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# Compiling Vinyl Cache from source

If there are no binary packages available for your system, or if you want to compile Vinyl Cache from source for other reasons, follow these steps:

## Getting hold of the source

Download the appropriate release tarball, which you can find on https://vinyl-cache.org/releases/ .

Alternatively, if you want to hack on Vinyl Cache, you should clone our git repository by doing.

> `git clone --recursive https://code.vinyl-cache.org/vinyl-cache/vinyl-cache`

This will recursively check out the vtest2 sources from the default repository URL. If you prefer to use vtest2 from a non-default (local) repository, you can tell git to replace the url:

> `git config url.$YOUR_VTEST2_URL.insteadOf https://code.vinyl-cache.org/vtest/VTest2.git`

## Build dependencies on FreeBSD

To get the dependencies required to build vinyl Cache from source you can either:

    pkg install git automake pkgconf py39-sphinx py39-docutils pcre2 libtool

And optionally, to be able to run all the testcases:

    pkg install haproxy nghttp2 vttest

Then continue Compiling Vinyl Cache

## Build dependencies on Debian / Ubuntu

In order to build Vinyl Cache from source you need a number of packages installed. On a Debian or Ubuntu system, use this command to install them (replace `sudo apt-get install` if needed):

    sudo apt-get install \
        make \
        automake \
        autotools-dev \
        libedit-dev \
        libjemalloc-dev \
        libncurses-dev \
        libpcre2-dev \
        libtool \
        pkg-config \
        python3-docutils \
        python3-sphinx \
        cpio

Optionally, to rebuild the svg files:

    sudo apt-get install graphviz

Recommended, in particular if you plan on building custom vmods:

    sudo apt-get install autoconf-archive

Optionally, to pull from a repository:

    sudo apt-get install git

Optionally, to build the HTML documentation:

    sudo apt-get install pip furo

Then continue Compiling Vinyl Cache

## Build dependencies on Red Hat / CentOS

in the following shell commands, replace `sudo yum install` if needed.

Install sphinx

- On Red Hat / CentOS 9, some packages are not included in the default repositories, so execute these steps to include them from the CRB repository:

      sudo dnf install -y 'dnf-command(config-manager)'
      sudo dnf config-manager --set-enabled crb
      sudo dnf install -y \
              diffutils \
              python3-sphinx

- On Red Hat / CentOS 8, some packages are not included in the default repositories, so execute these steps to include them from the powertools repository:

      sudo dnf install -y 'dnf-command(config-manager)'
      sudo dnf config-manager --set-enabled powertools
      sudo dnf install -y \
              diffutils \
              jemalloc-devel \
              libunwind-devel \
              python3-sphinx

- On Red Hat / CentOS <= 7, install the packages from the default repository:

      sudo yum install -y \
              jemalloc-devel \
              libunwind-devel \
              python-sphinx

The following step should conclude installation of the remaining package dependencies:

    yum install -y \
          make \
          autoconf \
          automake \
          libedit-devel \
          libtool \
          ncurses-devel \
          pcre2-devel \
          pkgconfig \
          python3-docutils \
          cpio

Optionally, to rebuild the svg files:

    yum install graphviz

Optionally, to pull from a repository:

    yum install git

Then continue Compiling Vinyl Cache

## Build dependencies on macOS

To compile vinyl Cache on macOS, these steps should install the required dependencies:

- Install xcode: xcode-select –install

- Install dependencies via brew:

      brew install \
          autoconf \
          automake \
          pkg-config \
          libtool \
          docutils \
          sphinx-doc

- Add the sphinx tools and the docutils to PATH so configure will find them.

  > PATH=”/opt/homebrew/opt/sphinx-doc/bin:/opt/homebrew/opt/docutils/bin:$PATH”

It’ll be a good idea to persist these changes so you can rebuild the source later.

Then continue Compiling Vinyl Cache

## Build dependencies on Alpine Linux

As of Alpine 3, these steps should install the required dependencies:

- Add the Alpine Community Repository:

      setup-apkrepos -c

- Install dependencies:

      apk add -q \
          autoconf \
          automake \
          build-base \
          ca-certificates \
          cpio \
          gzip \
          libedit-dev \
          libtool \
          libunwind-dev \
          linux-headers \
          pcre2-dev \
          py-docutils \
          py3-sphinx \
          tar \
          sudo

Optionally, to rebuild the svg files:

    apk add -q graphviz

Optionally, to pull from a repository:

    apk add -q git

Then continue Compiling Vinyl Cache, using the `--with-unwind` `configure` option.

## Build dependencies on a SmartOS Zone

As of SmartOS pkgsrc 2025Q4, install the following packages:

    pkgin in autoconf automake editline libtool ncurses \
            pcre2 python311 py311-sphinx py311-docutils gmake gcc13 pkg-config

Optionally, to rebuild the svg files:

    pkgin in graphviz

Optionally, to pull from a repository:

    pkgin in git

Optionally, to build the HTML documentation:

    pkgin in py311-pip-25.3
    pip install furo

## Building on Solaris and other Solaris-ish OSes

Building with gcc should be straight forward, as long as the above requirements are installed.

By convention, consider installing Vinyl Cache under /opt/local using:

    ./configure \
            --prefix=/opt/local \
            --mandir=/opt/local/man

Alternatively, building with Solaris Studio 12.4 should work considering the following recommendations:

- have GNU nm in $PATH before Solaris nm

- Provide compiler flags for configure to include paths under which dependencies are installed. Example for /opt/local:

      ./configure \
              --prefix=/opt/local \
              --mandir=/opt/local/man \
              CPPFLAGS="-I/opt/local/include" \
              CFLAGS="-m64" \
              LDFLAGS="-L/opt/local/lib -R/opt/local/lib"

## Known issues on SmartOS

If you see this error from GNU `cp`:

    make[6]: Entering directory '/tmp/vinyl-cache/doc/sphinx'
    cp: preserving permissions for '../../vinyl-trunk/doc/sphinx/dev-guide': Operation not applicable
    make[6]: *** [Makefile:409: distdir-am] Error 1

put `/usr/bin` first in `PATH`.

## Compiling Vinyl Cache

The configuration will need the dependencies above satisfied. Once that is taken care of:

    cd vinyl-cache
    sh autogen.sh
    sh configure
    make

The configure script takes some arguments, but more likely than not you can forget about that for now, almost everything in Vinyl Cache can be tweaked with run time parameters.

Before you install, you may want to run the test suite, make a cup of tea while it runs, it usually takes a couple of minutes:

    make check

Don’t worry if one or two tests fail. Some of the tests are a bit too timing sensitive (Please tell us which so we can fix them). However, if a lot of them fail, and in particular if the b00000.vtc test fails, something is horribly wrong. You will get nowhere without figuring this one out.

## Installing

And finally, the true test of a brave heart: `sudo make install`

Vinyl Cache will now be installed in `/usr/local`. The `vinyld` binary is in /usr/local/sbin/vinyld. To make sure that the necessary links and caches of the most recent shared libraries are found, run `sudo ldconfig`.