These instructions will guide you through the process of building and installing the toxcore library and its components, as well as getting already pre-built binaries.
This repository, although called toxcore, in fact contains several libraries
besides toxcore which complement it, as well as several executables. However,
note that although these are separate libraries, at the moment, when building
the libraries, they are all merged into a single toxcore library. Here is the
full list of the main components that can be built using the CMake, their
dependencies and descriptions.
| Name | Type | Dependencies | Platform | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
toxcore |
Library | libsodium, libm, libpthread, librt | Cross-platform | The main Tox library that provides the messenger functionality. |
toxav |
Library | libtoxcore, libopus, libvpx | Cross-platform | Provides audio/video functionality. |
toxencryptsave |
Library | libtoxcore, libsodium | Cross-platform | Provides encryption of Tox profiles (savedata), as well as arbitrary data. |
DHT_bootstrap |
Executable | libtoxcore | Cross-platform | A simple DHT bootstrap node. |
tox-bootstrapd |
Executable | libtoxcore, libconfig | Unix-like | Highly configurable DHT bootstrap node daemon (systemd, SysVinit, Docker). |
cmp |
Library | Cross-platform | C implementation of the MessagePack serialization format. https://github.com/camgunz/cmp |
There are some programs that are not built by default which you might find
interesting. You need to pass -DBUILD_FUN_UTILS=ON to cmake to build them.
Can be used to generate vanity Tox Ids or DHT bootstrap node public keys.
| Name | Type | Dependencies | Platform | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
cracker |
Executable | libsodium, OpenMP | Cross-platform | Tries to find a curve25519 key pair, hex representation of the public key of which starts with a specified byte sequence. Multi-threaded. |
cracker_simple |
Executable | libsodium | Cross-platform | Tries to find a curve25519 key pair, hex representation of the public key of which starts with a specified byte sequence. Single-threaded. |
strkey |
Executable | libsodium | Cross-platform | Tries to find a curve25519 key pair, hex representation of the public key of which contains a specified byte sequence at a specified or any position at all. Single-threaded. |
Useful for generating Tox profiles from the output of the vanity key generators, as well as generating random Tox profiles.
| Name | Type | Dependencies | Platform | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
make-funny-savefile |
Script | python | Cross-platform | Generates a Tox profile file (savedata file) with the provided key pair. |
create_bootstrap_keys |
Executable | libsodium | Cross-platform | Generates a keys file for tox-bootstrapd with either the provided or a random key pair. |
create_minimal_savedata |
Executable | libsodium | Cross-platform | Generates a minimal Tox profile file (savedata file) with either the provided or a random key pair, printing the generated Tox Id and secret & public key information. |
create_savedata |
Executable | libsodium, libtoxcore | Cross-platform | Generates a Tox profile file (savedata file) with either the provided or a random key pair using libtoxcore, printing the generated Tox Id and secret & public key information. |
save-generator |
Executable | libtoxcore | Cross-platform | Generates a Tox profile file (savedata file) with a random key pair using libtoxcore, setting the specified user name, going online and adding specified Tox Ids as friends. |
| Name | Type | Dependencies | Platform | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
bootstrap_node_info |
Script | python3 | Cross-platform | Prints version and Message Of The Day (MOTD) information of the specified DHT bootstrap node, given the node doesn't have those disabled. |
sign |
Executable | libsodium | Cross-platform | Signs a file with a ed25519 key. |
Library dependencies are listed in the components table. The
dependencies need to be satisfied for the components to be built. Note that if
you don't have a dependency for some component, e.g. you don't have libopus
installed required for building toxav component, building of that component is
silently disabled.
Be advised that due to the addition of cmp as a submodule, you now also need
to initialize the git submodules required by toxcore. This can be done by
cloning the repo with the addition of --recurse-submodules or by running
git submodule update --init in the root directory of the repo.
The supported compilers are GCC, Clang and MinGW.
In theory, any compiler that fully supports C99 and accepts GCC flags should work.
There is a partial and experimental support of Microsoft Visual C++ compiler. We welcome any patches that help improve it.
You should have a C99 compatible compiler in order to build the main components. The secondary components might require the compiler to support GNU extensions.
