Build Instructions

July 14, 2026 ยท View on GitHub

This document contains the instructions for building this repository.

System Requirements

Windows System Requirements

  • Microsoft Visual Studio 2019 or higher
  • CMake 3.22.1 is recommended.
    • Tell the installer to "Add CMake to the system PATH" environment variable.
  • Python 3.11 or later (from https://www.python.org/downloads). Notes:
    • Select to install the optional sub-package to add Python to the system PATH environment variable.
    • Install jsonschema package (py -m pip install jsonschema)
    • Install pyinstaller package (py -m pip install pyinstaller)
  • Git (from http://git-scm.com/download/win).
    • Tell the installer to allow it to be used for "Developer Prompt" as well as "Git Bash".
    • Tell the installer to treat line endings "as is" (i.e. both DOS and Unix-style line endings).

Optional software packages:

  • Cygwin (from https://www.cygwin.com/).
    • Cygwin provides some Linux-like tools, which are valuable for obtaining the source code, and running CMake. Especially valuable are the BASH shell and git packages.
    • If you do not wish to use Cygwin, there are other shells and environments that can be used. You can also use a Git package that does not come from Cygwin.

Ubuntu System Requirements

CMake 3.22.1 is recommended.

# Dependencies from included submodule components
sudo apt-get install git build-essential bison libx11-xcb-dev libxkbcommon-dev libwayland-dev libxrandr-dev libxcb-randr0-dev

# Additional dependencies for this repo:
sudo apt-get install wget autotools-dev libxcb-keysyms1 libxcb-keysyms1-dev libxcb-ewmh-dev

# If performing 32-bit builds, you will also need:
sudo apt-get install libc6-dev-i386 g++-multilib

# Install python packages
sudo apt-get install python3-pip
pip3 install jsonschema
pip3 install pyinstaller

Fedora Core System Requirements

Fedora Core 28 and 29 were tested with this repo.

CMake 3.22.1 is recommended.

Additional package dependencies include:

# Dependencies from included submodule components
sudo dnf install git @development-tools glm-devel \
                 libpng-devel wayland-devel libpciaccess-devel \
                 libX11-devel libXpresent libxcb xcb-util libxcb-devel libXrandr-devel \
                 xcb-util-keysyms-devel xcb-util-wm-devel

# Install python packages
sudo dnf install python3-pip
pip3 install jsonschema
pip3 install pyinstaller

Optional software packages:

macOS System Requirements

MacOS 10.15 have been tested with this repo.

Setup Homebrew and components

  • Ensure Homebrew is at the beginning of your PATH:
export PATH=/usr/local/bin:$PATH
  • Add packages with the following (may need refinement)
brew install python python3 git
  • Install python packages
pip3 install jsonschema
pip3 install pyinstaller

Android Additional System Requirements

Install the required tools for Linux and Windows covered above, then add the following.

Install the Android SDK and NDK

  • With Android Studio
    • Install Android Studio 2.3 or later.
    • From the "Welcome to Android Studio" splash screen, add the following components using Configure > SDK Manager:
      • SDK Platforms > Android 8.0.0 and newer
      • SDK Tools > Android SDK Build-Tools
      • SDK Tools > Android SDK Platform-Tools
      • SDK Tools > Android SDK Tools
      • SDK Tools > NDK
  • sdkmanager CLI tool

Set SDK/NDK Build Environment Variables

Some common locations for the ANDROID_SDK_HOME and ANDROID_NDK_HOME are:

On Linux:

    export ANDROID_SDK_HOME=$HOME/Android/sdk
    export ANDROID_NDK_HOME=$HOME/Android/sdk/ndk-bundle

On Windows:

    set ANDROID_SDK_HOME=%LOCALAPPDATA%\Android\sdk
    set ANDROID_NDK_HOME=%LOCALAPPDATA%\Android\sdk\ndk-bundle

On OSX:

    export ANDROID_SDK_HOME=$HOME/Library/Android/sdk
    export ANDROID_NDK_HOME=$HOME/Library/Android/sdk/ndk-bundle

Getting Started Build Instructions

64-bit Windows Build

git clone git@github.com:KhronosGroup/Vulkan-Profiles.git
cd Vulkan-Profiles
cmake -S . -B build/ -D CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug -D BUILD_TESTS=ON -D UPDATE_DEPS=ON -A x64
cmake --build ./build/ --config Debug

Windows Unit Tests

cd build/
ctest -C Debug --output-on-failure --parallel 16

Linux and macOS Build

git clone git@github.com:KhronosGroup/Vulkan-Profiles.git
cd Vulkan-Profiles
cmake -S . -B build/ -D CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug -D UPDATE_DEPS=ON
cmake --build ./build/

Linux and macOS Unit Tests

cd build/
ctest --parallel 8 --output-on-failure

Android Build

Use the following to ensure the Android build works.

Android Build using CMake For Windows, Linux, and OSX

cmake -Bandroid-build \
  -DCMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE=<ndk-path>/build/cmake/android.toolchain.cmake \
  -DUPDATE_DEPS=ON \
  -DANDROID_PLATFORM=28 \
  -DANDROID_BUILD_TOOLS=30.0.3 \
  -DANDROID_ABI=arm64-v8a \
  -DCMAKE_ANDROID_ARCH_ABI=arm64-v8a \
  -DCMAKE_ANDROID_STL_TYPE=c++_static \
  -DANDROID_USE_LEGACY_TOOLCHAIN_FILE=NO \
  -GNinja

cd android-build
cmake --build . --parallel

Android Unit Tests

The Android test packages are created in the following directory: Vulkan-Profiles/android-build/apk/out

adb install -r apk/out/TestPackageName.apk
adb shell am start -a android.intent.MAIN -c android-intent.category.LAUNCH -n com.example.TestPackageName/android.app.NativeActivity --es args --gtest_catch_exceptions=0
# Test output is written to logcat
adb logcat > tempfile
grep VulkanProfilesLayerTests: tempfile