but if you want
159 Visual Studio integration or you just like msbuild, passing
160 ``--backend=vs`` to Meson will generate a Visual Studio solution.
165 Installation Location
166 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
168 Meson default to installing :file:`libGL.so` in your system's main
169 :file:`lib/` directory and DRI drivers to a :file:`dri/` subdirectory.
171 Developers will often want to install Mesa to a testing directory rather
172 than the system library directory. This can be done with the --prefix
175 .. code-block:: console
177 meson --prefix="${PWD}/build/install" build/
179 will put the final libraries and drivers into the build/install/
180 directory. Then you can set LD_LIBRARY_PATH and LIBGL_DRIVERS_PATH to
181 that location to run/test the driver.
183 Meson also honors ``DESTDIR`` for installs.
188 Meson supports the common CFLAGS, CXXFLAGS, etc. environment variables
189 but their use is discouraged because of the many caveats in using them.
191 Instead, it is recommended to use ``-D${lang}_args`` and
192 ``-D${lang}_link_args``. Among the benefits of these options is that
193 they are guaranteed to persist across rebuilds and reconfigurations.
195 This example sets -fmax-errors for compiling C sources and -DMAGIC=123
198 .. code-block:: console
200 meson builddir/ -Dc_args=-fmax-errors=10 -Dcpp_args=-DMAGIC=123
202 Compiler Specification
203 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
205 Meson supports the standard CC and CXX environment variables for
206 changing the default compiler. Note that Meson does not allow changing
207 the compilers in a configured build directory so you will need to create
208 a new build dir for a different compiler.
210 This is an example of specifying the Clang compilers and cleaning the
211 build directory before reconfiguring with an extra C option:
213 .. code-block:: console
215 CC=clang CXX=clang++ meson build-clang
217 ninja -C build-clang clean
218 meson configure build -Dc_args="-Wno-typedef-redefinition"
221 The default compilers depends on your operating system. Meson supports
222 most of the popular compilers, a complete list is available
223 `here <https://mesonbuild.com/Reference-tables.html#compiler-ids>`__.
228 Meson includes upstream logic to wrap llvm-config using its standard
229 dependency interface.
231 Meson can use CMake to find LLVM. But due to the way LLVM implements its
232 CMake finder it will only find static libraries, it will never find
233 :file:`libllvm.so`. There is also a ``-Dcmake_module_path`` option,
234 which points to the root of an alternative installation (the prefix).
237 .. code-block:: console
239 meson builddir -Dcmake_module_path=/home/user/mycmake/prefix
241 As of Meson 0.49.0 Meson also has the concept of a `"native
242 file" <https://mesonbuild.com/Native-environments.html>`__, these files
243 provide information about the native build environment (as opposed to a
244 cross build environment). They are INI formatted and can override where
248 :caption: custom-llvm.ini
251 llvm-config = '/usr/local/bin/llvm/llvm-config'
253 Then configure Meson:
255 .. code-block:: console
257 meson builddir/ --native-file custom-llvm.ini
259 For selecting llvm-config for cross compiling a `"cross
260 file" <https://mesonbuild.com/Cross-compilation.html#defining-the-environment>`__
261 should be used. It uses the same format as the native file above:
264 :caption: cross-llvm.ini
268 llvm-config = '/usr/lib/llvm-config-32'
269 cmake = '/usr/bin/cmake-for-my-arch'
271 Obviously, only CMake or llvm-config is required.
273 Then configure Meson:
275 .. code-block:: console
277 meson builddir/ --cross-file cross-llvm.ini
279 See the :ref:`Cross Compilation <cross-compilation>` section for more
282 On Windows (and in other cases), using llvm-config or CMake may be
283 either undesirable or impossible. Meson's solution for this is a
284 `wrap <https://mesonbuild.com/Wrap-dependency-system-manual.html>`__, in
285 this case a "binary wrap". Follow the steps below:
287 - Install the binaries and headers into the
288 ``$mesa_src/subprojects/llvm``
289 - Add a :file:`meson.build` file to that directory (more on that later)
291 The wrap file must define the following:
293 - ``dep_llvm``: a ``declare_dependency()`` object with
294 include_directories, dependencies, and version set)
298 - ``irbuilder_h``: a ``files()`` object pointing to llvm/IR/IRBuilder.h
299 - ``has_rtti``: a ``bool`` that declares whether LLVM was built with
300 RTTI. Defaults to true
302 such a :file:`meson.build` file might look like:
306 project('llvm', ['cpp'])
308 cpp = meson.get_compiler('cpp')
311 _search = join_paths(meson.current_source_dir(), 'lib')
312 foreach d : ['libLLVMCodeGen', 'libLLVMScalarOpts', 'libLLVMAnalysis',
313 'libLLVMTransformUtils', 'libLLVMCore', 'libLLVMX86CodeGen',
314 'libLLVMSelectionDAG', 'libLLVMipo', 'libLLVMAsmPrinter',
315 'libLLVMInstCombine', 'libLLVMInstrumentation', 'libLLVMMC',
