View source for Compile and Install With CMake

'''Disclaimer''': As of Spring 2025, the development of GRASS GIS using CMake is ongoing. Both the functionality of the CMake build system and the content of this documentation are subject to change.

== Building With CMake ==

It is strongly recommended to perform the build process with CMake in a separate directory, as opposed to the traditional approach of running `./configure && make` in the top-level directory of the source repository using Autotools. The designated build directory may be located anywhere.

A simple configuration, which creates a build directory named "build" (with -B argument) with current directory as source directory (with -S), can look like this:

      cd grass_source_dir
      cmake -B build -S .

Executing the building process is made with:

      cmake --build build

A custom configuration may look like:

      export CFLAGS="-DGL_SILENCE_DEPRECATION"
      cd grass_source_dir
      cmake -B build -S . -G Ninja \
            -DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH="/opt/local" \
            -DWITH_OPENMP=ON
      cmake --build build -v -j8
      
To clean up the configuration and build files (equivalent to `make distclean`):

      cd grass_source_dir
      rm -rf build

Install:

      cmake --install build

It is possible to run GRASS for testing purposes in build directory:

     ./build/output/bin/grass

== Required Software for GRASS ==

Required software to build GRASS:

* [https://www.gnu.org/software/bison/ Bison]
* [https://cmake.org CMake] (version 3.22+)
* [https://github.com/westes/flex flex]
* [https://gdal.org/en/stable/ GDAL]
* [https://www.pcre.org PCRE] (required for MSVC only, on *NIX based platforms the Regex library is part of the system)
* [https://proj.org/ PROJ]
* [https://www.python.org Python] (version 3.9+)
* [https://zlib.net zlib]

== Optional Software and Configuration Flags ==

{| class="wikitable"
|+ Optional Libraries and Configuration Flags
|-
! Software !! Flag (BOOL) !! Default
|-
| bzip2 || WITH_BZLIB || OFF
|-
| Cairo || WITH_CAIRO || ON
|-
| CBLAS || WITH_CBLAS || ON
|-
| FFTW || WITH_FFTW || ON
|-
| FreeType || WITH_FREETYPE || ON
|-
| GEOS || WITH_GEOS || ON
|-
| LAPACKE || WITH_LAPACKE || ON
|-
| libLAS || WITH_LIBLAS || OFF
|-
| libpng || WITH_LIBPNG || ON
|-
| LibTIFF || WITH_TIFF || ON
|-
| MySQL || WITH_MYSQL || OFF
|-
| NetCDF || WITH_NETCDF || OFF
|-
| ODBC || WITH_ODBC || OFF
|-
| OpenGL || WITH_OPENGL || ON
|-
| OpenMP || WITH_OPENMP || OFF
|-
| PDAL || WITH_PDAL || ON
|-
| PostgreSQL || WITH_POSTGRES || ON
|-
| Readline || WITH_READLINE || ON
|-
| SQLite || WITH_SQLITE || ON
|-
| X11 || WITH_X11 || ON/OFF*
|-
| Zstandard || WITH_ZSTD || ON
|}

{| class="wikitable"
|+ Other Configuration Flags
|-
! Description !! Flag (BOOL) !! Default
|-
| Build documentation || WITH_DOCS || ON
|-
| Install according to Filesystem Hierarchy Standard (FHS) || WITH_FHS || OFF
|-
| Build GUI || WITH_GUI || ON
|-
| Large file support || WITH_LARGEFILES || ON/OFF*
|-
| Build with National Language Support (NLS) || WITH_NLS || ON/OFF*
|-
| Use Ccache || USE_CCACHE || ON
|}

*) the default setting varies by platform.

=== Configuration Options ===

==== bzip2 (-DWITH_BZLIB) ====

[https://sourceware.org/bzip2/ bzip2] is a freely available high-quality data compressor.

The library is used by: GRASS General Library (GRASS GIS Library).

==== Cairo (-DWITH_CAIRO) ====

[https://www.cairographics.org Cairo] is a 2D graphics library with support for multiple output devices.

The library is used by: GRASS Cairo Display Driver and `g.cairocomp`.

==== CBLAS (-DWITH_CBLAS) ====

[https://www.netlib.org/blas/ CBLAS] C interface to the BLAS (Basic Linear Algebra Subprograms) which are routines that provide standard building blocks for performing basic vector and matrix operations.

The library is used by: GRASS numerical math interface (GRASS Math Library).

==== FFTW (-DWITH_FFTW) ====

[https://www.fftw.org FFTW] is a C subroutine library for computing the discrete Fourier transform (DFT) in one or more dimensions, of arbitrary input size, and of both real and complex data.

The library is used by: GRASS numerical math interface (GRASS Math Library), `i.fft` and `i.ifft`.

==== FreeType (-DWITH_FREETYPE) ====

[https://freetype.org FreeType] is a freely available software library to render fonts.

The library is used by: GRASS Display Driver, GRASS Cairo Display Driver and `v.label.sa`.

==== GEOS (-DWITH_GEOS) ====

[https://libgeos.org GEOS] is a C/C++ library for computational geometry with a focus on algorithms used in geographic information systems (GIS) software.

The library is used by: `v.buffer`, `v.profile` and `v.select`.

