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Installation guide

This guide explains how to install rofi using its build system and how you can make debug builds.

Rofi uses Meson as build system. Be default rofi builds with both backends (x11 and wayland) if available on the system. If no backend is found, it will give an error. You can force the build system to disable the wayland or x11 backend.

DEPENDENCY

For building

  • C compiler that supports the c99 standard. (gcc or clang)

  • make

  • meson

  • ninja

  • 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

External libraries

  • 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

Install from a release

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.

Meson

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.

Install a checkout from git

The GitHub Pages version of these directions may be out of date. Please use INSTALL.md from the online repo 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

From this point, use the same steps you use for a release.

Options for building

When you run the configure step there are several options you can configure.

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:

    # Meson
    meson setup build --prefix <installation path>

f.e.

    # Meson
    meson setup build --prefix /usr

Disable x11 support

meson setup build -Dxcb=disabled

Disable wayland support

meson setup build -Dwayland=disabled

Install locally

or to install locally:

    # Meson
    meson setup build --prefix ${HOME}/.local

Options for make

When you run make you can tweak the build process a little.

Verbose output

Show the commands called:

    # Meson
    ninja -C build -v

Debug build

Compile with debug symbols and no optimization, this is useful for making backtraces:

    # Meson
    meson configure build --debug
    ninja -C build

Get a backtrace

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.

    # 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.

Install distribution

Debian or Ubuntu

    apt install rofi

Fedora

    dnf install rofi

ArchLinux

    pacman -S rofi

Gentoo

An ebuild is available, x11-misc/rofi. It's up to date, but you may need to enable ~arch to get the latest release:

    echo 'x11-misc/rofi ~amd64' >> /etc/portage/package.accept_keywords

for amd64 or:

    echo 'x11-misc/rofi ~x86' >> /etc/portage/package.accept_keywords

for i386.

To install it, simply issue emerge rofi.

openSUSE

On both openSUSE Leap and openSUSE Tumbleweed rofi can be installed using:

    sudo zypper install rofi

FreeBSD

    sudo pkg install rofi

macOS

On macOS rofi can be installed via MacPorts:

    sudo port install rofi