Installation Overview
April 25, 2025 · View on GitHub
The meson-based build can compile and install a release target, including any available translation data.
For development and testing use the included Makefile, which can build, but not install, the project. See § [Building using the included Makefile].
GTK+-3 runtime dependencies
Mdview depends on the following libraries: libgtk-3-0 (>= 3.24.33), libpango-1.0-0 (>= 1.50.6), libglib2.0-0 (>= 2.72.4).
Dependencies satisfy the package versions that the following distributions provide:
| ─────────────────────── | ───────────── | ──────────────── | ────────────── |
| Debian package name | libgtk-3-0 | libpango-1.0-0 | libglib2.0-0 |
| ─────────────────────── | ───────────── | ──────────────── | ────────────── |
| 12 bookworm | 3.24.38 | 1.50.12 | 2.74.6 |
| 13 trixie (testing) | 3.24.43 | 1.55.0 | 2.82.4 |
| sid (unstable) | 3.24.43 | 1.55.0 | 2.82.4 |
| ─────────────────────── | ───────────── | ──────────────── | ────────────── |
| Ubuntu package name | libgtk-3-0 | libpango-1.0-0 | libglib2.0-0 |
| ─────────────────────── | ───────────── | ──────────────── | ────────────── |
| 22.04 (LTS) Jammy | 3.24.33 | 1.50.6 | 2.72.4 |
| Noble | 3.24.41 | 1.52.1 | 2.80.0 |
| Oracular | 3.24.43 | 1.54.0 | 2.82.1 |
| Plucky | 3.24.43 | 1.55.0 | 2.82.4 |
| ─────────────────────── | ───────────── | ──────────────── | ────────────── |
| Fatdog64 package name | gtk3 | pango | glib |
| ─────────────────────── | ───────────── | ──────────────── | ────────────── |
| 903 | 3.24.42 | 1.50.12 | 2.74.5 |
GTK+-2 dependencies
You should use the latest GTK+-2 version available for your distribution. On Fatdog64 Linux, I use gtk2 2.24.33.
Building and installing using meson
Meson's default installation prefix is /usr/local.
[CC=gcc] meson setup build # set CC to disable ccache autodetection
meson compile -C build
meson install -C build
Building using the included Makefile
GTK+-3 release build : make
GTK+-2 release build : make GTK=2
standard debug build : make DEBUG=1
run tests in a debug build : make TEST=1 [TEST_GROUP]
custom build : make [VARS] [DEBUG=1] [TEST=1]
The top Makefile sets LOCALEDIR to /usr/local/share/locale. Change the path
on the make invocation as needed, e.g., make LOCALEDIR=/usr/share/locale.
The standard build runs $(CC) passing default release options.
If the make invocation includes DEBUG=1 the Makefile appends default
debug options to the set of release options, overriding the release intent.
TEST=1 appends more debug options enabling test hooks in the binary file.
See the main Makefile for the available TEST_GROUP targets.
Make invokes $(CC) passing CPPFLAGS, DEBUG_CPPFLAGS, CFLAGS and
DEBUG_CFLAGSin this order. DEBUG=1 and TEST=1 append to the DEBUG_*
variables overriding their values including those set on the command line.
Make runs the following non-standard tools, which you will need to install on your system if you intend to modify and recompile the source code:
- fccf - https://github.com/p-ranav/fccf.
Building translations
To update the Gettext POT template in directory ./po:
meson compile -C build mdview-pot
To update translations under directory build/po:
meson compile -C build # don't also append target mdview-update-po
Building and installing documentation
If the help2man(1) command is available, meson will build and install the manual page.