316 'libLLVMGlobalISel', 'libLLVMObjectYAML', 'libLLVMDebugInfoPDB',
317 'libLLVMVectorize', 'libLLVMPasses', 'libLLVMSupport',
318 'libLLVMLTO', 'libLLVMObject', 'libLLVMDebugInfoCodeView',
319 'libLLVMDebugInfoDWARF', 'libLLVMOrcJIT', 'libLLVMProfileData',
320 'libLLVMObjCARCOpts', 'libLLVMBitReader', 'libLLVMCoroutines',
321 'libLLVMBitWriter', 'libLLVMRuntimeDyld', 'libLLVMMIRParser',
322 'libLLVMX86Desc', 'libLLVMAsmParser', 'libLLVMTableGen',
323 'libLLVMFuzzMutate', 'libLLVMLinker', 'libLLVMMCParser',
324 'libLLVMExecutionEngine', 'libLLVMCoverage', 'libLLVMInterpreter',
325 'libLLVMTarget', 'libLLVMX86AsmParser', 'libLLVMSymbolize',
326 'libLLVMDebugInfoMSF', 'libLLVMMCJIT', 'libLLVMXRay',
327 'libLLVMX86AsmPrinter', 'libLLVMX86Disassembler',
328 'libLLVMMCDisassembler', 'libLLVMOption', 'libLLVMIRReader',
329 'libLLVMLibDriver', 'libLLVMDlltoolDriver', 'libLLVMDemangle',
330 'libLLVMBinaryFormat', 'libLLVMLineEditor',
331 'libLLVMWindowsManifest', 'libLLVMX86Info', 'libLLVMX86Utils']
332 _deps += cpp.find_library(d, dirs : _search)
335 dep_llvm = declare_dependency(
336 include_directories : include_directories('include'),
337 dependencies : _deps,
342 irbuilder_h = files('include/llvm/IR/IRBuilder.h')
344 It is very important that version is defined and is accurate, if it is
345 not, workarounds for the wrong version of LLVM might be used resulting
351 The ``pkg-config`` utility is a hard requirement for configuring and
352 building Mesa on Unix-like systems. It is used to search for external
353 libraries on the system. This environment variable is used to control
354 the search path for ``pkg-config``. For instance, setting
355 ``PKG_CONFIG_PATH=/usr/X11R6/lib/pkgconfig`` will search for package
356 metadata in ``/usr/X11R6`` before the standard directories.
361 One of the oddities of Meson is that some options are different when
362 passed to the ``meson`` than to ``meson configure``. These options are
363 passed as --option=foo to ``meson``, but -Doption=foo to
364 ``meson configure``. Mesa defined options are always passed as
367 For those coming from Autotools be aware of the following:
369 ``--buildtype/-Dbuildtype``
370 This option will set the compiler debug/optimization levels to aid
371 debugging the Mesa libraries.
373 Note that in Meson this defaults to ``debugoptimized``, and not
374 setting it to ``release`` will yield non-optimal performance and
375 binary size. Not using ``debug`` may interfere with debugging as some
376 code and validation will be optimized away.
378 For those wishing to pass their own optimization flags, use the
379 ``plain`` buildtype, which causes Meson to inject no additional
380 compiler arguments, only those in the C/CXXFLAGS and those that mesa
384 This option controls assertions in Meson projects. When set to
385 ``false`` (the default) assertions are enabled, when set to true they
386 are disabled. This is unrelated to the ``buildtype``; setting the
387 latter to ``release`` will not turn off assertions.
389 .. _cross-compilation:
391 4. Cross-compilation and 32-bit builds
392 --------------------------------------
395 cross-compilation <https://mesonbuild.com/Cross-compilation.html>`__ by
396 specifying a number of binary paths and settings in a file and passing
397 this file to ``meson`` or ``meson configure`` with the ``--cross-file``
400 This file can live at any location, but you can use the bare filename
401 (without the folder path) if you put it in
402 :file:`$XDG_DATA_HOME/meson/cross` or :file:`~/.local/share/meson/cross`
404 Below are a few example of cross files, but keep in mind that you will
405 likely have to alter them for your system.
407 Those running on Arch Linux can use the AUR-maintained packages for some
408 of those, as they'll have the right values for your system:
410 - `meson-cross-x86-linux-gnu <https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/meson-cross-x86-linux-gnu>`__
411 - `meson-cross-aarch64-linux-gnu <https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/meson-cross-aarch64-linux-gnu>`__
413 32-bit build on x86 linux:
420 ar = '/usr/bin/gcc-ar'
421 strip = '/usr/bin/strip'
422 pkgconfig = '/usr/bin/pkg-config-32'
423 llvm-config = '/usr/bin/llvm-config32'
427 c_link_args = ['-m32']
429 cpp_link_args = ['-m32']
437 64-bit build on ARM linux:
442 c = '/usr/bin/aarch64-linux-gnu-gcc'
443 cpp = '/usr/bin/aarch64-linux-gnu-g++'
444 ar = '/usr/bin/aarch64-linux-gnu-gcc-ar'
445 strip = '/usr/bin/aarch64-linux-gnu-strip'
446 pkgconfig = '/usr/bin/aarch64-linux-gnu-pkg-config'
447 exe_wrapper = '/usr/bin/qemu-aarch64-static'
451 cpu_family = 'aarch64'
455 64-bit build on x86 Windows:
460 c = '/usr/bin/x86_64-w64-mingw32-gcc'
461 cpp = '/usr/bin/x86_64-w64-mingw32-g++'
462 ar = '/usr/bin/x86_64-w64-mingw32-ar'
463 strip = '/usr/bin/x86_64-w64-mingw32-strip'
464 pkgconfig = '/usr/bin/x86_64-w64-mingw32-pkg-config'
469 cpu_family = 'x86_64'