Compiling Minetest

Compiling on GNU/Linux

Install dependencies. Here's an example for Debian/Ubuntu/Mint:

$ apt-get install build-essential libirrlicht-dev cmake libbz2-dev \
libpng12-dev libjpeg8-dev libxxf86vm-dev libgl1-mesa-dev libsqlite3-dev \
libogg-dev libvorbis-dev libopenal-dev

Download source, extract (this is the URL to the latest of source repository, which might not work at all times):

(Note: It is recommended to use Git to get the source)

$ wget https://github.com/minetest/minetest/tarball/master -O master.tar.gz
$ tar xf master.tar.gz
$ cd minetest-minetest-286edd4 (or similar)

Download minetest_game (otherwise only the "Minimal development test" game is available)

$ cd games/
$ wget https://github.com/minetest/minetest_game/tarball/master -O master.tar.gz
$ tar xf master.tar.gz
$ mv minetest-minetest_game-* minetest_game
$ cd ..

Build a version that runs directly from the source directory:

$ cmake . -DRUN_IN_PLACE=1
$ make -j2

Run it:

$ cd bin
$ ./minetest

• Use cmake . -LH to see all CMake options and their current state
• If you want to place user data in ~/.minetest, install it system-wide (or are making a distribution package), you will want to use -DRUN_IN_PLACE=0
• You can build a bare server or a bare client by specifying -DBUILD_CLIENT=0 or -DBUILD_SERVER=0
• You can select between Release and Debug build by -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=<Debug or Release>

• Debug build is slower, but gives much more useful output in a debugger

Building without Irrlicht/X dependency

You can build the Minetest server without library dependencies to Irrlicht or any graphical stuff. You still need the Irrlicht headers for this, so first, download the irrlicht source to somewhere.

When invoking cmake, use -DBUILD_CLIENT=0 -DIRRLICHT_SOURCE_DIR=/wherever/you/unzipped/the/source.

Compiling on Windows

- This section is outdated. In addition to what is described here:
  - In addition to minetest, you need to download minetest_game.
  - If you wish to have sound support, you need libogg, libvorbis and libopenal

- You need:
	* CMake:
		http://www.cmake.org/cmake/resources/software.html
	* MinGW or Visual Studio
		http://www.mingw.org/
		http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/default
	* Irrlicht SDK 1.7:
		http://irrlicht.sourceforge.net/downloads.html
	* Zlib headers (zlib125.zip)
		http://www.winimage.com/zLibDll/index.html
	* Zlib library (zlibwapi.lib and zlibwapi.dll from zlib125dll.zip):
		http://www.winimage.com/zLibDll/index.html
	* Optional: gettext bibrary and tools:
		http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/downlinks/gettext.php
		- This is used for other UI languages. Feel free to leave it out.
	* And, of course, Minetest:
		http://minetest.net/download.php
- Steps:
	- Select a directory called DIR hereafter in which you will operate.
	- Make sure you have CMake and a compiler installed.
	- Download all the other stuff to DIR and extract them into there.
	  ("extract here", not "extract to packagename/")
	  NOTE: zlib125dll.zip needs to be extracted into zlib125dll
	- All those packages contain a nice base directory in them, which
	  should end up being the direct subdirectories of DIR.
	- You will end up with a directory structure like this (+=dir, -=file):
	-----------------
	+ DIR
		- zlib-1.2.5.tar.gz
		- zlib125dll.zip
		- irrlicht-1.7.1.zip
		- 110214175330.zip (or whatever, this is the minetest source)
		+ zlib-1.2.5
			- zlib.h
			+ win32
			...
		+ zlib125dll
			- readme.txt
			+ dll32
			...
		+ irrlicht-1.7.1
			+ lib
			+ include
			...
		+ gettext (optional)
			+bin
			+include
			+lib
		+ minetest
			+ src
			+ doc
			- CMakeLists.txt
			...
	-----------------
	- Start up the CMake GUI
	- Select "Browse Source..." and select DIR/minetest
	- Now, if using MSVC:
		- Select "Browse Build..." and select DIR/minetest-build
	- Else if using MinGW:
		- Select "Browse Build..." and select DIR/minetest
	- Select "Configure"
	- Select your compiler
	- It will warn about missing stuff, ignore that at this point. (later don't)
	- Make sure the configuration is as follows
	  (note that the versions may differ for you):
	-----------------
	BUILD_CLIENT             [X]
	BUILD_SERVER             [ ]
	CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE         Release
	CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX     DIR/minetest-install
	IRRLICHT_SOURCE_DIR      DIR/irrlicht-1.7.1
	RUN_IN_PLACE             [X]
	WARN_ALL                 [ ]
	ZLIB_DLL                 DIR/zlib125dll/dll32/zlibwapi.dll
	ZLIB_INCLUDE_DIR         DIR/zlib-1.2.5
	ZLIB_LIBRARIES           DIR/zlib125dll/dll32/zlibwapi.lib
	GETTEXT_BIN_DIR          DIR/gettext/bin
	GETTEXT_INCLUDE_DIR      DIR/gettext/include
	GETTEXT_LIBRARIES        DIR/gettext/lib/intl.lib
	GETTEXT_MSGFMT           DIR/gettext/bin/msgfmt
	-----------------
	- Hit "Configure"
	- Hit "Configure" once again 8)
	- If something is still coloured red, you have a problem.
	- Hit "Generate"
	If using MSVC:
		- Open the generated minetest.sln
		- The project defaults to the "Debug" configuration. Make very sure to
		  select "Release", unless you want to debug some stuff (it's slower
		  and might not even work at all)
		- Build the ALL_BUILD project
		- Build the INSTALL project
		- You should now have a working game with the executable in
			DIR/minetest-install/bin/minetest.exe
		- Additionally you may create a zip package by building the PACKAGE
		  project.
	If using MinGW:
		- Using the command line, browse to the build directory and run 'make'
		  (or mingw32-make or whatever it happens to be)
		- You may need to copy some of the downloaded DLLs into bin/, see what
		  running the produced executable tells you it doesn't have.
		- You should now have a working game with the executable in
			DIR/minetest/bin/minetest.exe

Cross compile

To compile a win32 version of Minetest in Linux with MinGW you can use the build script in utils/buildbot/buildwin32.sh.