Building Multiplier

Building Multiplier from scratch can take a long time, so prepare yourself. You will need a modern Clang (18+) and CMake (3.30+) to build Multiplier, as it relies on modern C++ and CMake features.

• Step 0
  • Dependencies
• Step 1
  • macOS
    • XCode
    • Build tools
  • Linux
    • Clang
    • CMake
    • Python
• Step 2: Environment
• Step 3: Download and build Multiplier
  • Configuring
    • macOS
    • Linux
  • Build & Install

Step 0

Going forward, we assume the environment variable WORKSPACE_DIR dir represents the directory where everything goes.

Dependencies

Name	Version
Git	Latest
CMake	3.30+
Clang	18+
Python	3.12+

Step 1

macOS

XCode

Make sure that you have an up-to-date XCode. At a command line, you should be able to run clang --version and see something like this:

% clang --version
Apple clang version 15.0.0 (clang-1500.3.9.4)
Target: arm64-apple-darwin23.5.0
Thread model: posix
InstalledDir: /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Toolchains/XcodeDefault.xctoolchain/usr/bin

If you don't see that, then try the following:

xcode-select --install

This will pop open some dialogs and you should click "Install". After installing, try running the following command:

% xcode-select -p
/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer

It is worth it to try opening XCode (the app). Sometimes opening the GUI triggers further downloads and installs, which you should do. It is likely that you will need to re-do this step after each OS update/upgrade.

If you already had XCode installed, and perhaps had it configured for iOS development or something like that, then you should open up the XCode app, open its "Preferences" menu, go to the "Locations" tab, and then modify the path for "Command Line Tools."

Build tools

Make sure that you have an up-to-date CMake build and Ninja build. On macOS, you can install Homebrew and run the following:

brew install ninja cmake graphviz xdot

An alternative is to download and install CMake from the official website.

Linux

sudo apt update
sudo apt install build-essential ninja-build cmake graphviz xdot

Clang

If you can't sudo apt-get install clang-18, then try the following:

sudo apt install lsb_release

curl -sSL https://apt.llvm.org/llvm-snapshot.gpg.key | \
  gpg --dearmor - | \
  sudo tee /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/llvm.gpg

sudo apt-add-repository "deb https://apt.llvm.org/$(lsb_release -cs)/ llvm-toolchain-$(lsb_release -cs)-18 main"

sudo apt install clang-18

CMake

If you don't already have CMake 3.30+, and if your installed cmake --version reports a smaller version number, then try the following:

curl -sSL https://apt.kitware.com/keys/kitware-archive-latest.asc | \
    gpg --dearmor - | \
    sudo tee /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/kitware.gpg

sudo apt-add-repository "deb https://apt.kitware.com/ubuntu/ $(lsb_release -cs) main"
sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys 6AF7F09730B3F0A4
sudo apt update
sudo apt install kitware-archive-keyring
sudo apt install cmake

Python

You will need to have the Python headers and libraries installed, ideally for Python 3.12+. Python 3.11 should also work, but other uses of Multiplier's Python API may prefer 3.12+ due to its support for subinterpreters.

sudo apt install python3.12-dev

Step 2: Environment

mkdir -p "${WORKSPACE_DIR}/build"
mkdir -p "${WORKSPACE_DIR}/src"
mkdir -p "${WORKSPACE_DIR}/install"

Set virtual environment for Python:

if [[ ! -f "${WORKSPACE_DIR}/install/bin/activate" ]]; then
  python3.12 -m venv "${WORKSPACE_DIR}/install"
fi
source "${WORKSPACE_DIR}/install/bin/activate"

You should use at least Python 3.12 because of its support for subinterpreters.

Step 3: Download and build Multiplier

Note: Multiplier will download and build most/all of its dependencies during CMake's configuration stage, unless you specify otherwise. Thus, you do not need to recursively initialize/clone its submodules.

cd "${WORKSPACE_DIR}/src"
git clone git@github.com:trailofbits/multiplier.git

Configuring

macOS

You are strongly recommended to use Apple Clang (/usr/bin/clang) to build Multiplier, and not whatever version of Clang was built/installed by Homebrew.

cmake \
  -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release \
  -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX="${WORKSPACE_DIR}/install" \
  -DCMAKE_C_COMPILER=/usr/bin/clang \
  -DCMAKE_CXX_COMPILER=/usr/bin/clang++ \
  -DMX_ENABLE_INSTALL=ON \
  -DMX_ENABLE_PYTHON_BINDINGS=ON \
  -GNinja \
  "${WORKSPACE_DIR}/src/multiplier"

Linux

cmake \
    -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release \
    -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX="${WORKSPACE_DIR}/install" \
    -DCMAKE_LINKER_TYPE=LLD \
    -DCMAKE_C_COMPILER="$(which clang-18)" \
    -DCMAKE_CXX_COMPILER="$(which clang++-18)" \
    -DMX_ENABLE_INSTALL=ON \
    -DMX_ENABLE_PYTHON_BINDINGS=ON \
    -GNinja \
    "${WORKSPACE_DIR}/src/multiplier"

Build & Install

ninja install