Build System

KiCad uses the Cmake build system, this build system generates native files to ease compiling on different operating systems. The instructions below are only a snapshot, more up-to-date documentation is stored in our Subversion repository on SourceForge. See the folder kicad/Documentation/compiling. You can also use viewvc to view the repository with your webbrowser.

Here is a short summary which software is used:

Boost, Collection of portable C++ source libraries.
CMake, Cross-platform make.
Doxygen, Documentation system for several programming languages.
KBool, boolean algorithm for all boolean operation (or, and, exor etc. + correction on polygons).
GLUT, The OpenGL Utility Library.
Bazaar (bzr), OpenSource version control system.
wxWidgets, The wxWidgets GUI toolkit.
zlib, General purpose data compression library.

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General Instructions

Checkout the sources from the subversion repository.

Run cmake . inside the directory of you want to build inside the sourcetree.

Then run make if you are on a *nix platform.

Below there are distro specific instruction, mostly packages you need to get up and compiling.

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Debian Based

To build Debian packages from subversion do the following:

Checkout kicad, kicad-doc & kicad-library into a directory.
Checkout the debian package source (to the same directory) from here:

https://kicad.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/kicad/trunk/kicad

You probably actually want to read the Launchpad FAQ for more recent information, including a more up-to-date repository.
Modify the debian/changelog to give your packages a custom version number.
If you are building direct on your system look at the debian/control file and install all the listed build dependencies, then run this command:

fakeroot debian/rules binary

If you are using pbuilder/pdebuild (recommended) you should know what to do already.

If you have problems contact rab who maintains the Debian builds of the official Debian packages.

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Slackware

Packages needed: wxWidgets.

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Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala)

Packages Needed: build-essential cmake doxygen subversion libglut3 libglut3-dev libwxgtk libwxgtk-dev zlib1g zlib1g-dev

If you get the error message that the opengl library could not be found, look in your /usr/lib directory. CMake searches for the libGL.so file. If only libGL.so.1 is present create a symbolic link: 'sudo ln -s libGL.so.1 libGL.so'.

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