To build the main components you need to have CMake of at least 2.8.6 version installed. You also need to have pkg-config installed, the build system uses it to find dependency libraries.
There is some experimental accommodation for building natively on Windows, i.e. without having to use MSYS/Cygwin and pkg-config, but it uses exact hardcoded paths for finding libraries and supports building only of some of toxcore components, so your mileage might vary.
There are some options that are available to configure the build.
| Name | Description | Expected Value | Default Value |
|---|---|---|---|
AUTOTEST |
Enable autotests (mainly for CI). | ON or OFF | OFF |
BOOTSTRAP_DAEMON |
Enable building of tox-bootstrapd, the DHT bootstrap node daemon. For Unix-like systems only. | ON or OFF | ON |
BUILD_FUN_UTILS |
Build additional just for fun utilities. | ON or OFF | OFF |
BUILD_FUZZ_TESTS |
Build fuzzing harnesses. | ON or OFF | OFF |
BUILD_MISC_TESTS |
Build additional tests. | ON or OFF | OFF |
BUILD_TOXAV |
Whether to build the toxav library. | ON or OFF | ON |
CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE |
Specifies the build type on single-configuration generators (e.g. make or ninja). | Debug, Release, RelWithDebInfo, MinSizeRel | Empty string. |
CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX |
Path to where everything should be installed. | Directory path. | Platform-dependent. Refer to CMake documentation. |
DHT_BOOTSTRAP |
Enable building of DHT_bootstrap. |
ON or OFF | ON |
ENABLE_SHARED |
Build shared (dynamic) libraries for all modules. | ON or OFF | ON |
ENABLE_STATIC |
Build static libraries for all modules. | ON or OFF | ON |
EXPERIMENTAL_API |
Install experimental header file with unstable API. | ON or OFF | OFF |
FLAT_OUTPUT_STRUCTURE |
Whether to produce output artifacts in {bin,lib}. | ON or OFF | OFF |
FULLY_STATIC |
Build fully static executables. | ON or OFF | OFF |
MIN_LOGGER_LEVEL |
Logging level to use. | TRACE, DEBUG, INFO, WARNING, ERROR or nothing (empty string) for default. | Empty string. |
MSVC_STATIC_SODIUM |
Whether to link libsodium statically for MSVC. | ON or OFF | OFF |
MUST_BUILD_TOXAV |
Fail the build if toxav cannot be built. | ON or OFF | OFF |
NON_HERMETIC_TESTS |
Whether to build and run tests that depend on an internet connection. | ON or OFF | OFF |
PROXY_TEST |
Enable proxy test (requires other/proxy/proxy_server.go to be running). |
ON or OFF | OFF |
STRICT_ABI |
Enforce strict ABI export in dynamic libraries. | ON or OFF | OFF |
TEST_TIMEOUT_SECONDS |
Limit runtime of each test to the number of seconds specified. | Positive number or nothing (empty string). | Empty string. |
UNITTEST |
Enable unit tests (disable if you don't have a working gmock or gtest). | ON or OFF | ON |
USE_IPV6 |
Use IPv6 in tests. | ON or OFF | ON |
You can get this list of option using the following commands
cmake -B _build -LAHor
grep "option(" CMakeLists.txt cmake/*
grep "set(.* CACHE" CMakeLists.txt cmake/*Note that some options might be considered only if other options are enabled.
Example of calling cmake with options
cmake \
-D ENABLE_STATIC=OFF \
-D ENABLE_SHARED=ON \
-D CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX="${PWD}/prefix" \
-D CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release \
-D TEST_TIMEOUT_SECONDS=120 \
..In addition to the integration tests ("autotests") and miscellaneous tests
enabled by cmake variables described above, there are unit tests which will be
built if the source distribution of gtest (the Google Unit Test framework) is
found by cmake in c-toxcore/third_party. This can be achieved by running 'git
clone https://github.com/google/googletest` from that directory.
Assuming all the requirements are met, just run
mkdir _build
cd _build
cmake ..
make
make installor shorter
cmake -B _build
cmake -B _build --target installIn addition to meeting the requirements, you need a version of Visual Studio (the community edition is enough) and a CMake version that's compatible with the Visual Studio version you're using.
You must also ensure that the msvc versions of dependencies you're using are placed in the correct folders.
