Build setup

June 23, 2025 ยท View on GitHub

To build retrowin32 you need the Rust toolchain.

If running graphical programs locally, you will need SDL (see below for setup).

If you are building the web-based retrowin32, see the web/ docs.

If you're making Windows API changes or see build errors about missing clang-cl, you need the Clang toolchain. See win32/README.md.

If you are building the various helper test programs found under exe/, see the README there.

SDL

Mac:

$ brew install sdl2
$ export LIBRARY_PATH="$LIBRARY_PATH:$(brew --prefix)/lib"

(If targeting Rosetta you need an x86 SDL, see x86-64 docs.)

Debian/Ubuntu:

$ sudo apt install libsdl2-dev