Kiwix library
=============

The Kiwix library provides the [Kiwix](https://kiwix.org) software
suite core. It contains the code shared by all Kiwix ports (Windows,
GNU/Linux, macOS, Android, iOS, ...).

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Disclaimer
----------

This document assumes you have a little knowledge about software
compilation. If you experience difficulties with the dependencies or
with the Kiwix libary compilation itself, we recommend to have a look
to [kiwix-build](https://github.com/kiwix/kiwix-build).

Preamble
--------

Although the Kiwix library can be (cross-)compiled on/for many
sytems, the following documentation explains how to do it on POSIX
ones. It is primarly thought for GNU/Linux systems and has been tested
on recent releases of Ubuntu and Fedora.

Dependencies
------------

The Kiwix library relies on many third parts software libraries. They
are prerequisites to the Kiwix library compilation. Following
libraries need to be available:

* [ICU](https://site.icu-project.org/) (package `libicu-dev` on Ubuntu)
* [ZIM](https://openzim.org/) (package `libzim-dev` on Ubuntu)
* [Pugixml](https://pugixml.org/) (package `libpugixml-dev` on Ubuntu)
* [Mustache](https://github.com/kainjow/Mustache) (Just copy the
header `mustache.hpp` somewhere it can be found by the compiler and/or
set CPPFLAGS with correct `-I` option). Use Mustache version 3 only.
* [libcurl](https://curl.se/libcurl) (`libcurl4-gnutls-dev`, `libcurl4-nss-dev` or `libcurl4-openssl-dev` on Ubuntu)
* [microhttpd](https://www.gnu.org/software/libmicrohttpd) (package `libmicrohttpd-dev` on Ubuntu)
* [zlib](https://zlib.net/) (package `zlib1g-dev` on Ubuntu)

The following dependency needs to be available at runtime:
* [Aria2](https://aria2.github.io/) (package `aria2` on Ubuntu)

These dependencies may or may not be packaged by your operating
system. They may also be packaged but only in an older version. The
compilation script will tell you if one of them is missing or too old.
In the worse case, you will have to download and compile bleeding edge
version by hand.

If you want to install these dependencies locally, then use the
`kiwix-lib` directory as install prefix.

Environment
-------------

The Kiwix library builds using [Meson](https://mesonbuild.com/) version
0.45 or higher. Meson relies itself on Ninja, pkg-config and few other
compilation tools.

Install first the few common compilation tools:
* [Meson](https://mesonbuild.com/)
* [Ninja](https://ninja-build.org/)
* [pkg-config](https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/pkg-config/)

These tools should be packaged if you use a cutting edge operating
system. If not, have a look to the [Troubleshooting](#Troubleshooting)
section.

Compilation
-----------

Once all dependencies are installed, you can compile the Kiwix library
with:
```bash
meson . build
ninja -C build
```

By default, it will compile dynamic linked libraries. All binary files
will be created in the "build" directory created automatically by
Meson. If you want statically linked libraries, you can add
`--default-library=static` option to the Meson command.

Depending of you system, `ninja` may be called `ninja-build`.

Testing
-------

To run the automated tests:
```bash
cd build
meson test
```

Installation
------------

If you want to install the Kiwix library and the headers you just have
compiled on your system, here we go:
```bash
ninja -C build install
```

You might need to run the command as root (or using `sudo`), depending
where you want to install the libraries. After the installation
succeeded, you may need to run `ldconfig` (as `root`).

Uninstallation
------------

If you want to uninstall the Kiwix library:
```bash
ninja -C build uninstall
```

Like for the installation, you might need to run the command as `root`
(or using `sudo`).

Troubleshooting
---------------

If you need to install Meson "manually":
```bash
virtualenv -p python3 ./ # Create virtualenv
source bin/activate      # Activate the virtualenv
pip3 install meson       # Install Meson
hash -r                  # Refresh bash paths
```

If you need to install Ninja "manually":
```bash
git clone git://github.com/ninja-build/ninja.git
cd ninja
git checkout release
./configure.py --bootstrap
mkdir ../bin
cp ninja ../bin
cd ..
```

If the compilation still fails, you might need to get a more recent
version of a dependency than the one packaged by your Linux
distribution. Try then with a source tarball distributed by the
problematic upstream project or even directly from the source code
repository.

License
-------

[GPLv3](https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0) or later, see
[COPYING](COPYING) for more details.
