BUILD.md

Build the library

The build is currently tested on GNU/Linux, macOS, and Windows.

Unix-like systems (Linux, macOS, MSYS2/MinGW, etc.)

Install dependencies

Debian 13

# Install dependencies
sudo apt install pkg-config libncurses5-dev libreadline-dev nettle-dev libgnutls28-dev libargon2-dev libmsgpack-dev libssl-dev libfmt-dev libjsoncpp-dev libhttp-parser-dev libasio-dev libmsgpack-cxx-dev

# Install Python binding dependencies
sudo apt-get install cython3 python3-dev python3-setuptools python3-build

Optionally, install RESTinio to enable the OpenDHT proxy client and server:

mkdir /usr/include/nonstd
wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/martinmoene/expected-lite/master/include/nonstd/expected.hpp -O /usr/include/nonstd/expected.hpp

wget https://github.com/Stiffstream/restinio/releases/download/v.0.7.9/restinio-0.7.9.tar.bz2
tar -xjf restinio-0.7.9.tar.bz2
cd restinio-0.7.9/dev
cmake -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr -DRESTINIO_TEST=Off -DRESTINIO_SAMPLE=Off -DRESTINIO_BENCHMARK=Off -DRESTINIO_WITH_SOBJECTIZER=Off -DRESTINIO_DEP_STANDALONE_ASIO=system -DRESTINIO_DEP_LLHTTP=system -DRESTINIO_DEP_FMT=system -DRESTINIO_DEP_EXPECTED_LITE=system .
make && make install

To run openDHT on a different computer from the build computer, the following runtime dependencies are required:

sudo apt install libargon2-1 libjsoncpp26

Ubuntu 24.04 and Debian 12

# Install dependencies
sudo apt install pkg-config libncurses5-dev libreadline-dev nettle-dev libgnutls28-dev libargon2-0-dev libmsgpack-dev libssl-dev libfmt-dev libjsoncpp-dev libhttp-parser-dev libasio-dev

# Install Python binding dependencies
sudo apt-get install cython3 python3-dev python3-setuptools python3-build

Optionally, install RESTinio to enable the OpenDHT proxy client and server:

mkdir /usr/include/nonstd
wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/martinmoene/expected-lite/master/include/nonstd/expected.hpp -O /usr/include/nonstd/expected.hpp

wget https://github.com/Stiffstream/restinio/releases/download/v.0.7.9/restinio-0.7.9.tar.bz2
tar -xjf restinio-0.7.9.tar.bz2
cd restinio-0.7.9/dev
cmake -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr -DRESTINIO_TEST=Off -DRESTINIO_SAMPLE=Off -DRESTINIO_BENCHMARK=Off -DRESTINIO_WITH_SOBJECTIZER=Off -DRESTINIO_DEP_STANDALONE_ASIO=system -DRESTINIO_DEP_LLHTTP=system -DRESTINIO_DEP_FMT=system -DRESTINIO_DEP_EXPECTED_LITE=system .
make && make install

Fedora

# Install GnuTLS, Readline and msgpack-c
sudo dnf install readline-devel gnutls-devel msgpack-devel asio-devel libargon2-devel fmt-devel
# Install python binding dependencies
sudo dnf install python3-Cython python3-devel redhat-rpm-config

macOS

brew install gnutls msgpack-cxx argon2 asio readline jsoncpp fmt llhttp

Build

Using CMake:

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/savoirfairelinux/opendht.git

# Build and install
cd opendht
mkdir build && cd build
cmake ..
make -j$(nproc)
sudo make install

Example Configurations

Minimal build (libraries only):

cmake -DOPENDHT_TOOLS=OFF ..

Full-featured build with proxy support, Python, and C bindings:

cmake -DOPENDHT_PYTHON=ON \
      -DOPENDHT_C=ON \
      -DOPENDHT_PROXY_SERVER=ON \
      -DOPENDHT_PROXY_SERVER_IDENTITY=ON \
      -DOPENDHT_PROXY_CLIENT=ON \
      -DOPENDHT_PUSH_NOTIFICATIONS=ON ..

Common CMake options

Option	Default	Purpose
OPENDHT_TOOLS	ON	CLI tools (dhtnode, dhtchat, …)
OPENDHT_C	OFF	C language bindings
OPENDHT_PYTHON	OFF	Python 3 Cython bindings
OPENDHT_PROXY_SERVER	OFF	REST API proxy server (requires RESTinio + llhttp)
OPENDHT_PROXY_CLIENT	OFF	REST API proxy client
OPENDHT_PEER_DISCOVERY	OFF	Multicast local peer discovery
OPENDHT_PUSH_NOTIFICATIONS	OFF	Push notification support
OPENDHT_SANITIZE	OFF	AddressSanitizer + stack protector

Windows/MSVC

Building on Windows with MSVC is supported with VCPKG and CMake.

Build with VCPKG in manifest mode

1. Install VCPKG and required dependencies:

git clone https://github.com/microsoft/vcpkg.git
cd vcpkg; .\bootstrap-vcpkg.bat

2. Use CMake preset for vcpkg:

cd opendht
cmake --preset=vcpkg_manifest .
cmake --build .