Building Spring on Linux

Development < Building Spring < Building Spring on Linux

Build From Source on Linux

If you prefer to use your distributions package system (release versions only), refer to the Linux SetupGuide.

If there is no package tailored for your distribution, you have to install from sources manually. Doing this for distributions where packages are available is not recommended.

Warning:
Be careful when building from source.
You might encounter sync errors in online play if:

• you are using an untested compiler (gcc from the 4.x serie should be safe)
• you use non-standard compiler settings (be careful about -march)!

Obtaining the Source

Tarballs

(For playing online official games on lobby.springrts.com - the spring lobby server)

Using Git is the recommended way to get the sources of the engine. In spite of, you can use the official tarballs to compile Spring without git.

Note: Do NOT use the zip-files from github, they are missing important data to compile Spring.

See Building spring for build instructions.

Git

Spring project page at github

Master repo URI: git://github.com/spring/spring.git
Backup repo: git://git.code.sf.net/p/springrts/code

Branches of interest:

• master - latest stable, enforced for official games on lobby.springrts.com
• maintenance - fixes for the latest stable
• develop - major developments (most active, larger developments)

Assuming the GIT command line client is installed, you can clone (get locally) the repository with the commands below.

Latest Stable (master branch, useless for development purposes, lives as maintenance moving forward)

git clone --recursive git://github.com/spring/spring.git -b master

To later update it (get the changes other people did) with:

git pull --rebase

Maintenance (maintenance branch)

git clone --recursive git://github.com/spring/spring.git -b maintenance

Bleeding-edge (develop branch)

git clone --recursive git://github.com/spring/spring.git -b develop

Working with git

Please note that patches to the code must be done for either develop or maintenance. Such patches can be then sent to one of the developers with repository access. If you are new to git and github, you may want to have a look at this guide to get you started.

Note: you can switch branches this way:<syntaxhighlight lang="bash">

1. (optional) backup your current code changes

git stash

1. switch branch

git checkout $MY_OTHER_BRANCH

1. sometimes needed
2. note, it deletes all your unstashed changes and all non-pushed commits on the new branch,
3. but it doesn't delete untracked files.
4. git reset --hard

1. update/sync with remote repo

git pull --rebase

1. (optional) if you want to apply the code changes backed-up in the first step
2. git stash pop # reapplies your changes and DELETES the backup
3. or
4. git stash apply --index 0 # reapplies your changes and keep the backup (see `git stash list`)

</syntaxhighlight>

Submodules

To obtain the submodules you should clone the repository with --recursive as mentioned above. If you haven't done this, you can execute the following code <syntaxhighlight lang="bash"> git submodule sync git submodule update --init

</syntaxhighlight>

To update the submodules, you have to execute the same commands again or pull normally.

Get Dependencies

To compile, you will have to install some development packages Spring depends on. These vary from distro to distro and may also depend on your specific configuration.

If your distributions is not listed below, you should be able to figure out the correct package names from this.

Full list

• Programs necessary to build
  • cmake
  • 7zip (aka p7zip or 7z)
  • The usual build toolchain
    • gcc
    • make
• Libraries
  • SDL
  • boost (version 1.35 or later)
    • threads
    • regex
    • signals
    • system
    • program-options
  • libdeviL (IL)
  • OpenAL (openal-soft, older openal-0.0.8 does not work)
  • OpenGL headers (mesa, GLEW, etc.)
  • zlib
  • freetype (2)
  • ogg, vorbis and vorbisfile
• Optional (for AI Interfaces and Skirmish AIs)
  • python (2.5+)
  • jdk (1.5+)

Debian

For Etch (debian 4.0 stable) and Sid (debian unstable), I've confirmed the following to be the minimal set that is necessary to get. This works with Ubuntu 8.10, too. As of ~ July 2009, spring depends on boost 1.35+ (if your distro is behind, you can try some unofficial backports).

Also, on 64-bit, be sure to build against DevIL 1.6.8-rc2+, as 1.6.7 has a bug in the PNG loading code that causes issues.

sudo aptitude install build-essential zlib1g-dev libfreetype6-dev
sudo aptitude install libsdl1.2-dev libopenal-dev libglew-dev zip
sudo aptitude install libvorbis-dev libxcursor-dev libdevil-dev
sudo aptitude install libboost-system1.37-dev libboost-system1.37-thread-dev
sudo aptitude install libboost-system1.37-regex-dev 
sudo aptitude install libboost-system1.37-serialization-dev
sudo aptitude install libboost-system1.37-program-options-dev

and either scons and python2.5-dev or cmake, depending on what you use for building (I advise to use cmake). On debian 5.0 (lenny), libglew1.5-dev is required as well.

