Compiling DFHack

You don’t need to compile DFHack unless you’re developing plugins or working on the core.

For users, modders, and authors of scripts it’s better to download and install the latest release instead.

How to get the code

DFHack doesn’t have any kind of system of code snapshots in place, so you will have to get code from the github repository using git. How to get git is described under the instructions for each platform.

To get the code:

git clone --recursive https://github.com/DFHack/dfhack
cd dfhack

If your version of git does not support the --recursive flag, you will need to omit it and run git submodule update --init after entering the dfhack directory.

If you want to get involved with the development, create an account on Github, make a clone there and then use that as your remote repository instead. We’d love that; join us on IRC (#dfhack channel on freenode) if you need help.

Build types

cmake allows you to pick a build type by changing the CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE variable:

cmake .. -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE:string=BUILD_TYPE

Without specifying a build type or ‘None’, cmake uses the CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS variable for building.

Valid and useful build types include ‘Release’, ‘Debug’ and ‘RelWithDebInfo’. ‘Debug’ is not available on Windows.

Linux

On Linux, DFHack acts as a library that shadows parts of the SDL API using LD_PRELOAD.

Dependencies

DFHack is meant to be installed into an existing DF folder, so get one ready.

We assume that any Linux platform will have git available.

To build DFHack you need a version of GCC 4.x capable of compiling for 32-bit (i386) targets. GCC 4.5 is easiest to work with due to avoiding libstdc++ issues (see below), but any later 4.x version should work as well. GCC 5.x will not work due to ABI changes (the entire plugin loading system won’t work, for example). On 64-bit distributions, you’ll need the multilib development tools and libraries (gcc-multilib or gcc-4.x-multilib on Debian). Note that installing a 32-bit GCC on 64-bit systems (e.g. gcc:i386 on Debian) will typically not work, as it depends on several other 32-bit libraries that conflict with system libraries. Alternatively, you might be able to use lxc to create a virtual 32-bit environment.

Before you can build anything, you’ll also need cmake. It is advisable to also get ccmake on distributions that split the cmake package into multiple parts.

You also need perl and the XML::LibXML and XML::LibXSLT perl packages (for the code generation parts). You should be able to find them in your distro repositories.

  • On Arch linux, perl-xml-libxml and perl-xml-libxslt (or through cpan)
  • On 64-bit Ubuntu, apt-get install zlib1g-dev:i386 libxml-libxml-perl libxml-libxslt-perl.
  • On 32-bit Ubuntu, apt-get install gcc-multilib g++-multilib zlib1g-dev libxml-libxml-perl libxml-libxslt-perl.
  • Debian-derived distros should have similar requirements.

To build Stonesense, you’ll also need OpenGL headers.

Build

Building is fairly straightforward. Enter the build folder (or create an empty folder in the DFHack directory to use instead) and start the build like this:

cd build
cmake .. -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE:string=Release -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/home/user/DF
make install

Obviously, replace the install path with path to your DF. This will build the library along with the normal set of plugins and install them into your DF folder.

Alternatively, you can use ccmake instead of cmake:

cd build
ccmake ..
make install

This will show a curses-based interface that lets you set all of the extra options. You can also use a cmake-friendly IDE like KDevelop 4 or the cmake-gui program.

Incompatible libstdc++

When compiling dfhack yourself, it builds against your system libstdc++. When Dwarf Fortress runs, it uses a libstdc++ shipped with the binary, which comes from GCC 4.5 and is incompatible with code compiled with newer GCC versions. This manifests itself with the error message:

./libs/Dwarf_Fortress: /pathToDF/libs/libstdc++.so.6: version
    `GLIBCXX_3.4.15' not found (required by ./hack/libdfhack.so)

To fix this, you can compile with GCC 4.5 or remove the libstdc++ shipped with DF, which causes DF to use your system libstdc++ instead:

cd /path/to/DF/
rm libs/libstdc++.so.6

Note that distributing binaries compiled with newer GCC versions requires end- users to delete libstdc++ themselves and have a libstdc++ on their system from the same GCC version or newer. For this reason, distributing anything compiled with GCC versions newer than 4.8 is discouraged.