==== LAPACKE (-DWITH_LAPACKE) ====

[https://www.netlib.org/lapack/lapacke.html LAPACKE]is the C Interface to LAPACK, the Linear Algebra PACKage.

The library is used by: GRASS Vector Library, GRASS numerical math interface (GRASS Math Library) and GRASS Raster Library

==== libLAS (-DWITH_LIBLAS) ====

[https://liblas.org libLAS] is a C/C++ library for reading and writing the very common LAS LiDAR format.

The library is used by: `r.in.lidar`, `r3.in.lidar`, `v.in.lidar`, `v.lidar.correction`, `v.lidar.edgedetection`, `v.lidar.growing` and `v.out.lidar`.

==== libpng (-DWITH_LIBPNG) ====

[http://www.libpng.org/pub/png/ libpng] provides support for Portable Network Graphics (PNG) image file format.

The library is used by: GRASS PNG Display Driver Library, `r.in.png` and `r.out.png`.

==== LibTIFF (-DWITH_TIFF) ====

[https://libtiff.gitlab.io/libtiff/ LibTIFF] provides support for the Tag Image File Format (TIFF), a widely used format for storing image data.

The library is used by: GRASS OGSF Library.

==== MySQL (-DWITH_MYSQL) ====

[https://www.mysql.com MySQL] or [https://mariadb.org MariaDB] are two forks of a relational database.

The library is used by: GRASS DataBase MySQL driver.

==== NetCDF (-DWITH_NETCDF) ====

[https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/software/netcdf/ NetCDF] (Network Common Data Form) is a set of software libraries and machine-independent data formats that support the creation, access, and sharing of array-oriented scientific data.

The library is used by: `r3.out.netcdf`.

==== ODBC (-DWITH_ODBC) ====

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Database_Connectivity Open Database Connectivity] (ODBC) is a standard application programming interface (API) for accessing database management systems (DBMS).

The library is used by: GRASS DataBase ODBC driver.

==== OpenGL (-DWITH_OPENGL) ====

[https://www.opengl.org OpenGL] (Open Graphics Library) is a cross-language, cross-platform application programming interface (API) for rendering 2D and 3D vector graphics. 

The library is used by: GRASS OGSF Library and GRASS Nviz Library.

==== OpenMP (-DWITH_OPENMP) ====

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenMP OpenMP] is an application programming interface (API) that supports multi-platform shared-memory multiprocessing programming in C, C++, and Fortran, on many platforms, instruction-set architectures and operating systems.

The library is used by: GRASS numerical math interface (GRASS Math Library), GRASS Partial differential equations Library (GPDE), GRASS Library for interpolation with regularized splines with tension (RST), `r.mfilter`,
`r.neighbors`, `r.proj`, `r.resamp.filter`, `r.resamp.interp`, `r.series`, `r.series.accumulate`, `r.slope.aspect`, `r.sun`, `r.sim`, `r.univar`, `r3.univar` and `v.surf.rst`.

==== PDAL (-DWITH_PDAL) ====

[https://pdal.io/ PDAL] is a C++ library for translating and manipulating point cloud data.

The library is used by: `r.in.pdal` and `v.in.pdal`.

==== PostgreSQL (-DWITH_POSTGRES) ====

[https://www.postgresql.org PostgreSQL] is a powerful, open source object-relational database system.

The library is used by: GRASS DataBase PostgreSQL driver, GRASS General Library (GRASS GIS Library), `v.external` and `v.out.postgis`.

==== Readline (-DWITH_READLINE) ====

[https://www.gnu.org/software/readline/ Readline] library provides a set of functions for use by applications that allow users to edit command lines as they are typed in.

The library is used by: `r.mapcalc` and `r3.mapcalc`.

==== SQLite (-DWITH_SQLITE) ====

[https://www.sqlite.org SQLite] is a C-language library that implements a small, fast, self-contained, high-reliability, full-featured, SQL database engine.

The library is used by: GRASS DataBase SQLite driver and `g.version`.

==== X11 (-DWITH_X11) ====

[https://www.x.org/wiki/ X Window System] (X11) is a windowing system for bitmap displays, common on Unix-like operating systems.

The library is used by: GRASS Nviz Library, `g.cairocomp` and `ximgview`.

==== Zstandard (-DWITH_ZSTD) ====

[https://facebook.github.io/zstd/ Zstandard] is a fast compression algorithm, providing high compression ratios. It also offers a special mode for small data, called dictionary compression.

The library is used by: GRASS General Library (GRASS GIS Library).

==== Build documentation (-DWITH_DOCS) ====

==== Install according to Filesystem Hierarchy Standard (FHS) -(DWITH_FHS) ====

==== Build GUI (-DWITH_GUI) ====

==== Large file support (-DWITH_LARGEFILES) ====

==== Build with National Language Support (-DWITH_NLS) ====

Requires: [https://www.gnu.org/software/gettext/ Gettext]

==== Use Ccache (-DUSE_CCACHE) ====

[https://ccache.dev Ccache] is a compiler cache. It speeds up recompilation by caching previous compilations and detecting when the same compilation is being done again.

Requires: Ccache

[[Category:Development]]
[[Category:Documentation]]
[[Category:Installation]]