Building from Source

Building from source

The Windows build of VLC Redesign is a cross-compile in Docker, with VideoLAN's official build image and its prebuilt libraries. It runs on Windows, in PowerShell, and on GitHub's Linux runners. Every release links to the exact source it was built from. This page covers the development build, the release script and its files, the GitHub workflows, and signing.

What you need

• Docker Desktop and Git.
• For a release (the installer and the small updates): Inno Setup 6.7 or later (choco install innosetup), and Python with bsdiff4 (pip install bsdiff4).

Build

git clone https://github.com/KuchiSofts/vlc-redesign.git
cd vlc-redesign
# Development build (debug, asserts on) into %USERPROFILE%\source\vlc-win64
.\extras\juxtopposed\win64-docker.ps1
# Release: build, then the portable zip, the installer and SHA256SUMS.txt
.\extras\juxtopposed\make-release.ps1

The first build takes a while: it builds the Docker image once (vlc-win64-redesign, from VideoLAN's registry.videolan.org/vlc-debian-win64-posix image, the one of VideoLAN's own Windows CI) and downloads VideoLAN's prebuilt libraries (contrib) for the source from artifacts.videolan.org. VideoLAN publishes those archives only for its own commits, so the script takes the newest one among the last 20 commits that touched the build paths. Later builds only rebuild what changed: the objects stay in a Docker volume. The result is a portable VLC Redesign in the output folder: run its vlc.exe. At the end the script also writes the plugin cache (plugins\plugins.dat, with vlc-cache-gen.exe), without which every start scans all plugins.

Good to know. Close a VLC running from the output folder first: the script stops otherwise, since a running VLC locks its files. Files still held by a VLC that crashed are renamed aside (*.old-<time>) and deleted on a later build.

win64-docker.ps1

extras\juxtopposed\win64-docker.ps1 builds VLC Redesign for Windows x86_64 and puts a portable package in -Out.

Parameter	Default	What it does
-Out	%USERPROFILE%\source\vlc-win64	The folder that receives the portable package.
-Cache	%USERPROFILE%\source\vlc-cache	Where the prebuilt library archives are downloaded and kept.
-Quick	off	Only rebuilds what changed in a tree already configured (skips configure).
-Lint	off	Only runs qmllint on the QML files changed in the working tree, then stops.
-Volume	vlc-win64-build	The Docker volume that holds the build tree. Use another one for a release build, so the debug tree stays configured.
-Strip	off	Strips the debug information from the packaged files.
other arguments		Passed on to VLC's build.sh, for example -r for a release build.

make-release.ps1

extras\juxtopposed\make-release.ps1 builds a release (in its own Docker volume, vlc-win64-release, stripped, in release mode) and makes in -Dist:

File	What it is
vlc-redesign-<version>-win64.zip	The portable package
vlc-redesign-<version>-win64-setup.exe	The installer (Inno Setup)
SHA256SUMS.txt	The SHA-256 of the files
SHA256SUMS.txt.sig	Its signature by the project's release key (ECDSA P-256), which the app checks before any update from 0.4.0 on. Made with extras\juxtopposed\signing\release-key.ps1, whose key exists only on the release PC: without it, make-release.ps1 stops (or leaves the signature out with -NoSumsSignature, and then the app installs none of these files)
vlc-redesign-<version>-delta-from-<old>.vrdelta	Small updates from the 3 latest releases whose zip is in -Dist; each is checked by applying it to the old release

Parameter	Default	What it does
-Version	the version in modules/gui/qt/util/redesign_version.hpp	The version of the release.
-Package	%USERPROFILE%\source\vlc-redesign-release	The folder the build goes to, and that is packaged.
-Dist	%USERPROFILE%\source\vlc-redesign-dist	The folder that receives the release files.
-Quick	off	Only rebuilds what changed.
-SkipBuild	off	Packages the existing -Package folder as it is.
-Signed	off	Packages a folder whose files are signed already (implies -SkipBuild): nothing is built, and no file of it is changed.

Examples

# Rebuild only what changed, after editing QML or C++
.\extras\juxtopposed\win64-docker.ps1 -Quick
# Check the changed QML files with qmllint, without building
.\extras\juxtopposed\win64-docker.ps1 -Lint
# A release from the tree already built, into its own folders
.\extras\juxtopposed\make-release.ps1 -Quick -Dist D:\dist

On GitHub

Workflow	When	What it does
Windows build (build-windows.yml)	Every push to main, every pull request, and by hand	Builds the package in Docker on Ubuntu 24.04, then a launch test on Windows Server 2022 starts it and plays a file (keeping crash dumps and logs); the package and the logs are uploaded as artifacts. Run by hand with signing chosen, it has the files signed through SignPath and packages the release from them.
Upstream sync (upstream-sync.yml)	Every Monday at 06:00 UTC, and by hand	Tries to merge VideoLAN's VLC into this fork: a pull request when it applies cleanly, an issue listing the conflicting files otherwise.
Wiki (wiki-sync.yml)	A push that changes docs/wiki	Copies docs/wiki to this wiki.
Labels (labels.yml)	A push that changes .github/labels.yml, and by hand	Keeps the issue labels in step with the repository's list.

Signed builds

Signing is prepared and not active yet: the files of the releases are unsigned, and their SHA-256 is listed in SHA256SUMS.txt. The Windows files would be signed, once SignPath approves the application, through SignPath Foundation's free program for open-source projects. SignPath signs only what this repository's GitHub workflow built, so a package made on your own PC can't be signed, and builds from source stay unsigned.

In the workflow, the package is built in Docker and tested, its files are signed, and make-release.ps1 -Signed makes the zip, the installer and the small updates from the signed files without changing them; the installer is then signed too. The details: docs/code-signing.md and the code signing policy.

Other systems

A Linux build script exists (extras/juxtopposed/linux.sh with linux.Dockerfile: Ubuntu 24.04 and its Qt 6.4), from the first milestones; it has not been run since the Windows work began, and is not a supported build. The interface lives in modules/gui/qt. Which other systems may come, and in which order: Platforms.

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