Mac OS X

DFHack functions similarly on OS X and Linux, and the majority of the information above regarding the build process (cmake and make) applies here as well.

If you have issues building on OS X 10.10 (Yosemite) or above, try definining the following environment variable:

export MACOSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET=10.9

  1. Download and unpack a copy of the latest DF

  2. Install Xcode from Mac App Store

  3. Open Xcode, go to Preferences > Downloads, and install the Command Line Tools.

  4. Install dependencies

    Using Homebrew:

    brew tap homebrew/versions
brew install git
brew install cmake
brew install gcc45

    Using MacPorts:

    sudo port install gcc45 +universal cmake +universal git-core +universal

    Macports will take some time - maybe hours. At some point it may ask you to install a Java environment; let it do so.

  5. Install perl dependencies

    1. sudo cpan

      If this is the first time you’ve run cpan, you will need to go through the setup process. Just stick with the defaults for everything and you’ll be fine.

      If you are running OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) or earlier, good luck! You’ll need to open a separate Terminal window and run:

      sudo ln -s /usr/include/libxml2/libxml /usr/include/libxml

    2. install XML::LibXML

    3. install XML::LibXSLT

  6. Get the dfhack source:

    git clone --recursive https://github.com/DFHack/dfhack.git
cd dfhack

  7. Set environment variables:

    Homebrew (if installed elsewhere, replace /usr/local with $(brew --prefix)):

    export CC=/usr/local/bin/gcc-4.5
export CXX=/usr/local/bin/g++-4.5

    Macports:

    export CC=/opt/local/bin/gcc-mp-4.5
export CXX=/opt/local/bin/g++-mp-4.5

  8. Build dfhack:

    mkdir build-osx
cd build-osx
cmake .. -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE:string=Release -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/path/to/DF/directory
make
make install

Windows

On Windows, DFHack replaces the SDL library distributed with DF.

Dependencies

You will need some sort of Windows port of git, or a GUI. Some examples:

You need cmake. Get the win32 installer version from the official site. It has the usual installer wizard. Make sure you let it add its binary folder to your binary search PATH so the tool can be later run from anywhere.

You’ll need a copy of Microsoft Visual C++ 2010. The Express version is sufficient. Grab it from Microsoft’s site. You’ll also need the Visual Studio 2010 SP1 update.

For the code generation parts, you’ll need perl with XML::LibXML and XML::LibXSLT. Strawberry Perl works nicely for this and includes all of the required packages.

If you already have a different version of perl (for example the one from cygwin), you can run into some trouble. Either remove the other perl install from PATH, or install libxml and libxslt for it instead.

Build

There are several different batch files in the build folder along with a script that’s used for picking the DF path.

First, run set_df_path.vbs and point the dialog that pops up at your DF folder that you want to use for development. Next, run one of the scripts with generate prefix. These create the MSVC solution file(s):

  • all will create a solution with everything enabled (and the kitchen sink).
  • gui will pop up the cmake gui and let you pick and choose what to build. This is probably what you want most of the time. Set the options you are interested in, then hit configure, then generate. More options can appear after the configure step.
  • minimal will create a minimal solution with just the bare necessities - the main library and standard plugins.

Then you can either open the solution with MSVC or use one of the msbuild scripts:

  • Scripts with build prefix will only build DFHack.
  • Scripts with install prefix will build DFHack and install it to the previously selected DF path.
  • Scripts with package prefix will build and create a .zip package of DFHack.

When you open the solution in MSVC, make sure you never use the Debug builds. Those aren’t binary-compatible with DF. If you try to use a debug build with DF, you’ll only get crashes. For this reason the Windows “debug” scripts actually do RelWithDebInfo builds, so pick either Release or RelWithDebInfo build and build the INSTALL target.