For libsodium that is c-toxcore/third_party/libsodium, and for pthreads-w32,
it's c-toxcore/third_party/pthreads-win32
Once all of this is done, from the Developer Command Prompt for VS, simply run
mkdir _build
cd _build
cmake ..
msbuild ALL_BUILD.vcxproj
Download Cygwin (32-bit/64-bit)
Search and select exactly these packages in Devel category:
- mingw64-i686-gcc-core (32-bit) / mingw64-x86_64-gcc-core (64-bit)
- mingw64-i686-gcc-g++ (32-bit) / mingw64-x86_64-gcc-g++ (64-bit)
- make
- cmake
- libtool
- autoconf
- automake
- tree
- curl
- perl
- yasm
- pkg-config
To handle Windows EOL correctly run the following in the Cygwin Terminal:
echo '
export SHELLOPTS
set -o igncr
' > ~/.bash_profileDownload toxcore source code and extract it to a folder.
Open Cygwin Terminal in the toxcore folder and run
./other/windows_build_script_toxcore.sh to start the build process.
Toxcore build result files will appear in /root/prefix/ relatively to Cygwin
folder (default C:\cygwin64).
Dependency versions can be customized in
./other/windows_build_script_toxcore.sh and described in the section below.
These cross-compilation instructions were tested on and written for 64-bit Ubuntu 16.04. You could generalize them for any Linux system, the only requirements are that you have Docker version of >= 1.9.0 and you are running 64-bit system.
The cross-compilation is fully automated by a parameterized Dockerfile.
Install Docker
apt-get update
apt-get install docker.ioGet the toxcore source code and navigate to other/docker/windows.
Build the container image based on the Dockerfile. The following options are available to customize the building of the container image.
| Name | Description | Expected Value | Default Value |
|---|---|---|---|
SUPPORT_ARCH_i686 |
Support building 32-bit toxcore. | "true" or "false" (case sensitive). | true |
SUPPORT_ARCH_x86_64 |
Support building 64-bit toxcore. | "true" or "false" (case sensitive). | true |
SUPPORT_TEST |
Support running toxcore automated tests. | "true" or "false" (case sensitive). | false |
VERSION_OPUS |
Version of libopus to build toxcore with. | Numeric version number. | 1.4 |
VERSION_SODIUM |
Version of libsodium to build toxcore with. | Numeric version number. | 1.0.19 |
VERSION_VPX |
Version of libvpx to build toxcore with. | Numeric version number. | 1.14.0 |
ENABLE_HASH_VERIFICATION |
Verify the hashes of the default dependency versions. | "true" or "false" (case sensitive). | true |
Example of building a container image with options
cd other/docker/windows
docker build \
--build-arg SUPPORT_TEST=true \
-t toxcore \
.Run the container to build toxcore. The following options are available to customize the running of the container image.
| Name | Description | Expected Value | Default Value |
|---|---|---|---|
ALLOW_TEST_FAILURE |
Don't stop if a test suite fails. | "true" or "false" (case sensitive). | false |
ENABLE_ARCH_i686 |
Build 32-bit toxcore. The image should have been built with SUPPORT_ARCH_i686 enabled. |
"true" or "false" (case sensitive). | true |
ENABLE_ARCH_x86_64 |
Build 64-bit toxcore. The image should have been built with SUPPORT_ARCH_x86_64 enabled. |
"true" or "false" (case sensitive). | true |
ENABLE_TEST |
Run the test suite. The image should have been built with SUPPORT_TEST enabled. |
"true" or "false" (case sensitive). | false |
EXTRA_CMAKE_FLAGS |
Extra arguments to pass to the CMake command when building toxcore. | CMake options. | -DTEST_TIMEOUT_SECONDS=90 -DUSE_IPV6=OFF |
Example of running the container with options
docker run \
-e ENABLE_TEST=true \
-e ALLOW_TEST_FAILURE=true \
-v /path/to/toxcore/sourcecode:/toxcore \
-v /path/to/where/output/build/result:/prefix \
-t \
--rm \
toxcoreAfter the build succeeds, you should see the built toxcore libraries in
/path/to/where/output/build/result.
