This guide explains how to install rofi using its build system and how you can make debug builds.
Rofi uses autotools (GNU Build system), for more information see here. You can also use Meson as an alternative.
-
C compiler that supports the c99 standard. (gcc or clang)
-
make
-
autoconf
-
automake (1.11.3 or up)
-
pkg-config
-
flex 2.5.39 or higher
-
bison
-
check (Can be disabled using the
--disable-check
configure flag) check is used for build-time tests and does not affect functionality. -
Developer packages of the external libraries
-
glib-compile-resources
-
libpango >= 1.50
-
libpangocairo
-
libcairo
-
libcairo-xcb
-
libglib2.0 >= 2.72
- gmodule-2.0
- gio-unix-2.0
-
libgdk-pixbuf-2.0
-
libstartup-notification-1.0
-
libxkbcommon >= 0.4.1
-
libxkbcommon-x11
-
libxcb (sometimes split, you need libxcb, libxcb-xkb and libxcb-randr libxcb-xinerama)
-
xcb-util
-
xcb-util-wm (sometimes split as libxcb-ewmh and libxcb-icccm)
-
xcb-util-cursor
-
xcb-imdkit (optional, 1.0.3 or up preferred)
On debian based systems, the developer packages are in the form of:
<package>-dev
on rpm based <package>-devel
.
For wayland support:
- wayland
- wayland-protocols >= 1.17
When downloading from the github release page, make sure to grab the archive
rofi-{version}.tar.[g|x]z
. The auto-attached files source code (zip|tar.gz)
by github do not contain a valid release. It misses a setup build system and
includes irrelevant files.
Create a build directory and enter it:
mkdir build && cd build
Check dependencies and configure build system:
../configure
Build Rofi:
make
The actual install, execute as root (if needed):
make install
The default installation prefix is: /usr/local/
use ./configure --prefix={prefix}
to install into another location.
Check dependencies and configure build system:
meson setup build
Build Rofi:
ninja -C build
The actual install, execute as root (if needed):
ninja -C build install
The default installation prefix is: /usr/local/
use meson setup build --prefix={prefix}
to install into another location.
The GitHub Pages version of these directions may be out of date. Please use [INSTALL.md from the online repo][master-install] or your local repository.
If you don't have a checkout:
git clone --recursive https://github.com/DaveDavenport/rofi
cd rofi/
If you already have a checkout:
cd rofi/
git pull
git submodule update --init
For Autotools you have an extra step, to generate build system:
autoreconf -i
From this point, use the same steps you use for a release.
When you run the configure step there are several options you can configure.
For Autotools, you can see the full list with ./configure --help
.
For Meson, before the initial setup, you can see rofi options in
meson_options.txt
and Meson options with meson setup --help
. Meson's
built-in options can be set using regular command line arguments, like so:
meson setup build --option=value
. Rofi-specific options can be set using the
-D
argument, like so: meson setup build -Doption=value
. After the build dir
is set up by meson setup build
, the meson configure build
command can be
used to configure options, by the same means.
The most useful one to set is the installation prefix:
# Autotools
../configure --prefix=<installation path>
# Meson
meson setup build --prefix <installation path>
f.e.
# Autotools
../configure --prefix=/usr/
# Meson
meson setup build --prefix /usr
or to install locally:
# Autotools
../configure --prefix=${HOME}/.local/
# Meson
meson setup build --prefix ${HOME}/.local
When you run make you can tweak the build process a little.
Show the commands called:
# Autotools
make V=1
# Meson
ninja -C build -v
Compile with debug symbols and no optimization, this is useful for making backtraces:
# Autotools
make CFLAGS="-O0 -g3" clean rofi
# Meson
meson configure build --debug
ninja -C build
Getting a backtrace using GDB is not very handy. Because if rofi get stuck, it grabs keyboard and mouse. So if it crashes in GDB you are stuck. The best way to go is to enable core file. (ulimit -c unlimited in bash) then make rofi crash. You can then load the core in GDB.
# Autotools
gdb rofi core
# Meson (because it uses a separate build directory)
gdb build/rofi core
Where the core file is located and what its exact name is different on each distributions. Please consult the relevant documentation.
For more information see the rofi-debugging(5) manpage.
The wayland fork is currently available in some distributions as user contributed packages
https://pkgs.alpinelinux.org/packages?name=rofi-wayland
https://archlinux.org/packages/extra/x86_64/rofi-wayland
https://packages.fedoraproject.org/pkgs/rofi-wayland/rofi-wayland/
gui-apps/rofi-wayland
exists in the GURU overlay.
https://gitweb.gentoo.org/repo/proj/guru.git/tree/gui-apps/rofi-wayland
rofi-wayland is integrated in nixpkgs master (PR)
rofi-wayland is normally integrated in Factory/Tumbleweed as the package rofi-wayland
.