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Overview of kdesrc-build configuration

4.1. Overview of kdesrc-build configuration#

To use the script, you must have a file in your home directory called .kdesrc-buildrc, which describes the modules you would like to download and build, and any options or configuration parameters to use for these modules.

4.1.1. Layout of the configuration file#

4.1.1.1. Global configuration#

The configuration file starts with the global options, specified like the following:

global
    option-name option-value
    [...]
end global

4.1.1.2. Module configuration#

It is then followed by one or more module sections, specified in one of the following two forms:

module module-name
  option-name option-value
  [...]
end module

module-set module-set-name
  repository kde-projects or git://host.org/path/to/repo.git
  use-modules module-names

  # Other options may also be set
  option-name option-value
  [...]
end module-set

Important

Note that the second form, module sets, only works for Git-based modules.

For Git modules, <module-name> must be a module from the KDE Git repository (for example, kdeartwork or kde-wallpapers).

For Git modules, the module name can be essentially whatever you'd like, as long as it does not duplicate any other module name in the configuration. Keep in mind the source and build directory layout will be based on the module name if you do not use the dest-dir option.

However, for Git module sets the <module-names> must correspond with actual git modules in the chosen repository. See git-repository-base or use-modules for more information.

4.1.1.3. Processing of option values#

In general, the entire line contents after the <option-name> is used as the <option-value>.

One modification that kdesrc-build performs is that a sequence "${name-of-option}" is replaced with the value of that option from the global configuration. This allows you to reference the value of existing options, including options already set by kdesrc-build.

To see an example of this in use, see Configuring Make to use all available CPUs, with exceptions.

You can also introduce your own non-standard global variables for referencing them further in the config. To do this, your option name should be prepended with underscore symbol. Example:

Introducing your own global option for referencing later in config#
global
  _ver 6  # ← your custom variable (starting with underscore)
  _kde ~/kde${_ver}  # ← custom variable can contain another defined variable
  source-dir ${_kde}/src  # ← note that nested variable (_kde → _ver) is also resolved
end global

options kdepim
  log-dir /custom/path/logs${_ver} # ← you can use custom variable just like a standard
end options

4.1.1.4. “options” modules#

There is a final type of configuration file entry, options groups, which may be given wherever a module or module-set may be used.

options module-name
  option-name option-value
  [...]
end options

An options group may have options set for it just like a module declaration, and is associated with an existing module. Any options set these way will be used to override options set for the associated module.

Important

The associated module name must match the name given in the options declaration. Be careful of mis-typing the name.

This is useful to allow for declaring an entire module-set worth of modules, all using the same options, and then using options groups to make individual changes.

options groups can also apply to named module sets. This allows expert users to use a common configuration file (which includes module-set declarations) as a baseline, and then make changes to the options used by those module-sets in configuration files that use the include command to reference the base configuration.

In this example we choose to build all modules from the KDE multimedia software grouping. However we want to use a different version of the KMix application (perhaps for testing a bug fix). It works as follows:

Example of using options#
module-set kde-multimedia-set
  repository kde-projects
  use-modules kde/kdemultimedia
  branch master
end module-set

# kmix is a part of kde/kdemultimedia group, even though we never named
# kmix earlier in this file, kdesrc-build will figure out the change.
options kmix
  branch KDE/4.12
end options

Now when you run kdesrc-build, all of the KDE multimedia programs will be built from the “master” branch of the source repository, but KMix will be built from the older “KDE/4.12” branch. By using options you didn't have to individually list all the other KDE multimedia programs to give them the right branch option.

Note

Note that this feature is only available in kdesrc-build from version 1.16, or using the development version of kdesrc-build after 2014-01-12.

4.1.2. Including other configuration files#

Within the configuration file, you may reference other files by using the include keyword with a file, which will act as if the file referenced had been inserted into the configuration file at that point.

For example, you could have something like this:

global
    include ~/common-kdesrc-build-options

    # Insert specific options here.

end global

Note

If you don't specify the full path to the file to include, then the file will be searched for starting from the directory containing the source file. This works recursively as well.

You can use variables in the value of include instruction:

global
  _ver 6
  source-dir ~/kde${_ver}/src
  ...
  persistent-data-file ~/kde${_ver}/persistent-options.json
end global

include ~/kde6/src/kdesrc-build/data/build-include/kf${_ver}-qt${_ver}.ksb

4.1.3. Commonly used configuration options#

The following is a list of commonly-used options. Click on the option to find out more about it. To see the full list of options, see the section called Table of available configuration options.

  • cmake-options to define what flags to configure a module with using CMake.

  • branch, to checkout from a branch instead of master.

  • configure-flags to define what flags to configure Qt with.

  • install-dir, to set the directory to install KDE to.

  • make-options, to pass options to the Make program (such as number of CPUs to use).

  • qt-install-dir, to set the directory to install Qt to.

  • source-dir, to change where to download the source code to.

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