The file structure should look similar to the following
result
├── [4.0K] i686
│ ├── [ 36K] bin
│ │ ├── [636K] DHT_bootstrap.exe
│ │ ├── [572K] cracker.exe
│ │ ├── [359K] cracker_simple.exe
│ │ ├── [378K] create_bootstrap_keys.exe
│ │ ├── [378K] create_minimal_savedata.exe
│ │ ├── [958K] create_savedata.exe
│ │ ├── [ 18K] libtoxcore.def
│ │ ├── [2.6M] libtoxcore.dll
│ │ ├── [ 65K] libtoxcore.exp
│ │ ├── [428K] libtoxcore.lib
│ │ ├── [989K] save-generator.exe
│ │ ├── [381K] sign.exe
│ │ └── [408K] strkey.exe
│ ├── [4.0K] include
│ │ └── [4.0K] tox
│ │ ├── [177K] tox.h
│ │ ├── [ 10K] tox_dispatch.h
│ │ ├── [ 26K] tox_events.h
│ │ ├── [6.4K] tox_private.h
│ │ ├── [ 26K] toxav.h
│ │ └── [ 12K] toxencryptsave.h
│ └── [4.0K] lib
│ ├── [577K] libopus.a
│ ├── [660K] libsodium.a
│ ├── [ 10K] libssp.a
│ ├── [1016K] libtoxcore.a
│ ├── [456K] libtoxcore.dll.a
│ ├── [2.7M] libvpx.a
│ ├── [ 72K] libwinpthread.a
│ └── [4.0K] pkgconfig
│ ├── [ 250] libsodium.pc
│ ├── [ 357] opus.pc
│ ├── [ 247] toxcore.pc
│ └── [ 309] vpx.pc
└── [4.0K] x86_64
├── [ 36K] bin
│ ├── [504K] DHT_bootstrap.exe
│ ├── [474K] cracker.exe
│ ├── [277K] cracker_simple.exe
│ ├── [287K] create_bootstrap_keys.exe
│ ├── [288K] create_minimal_savedata.exe
│ ├── [769K] create_savedata.exe
│ ├── [ 18K] libtoxcore.def
│ ├── [2.4M] libtoxcore.dll
│ ├── [ 64K] libtoxcore.exp
│ ├── [420K] libtoxcore.lib
│ ├── [800K] save-generator.exe
│ ├── [289K] sign.exe
│ └── [317K] strkey.exe
├── [4.0K] include
│ └── [4.0K] tox
│ ├── [177K] tox.h
│ ├── [ 10K] tox_dispatch.h
│ ├── [ 26K] tox_events.h
│ ├── [6.4K] tox_private.h
│ ├── [ 26K] toxav.h
│ └── [ 12K] toxencryptsave.h
└── [4.0K] lib
├── [697K] libopus.a
├── [575K] libsodium.a
├── [ 11K] libssp.a
├── [905K] libtoxcore.a
├── [449K] libtoxcore.dll.a
├── [2.9M] libvpx.a
├── [ 68K] libwinpthread.a
└── [4.0K] pkgconfig
├── [ 252] libsodium.pc
├── [ 359] opus.pc
├── [ 249] toxcore.pc
└── [ 311] vpx.pc
12 directories, 60 files
libtoxcore.dllis the shared library. It is fully self-contained, with no additional dependencies aside from the Windows OS dlls, and can be used in MSVC, MinGW, Clang, etc. projects. Despite its name, it provides toxcore, toxav, toxencryptsave -- all of Tox.libtoxcore.ais the static library. In order to use it, it needs to be linked against the other provided .a libraries (but not the .dll.a!) and additionally -liphlpapi and -lws2_32 Windows dlls. It similarly provides all of Tox APIs.libtoxcore.dll.ais the MinGW import library forlibtoxcore.dll.libtoxcore.libis the MSVC import library forlibtoxcore.dll.libtoxcore.expandlibtoxcore.defare the exported bylibtoxcoresymbols.*.exeare statically compiled executables --DHT_bootstrapand the fun utils.
Toxcore is packaged by at least by the following distributions: ALT Linux, Arch Linux, Fedora, Mageia, openSUSE, PCLinuxOS, ROSA and Slackware, according to the information from pkgs.org. Note that this list might be incomplete and some other distributions might package it too.