Build from source ================== .. image:: https://github.com/kovidgoyal/kitty/workflows/CI/badge.svg :alt: Build status :target: https://github.com/kovidgoyal/kitty/actions?query=workflow%3ACI .. highlight:: sh |kitty| is designed to run from source, for easy hack-ability. Make sure the following dependencies are installed first. .. note:: If you just want to test the latest changes to kitty, you don't need to build from source. Instead install the :ref:`latest nightly build `. .. note:: If you are making small changes only to the Python parts of kitty, there is no need to build kitty at all, instead, assuming you have installed the official kitty binaries, you can simply set the :envvar:`KITTY_DEVELOP_FROM` enviroment variable to point to the directory into which you have checked out the kitty source code. kitty will then load its Python code from there. You should use a version of the source that matches the binary version as closely as possible, since the two are tightly coupled. You may need to unset the :envvar:`KITTY_PREWARM_SOCKET` environment variable, otherwise your modified code will not be executed, when running some of the ``kitty +`` and ``kitty @`` commands. Dependencies ---------------- Run-time dependencies: * ``python`` >= 3.8 * ``harfbuzz`` >= 2.2.0 * ``zlib`` * ``libpng`` * ``liblcms2`` * ``librsync`` * ``openssl`` * ``freetype`` (not needed on macOS) * ``fontconfig`` (not needed on macOS) * ``libcanberra`` (not needed on macOS) * ``ImageMagick`` (optional, needed to use the ``kitty +kitten icat`` tool to display images in the terminal) * ``pygments`` (optional, needed for syntax highlighting in ``kitty +kitten diff``) Build-time dependencies: * ``gcc`` or ``clang`` * ``pkg-config`` * For building on Linux in addition to the above dependencies you might also need to install the following packages, if they are not already installed by your distro: - ``libdbus-1-dev`` - ``libxcursor-dev`` - ``libxrandr-dev`` - ``libxi-dev`` - ``libxinerama-dev`` - ``libgl1-mesa-dev`` - ``libxkbcommon-x11-dev`` - ``libfontconfig-dev`` - ``libx11-xcb-dev`` - ``liblcms2-dev`` - ``libpython3-dev`` - ``librsync-dev`` Install and run from source ------------------------------ .. code-block:: sh git clone https://github.com/kovidgoyal/kitty && cd kitty Now build the native code parts of |kitty| with the following command:: make You can run |kitty|, as:: ./kitty/launcher/kitty If that works, you can create a symlink to the launcher in :file:`~/bin` or some other directory on your PATH so that you can run |kitty| using just ``kitty``. Building kitty.app on macOS from source ------------------------------------------- Run:: make app This :file:`kitty.app` unlike the released one does not include its own copy of Python and the other dependencies. So if you ever un-install/upgrade those dependencies you might have to rebuild the app. .. note:: The released :file:`kitty.dmg` includes all dependencies, unlike the :file:`kitty.app` built above and is built automatically by using the `bypy framework `__ however, that is designed to run on Linux and is not for the faint of heart. .. note:: Apple disallows certain functionality, such as notifications for unsigned applications. If you need this functionality, you can try signing the built :file:`kitty.app` with a self signed certificate, see for example, `here `__. .. note:: If you are facing issues with ``linker`` while building, try with a ``brew`` installed Python instead, see :iss:`289` for more discussion. Build and run from source with Nix ------------------------------------------- On NixOS or any other Linux or macOS system with the Nix package manager installed, execute `nix-shell `__ to create the correct environment to build kitty or use ``nix-shell --pure`` instead to eliminate most of the influence of the outside system, e.g. globally installed packages. ``nix-shell`` will automatically fetch all required dependencies and make them available in the newly spawned shell. Then proceed with ``make`` or ``make app`` according to the platform specific instructions above. Debug builds -------------- A basic debug build can be done with:: make debug This includes debug info in the binary for better traces. To build with address sanitizer, use:: make asan Which will result in a debug binary that uses the address sanitizer as well. .. _packagers: Notes for Linux/macOS packagers ---------------------------------- The released |kitty| source code is available as a `tarball`_ from `the GitHub releases page `__. While |kitty| does use Python, it is not a traditional Python package, so please do not install it in site-packages. Instead run:: python3 setup.py linux-package This will install |kitty| into the directory :file:`linux-package`. You can run |kitty| with :file:`linux-package/bin/kitty`. All the files needed to run kitty will be in :file:`linux-package/lib/kitty`. The terminfo file will be installed into :file:`linux-package/share/terminfo`. Simply copy these files into :file:`/usr` to install |kitty|. In other words, :file:`linux-package` is the staging area into which |kitty| is installed. You can choose a different staging area, by passing the ``--prefix`` argument to :file:`setup.py`. You should probably split |kitty| into three packages: :code:`kitty-terminfo` Installs the terminfo file :code:`kitty-shell-integration` Installs the shell integration scripts (the contents of the shell-integration directory in the kitty source code), probably to :file:`/usr/share/kitty/shell-integration` :code:`kitty` Installs the main program This allows users to install the terminfo and shell integration files on servers into which they ssh, without needing to install all of |kitty|. .. note:: You need a couple of extra dependencies to build linux-package. :file:`tic` to compile terminfo files, usually found in the development package of :file:`ncurses`. Also, if you are building from a git checkout instead of the released source code tarball, you will need to install the dependencies from :file:`docs/requirements.txt` to build the kitty documentation. They can be installed most easily with ``python -m pip -r docs/requirements.txt``. This applies to creating packages for |kitty| for macOS package managers such as Homebrew or MacPorts as well. Building docs -------------- |kitty|'s documentation is built via `Sphinx `_. On Ubuntu Linux 22.04, these system packages need to be installed: * ``python3-sphinx`` * ``python3-sphinxext-opengraph`` * ``python3-sphinx-copybutton`` As well as these PyPI (``pip``) packages (e.g. via ``pip install --user``): * ``sphinx_inline_tabs`` * ``furo`` (a Sphinx theme) The command is then:: make docs