Vulkan-Headers/BUILD.md

Build Instructions

Instructions for building this repository on Windows, Linux, and MacOS.

Since this repository doesn't contain any build targets for libraries or executables, there usually isn't any need to "build" this repository. However, install and uninstall targets are provided if you have a need to install the Vulkan headers and registry files to system directories or other location for use by other repositories.

Index

1. Contributing
2. Repository Set-Up
3. Installed Files
4. Windows Build
5. Linux Build
6. MacOS build

Contributing to the Repository

The contents of this repository are sourced primarily from the Khronos Vulkan API specification repository. Please visit that repository for information on contributing.

Repository Set-Up

Download the Repository

To create your local git repository:

git clone https://github.com/KhronosGroup/Vulkan-Headers.git

Installed Files

The install target installs the following files under the directory indicated by "install_dir":

• install_dir/include/vulkan : The header files found in the include/vulkan directory of this repository
• install_dir/share/vulkan/registry : The registry files found in the registry directory of this repository

Building On Windows

Windows Build Requirements

Windows 7+ with the following software packages:

• Microsoft Visual Studio 2013 Update 4 Professional, VS2015 (any version), or VS2017 (any version).
• CMake
  • Tell the installer to "Add CMake to the system PATH" environment variable.
• Git
  • Tell the installer to allow it to be used for "Developer Prompt" as well as "Git Bash".
  • Tell the installer to treat line endings "as is" (i.e. both DOS and Unix-style line endings).
  • Install both the 32-bit and 64-bit versions, as the 64-bit installer does not install the 32-bit libraries and tools.

Windows Build - Microsoft Visual Studio

The general approach is to run cmake to generate the VS project files. Then either run cmake again to build from the command line or use the Visual Studio IDE to open the generated solution and work with the solution interactively.

It should be possible to perform these cmake invocations from any one of the Windows "terminal programs", including the standard Windows Command Prompt, MSBuild Command Prompt, PowerShell, MINGW, CygWin, etc.

Use cmake to create the VS project files

Switch to the top of the cloned repository directory, create a build directory and generate the VS project files:

cd Vulkan-Headers
mkdir build
cd build
cmake ..

The default install directory location is $CMAKE_BINARY_DIR\install, which is your Vulkan-Headers\build\install directory.

This default setting sets the install destination to Vulkan-Headers\build\install and causes the header files to be installed to Vulkan-Headers\build\install\include/vulkan and the registry files to be installed to Vulkan-Headers\build\install\share\vulkan\registry.

The install location can be changed with the CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX variable.

For example:

cd Vulkan-Headers
mkdir build
cd build
cmake -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/c/Users/dev/install ..  # MINGW64 shell

As it starts generating the project files, cmake responds with something like:

-- Building for: Visual Studio 14 2015

which is a 32-bit generator.

Since this repository does not compile anything, there is no need to specify a specific generator such as "Visual Studio 14 2015 Win64", so the default generator should suffice.

This creates a Windows solution file named Vulkan-Headers.sln in the build directory.

At this point, you can build the solution from the command line or open the generated solution with Visual Studio.

Build the solution from the command line

While still in the build directory:

cmake --build . --target install

to build the install target.

Build the uninstall target to remove the files from the install location.

cmake --build . --target uninstall

Build the solution with Visual Studio

Launch Visual Studio and open the "Vulkan-Headers.sln" solution file in the build folder. Build the INSTALL target from the Visual Studio solution explorer.

Build the uninstall target to remove the files from the install location.

cmake --build . --target uninstall

Building On Linux

Linux Build Requirements

There are no specific Linux distribution or compiler verison requirements for building this repository.

Linux Build

Switch to the top of the cloned repository directory, create a build directory and generate the make files:

cd Vulkan-Headers
mkdir build
cd build
cmake -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=install ..

Set the CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX variable to the directory to serve as the destination directory for the install target. The above setting sets the install destination to Vulkan-Headers/build/install which causes the header files to be installed to Vulkan-Headers/build/install/include/vulkan and the registry files to be installed to Vulkan-Headers/build/install/share/vulkan/registry

For Linux, the default value for CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX is /usr/local, which would be used if you do not specify CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX. In this case, you may need to use sudo to install to system directories later when you run make install.

Note that after generating the make files, running make:

make

does nothing, since there are no libraries or executables to build.

To install the header files:

make install

To uninstall the files from the install directories, you can execute:

make uninstall

Building on MacOS

The instructions for installing the headers for MacOS are the same as those for Linux.