Ubuntu 8.04

apt-get install p7zip-full libboost-thread1.40-dev libboost-regex1.40-dev
apt-get install libboost-program-options1.40-dev libboost-signals1.40-dev 

(or exchange the libboost 1.40 with 1.37, if you are using that version)

Gentoo

This has been tested to work with a clean install of gentoo 2008.0:

emerge cmake \>=media-libs/freetype-2.0.0 \>=media-libs/libsdl-1.2.0
emerge media-libs/openal media-libs/glew dev-libs/boost
emerge app-arch/zip media-libs/libogg
USE="png jpg tiff opengl" emerge media-libs/devil 

Fedora

On Fedora 8:

yum install cmake boost-devel openal-devel SDL-devel \
DevIL-devel glew-devel libvorbis-devel 

On Fedora 12:

yum install gcc-c++ cmake boost-devel DevIL-devel freetype-devel \
glew-devel libvorbis-devel libXcursor-devel openal-devel SDL-devel p7zip

Slackware

On Slackware 13, cmake, ogg & vorbis, boost, glew and SDL already come with the full regular install, both libs and headers. You can find helper scripts to easily compile and package DevIL, OpenAL and spring itself here.

Build And Install

Using CMake (2.6 or newer)

Configure and build:

cmake .
make spring

Install:

make install-spring

Default install paths are:

/usr/local/bin/spring Spring executable

/usr/local/share/games/spring read-only data

If you want /usr prefix instead of /usr/local, configure like this:

cmake -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr .

For further ways of customizing your build, have a look at the variables shown with:

cmake -LH .

Ububtu 9.10 - if it cannot locate freetype include dir, then use:

cmake -DFREETYPE_INCLUDE_DIR=/usr .

If you experience performance problems on multi-core systems, you may additionally build the MT version of spring:

make spring-mt

And install with:

make install-spring-mt

Other targets are: spring-hl and spring-dedicated.

Using Scons

Configure and build:

scons configure
scons

Install:

scons install

Finalizing installation

You should have Spring installed by now; if not, please see the SetupGuide.

Maps & Mods

Since Spring is only an engine, you need to download games for it, and the maps that go with those games.

SpringLobby will automatically do this for you when you attempt to join a game with a map or mod that you do not currently have, using an integrated downloader.

If you want to download it manually or browse existing maps, there are several easy to use websites:

• SpringFiles
• Spring-Portal
• Darkstars

Pick any of those sites, download a map or mod, and then double click it. This will move it to your Spring folder, using the spring map/mod installer program. If you wish to move maps/mods by hand, they are located under ~/.spring/maps/ or ~/.spring/mods/ (if the folder does not exist - create it). Do not unpack the file in any way though, just download and save it. Reload your maps/mods in SpringLobby, (Tools - Reload maps/mods) and they will be ready to use.

These sites also may provide other neat things like Lua widgets, epic replays, AI bots (for playing offline or to team up on with a friend). Generally the installation requires you to download the file and place it in the appropriate folder in your ~/.spring directory. (you may have to create the folder)

Hint: If you know the name of the map you want, there is a Search function provided in those websites. Just write a part of the name, like one word, and you will easily find the map you were looking for.

Linux specific Troubleshooting

Ingame

Slow Mouse

Run:

echo '# Slow fullscreen cursor fix for Spring' >> ~/.xsessionrc
echo 'SDL_MOUSE_RELATIVE=0' >> ~/.xsessionrc
echo 'export SDL_MOUSE_RELATIVE' >> ~/.xsessionrc

And log out and log in again.

The mouse should now be as fast as in windowed mode.

Rotating Buildings

You can rotate a building before you give the build order, but the keys that do this do not work in Linux by default for some users. Issue the following commands in the beginning of the game:

/bind keycodex buildfacing inc
/bind keycodey buildfacing dec

Keycodex and keycodey above are just placeholders. What you want to write depends on which key you want to use. To see what keycodes any keys have, do:

/keydebug yes

And then hit the keys you want to use, and spring prints the keycodes in the message buffer.

If you want to save these keys you have to edit the uikeys.txt.

Problems with Audio

The engine needs at least OpenAL Soft 1.6 for its sound. If you still have the old openal-0.0.8 installed, you should update it.

Additionally, pulseaudio causes lots of issues, so try to disable it for spring if you have sound problems.

Desync in game

Spring only send the commands and not the result over the network, so it needs to run all math in a repeatable manner, so all other clients in a multiplayer match get the same results. So some CPU specific features have to enabled/disabled. If you desync, you either have a CPU that is not SSE1 capable, or you set the wrong -march/-mtune compiler flags. If you compile Spring via CMake, remove CMakeCache.txt, and leave the march flag at the default.

See also

• IRC