Building Songbird

Configure Options

There are a handful of customization options that you can pass to the build system.

The preferred way is to set them through the songbird.config file. You can create this file in the root folder of your source code tree ( /sbird/trunk ) and add the lines to enable/disable functionality.

You do this by adding the options with the ac_add_options command, one per line, like so:

  ac_add_options --enable-debug
  ac_add_options --disable-installer

Here is a list of all the possible options available (pulled from ./configure --help):

  --enable-debug                         whether or not to compile a debug version (disabled by default)
  --enable-jars                          whether or not to create jar files (enabled by default)
  --enable-installer                     whether or not to create installer (disabled by default)
  --enable-official                      whether or not to create an official build (disabled by default)
  --enable-nightly                       whether or not to create an nightly build (disabled by default)
  --enable-tests                         whether or not to build tests (defaults: debug:enabled rel:disabled)
  --enable-update-channel=CHANNEL        which update channel to use ("default")
  --enable-breakpad                      whether or not to enable breakpad (disabled by default in non-official builds)
  --enable-static                        experimental single-component static build support (disabled by default)
  --enable-compiler-environment-checks   only allow officially-supported compiler versions (enabled by default)

Win32: MSYS

The currently preferred method for building Songbird for Win32 is through the use of a specialized MSYS build environment provided by Mozilla. It is based on MinGW and contains the correct versions of all support packages required to build a Mozilla application. It is significantly faster than using Cygwin, to boot.

Mozilla's documentation for their use of MSYS can be found here: http://developer.mozilla.org/en/docs/Windows_Build_Prerequisites#MozillaBuild

You should launch MSYS using the start-msvc71.bat, start-msvc8.bat or start-msvc9.bat, depending upon the compiler you are using. (--disable-compiler-environment-checks must be used when compiling with MSVC9, as it is unsupported.  Please do not files bugs about that configuration.)

• Required Tools
  • Mozilla Build; Download version 1.4
  • Visual Studio 2005 SP1 (VC8) with C++ compiler installed
  • Windows Media Format SDK (No longer necessary as a separate install; it comes with the Vista SDK below).
  • Vista SDK
  • You must be using MozillaBuild >= 1.3; 1.1 no longer works with VC8
  • MozillaBuild 1.4 has a broken install.exe, remove it by deleting c:\mozilla-build\vim\vim72\install.exe

1. (This step is not strictly necessary if you don't want to access additional tools provided by Visual Studio. On Vista, you need to disable User accout control in order to modify the following file.) vsvars32.bat file to add %VSINSTALLDIR%\Common7\Tools\bin\winnt; to the path block.  The vsvars32.bat file is located in your Microsoft Visual Studio 8 directory under Common7\Tools.

   PATH=%DevEnvDir%;%MSVCDir%\BIN;%VCINSTALLDIR%\Common7\Tools;%VCINSTALLDIR%\Common7\Tools\bin\prerelease;%VCINSTALLDIR%\Common7\Tools\bin;%VCINSTALLDIR%\Common7\Tools\bin\winnt;%FrameworkSDKDir%\bin;%FrameworkDir%\%FrameworkVersion%;%PATH%;

2. Run make -f songbird.mk from your songbird source directory. You can build a debug mode Songbird by adding the keyword "debug" as the last parameter to make.
   1. Release mode:

      %~/sbird: make -f songbird.mk 

   2. Debug mode:

      %~/sbird: make -f songbird.mk debug

3. Change directory to compiled/dist/ and launch the application by typing ./Songbird (or just doubleclick the Songbird.exe from Explorer).

   %~/sbird: cd compiled/dist
   %~/sbird/compiled/dist: ./Songbird

If you ever need to rebuild, it's probably wise to call songbird.mk with "clobber" first. Like so:

%~/sbird: make -f songbird.mk clobber
%~/sbird: make -f songbird.mk

NOTE: There are also useful Environment Variables that control various options when building.

MacOSX

These instructions are also probably valid for most *BSD.

1. Check for the port command.
   1. If the port command is not in your path, install the MacPorts client.
   2. Add /opt/local/bin to your path so port is available.
   3. Update MacPorts: (sudo port -d selfupdate)
2. Check for and install the following required tools:
   • Required Tools
     • GNU Compiler C and C++ v4.x. (Install XCode)
     • GNU make 3.80 or newer. (sudo port install gmake)
     • GNU autoconf v2.59 or newer. (sudo port install autoconf)
     • GNU coreutils. (sudo port install coreutils)
     • libIDL (sudo port install libidl; ONLY REQUIRED IF YOU'RE BUILDING XULRUNNER YOURSELF)
3. Now you can finally build the bird.

   %~/sbird: make -f songbird.mk 
   

4. Change directory to compiled/dist/ and launch the application by typing open ./Songbird (or just doubleclick Songbird.app in Finder).

   %~/sbird: cd compiled/dist
   %~/sbird/compiled/dist: open ./Songbird.app
   

If you ever need to rebuild, it's probably wise to call songbird.mk with "clobber" first. Like so:

%~/sbird: make -f songbird.mk clobber
%~/sbird: make -f songbird.mk

NOTE: There are also useful Environment Variables that control various options when building.

Linux

• Required Tools (via apt-get, rpm, yum, what-have-you) (note, our configure script doesn't currently check for the version you have installed for these items, that will be fixed with bug 428).

• GNU make 3.80 or newer.
• GNU autoconf v2.59 or newer.
• GNU Compiler C and C++ v4.x.

A current install of Ubuntu (Gutsy 7.10) required the following additional packages be installed to compile, as of 1/18/2008.

 subversion
 autoconf
 g++
 g++-4.1
 libgstreamer0.10-dev
 libgstreamer-plugins-base0.10-dev
 libgtk2.0-dev
 
 // The following should only be for iPod plugin
 libdbus-1-dev
 libdbus-glib-1-dev
 libhal-dev

1. In your trunk folder

   %~/sbird: make -f songbird.mk 
   

2. Go into compiled/dist/ and run Songbird (eg. ./Songbird).

   %~/sbird: cd compiled/dist 
   %~/sbird/compiled/dist: ./songbird
   

If you ever need to rebuild, it's probably wise to call songbird.mk with "clobber" first. Like so:

%~/sbird: make -f songbird.mk clobber
%~/sbird: make -f songbird.mk

If you are making changes in subdirectories you can go into the compiled directory and type "make". If you make changes to app or component you can make from there, the other dirs require a build from the compiled directory.

NOTE: There are also useful Environment Variables that control various options when building.

Environment Variables

(for make builds)

• SB_ENABLE_JARS - this var is only checked in debug builds. It will turn ON jarring of chrome files, which is by default disabled in debug builds.
• SB_ENABLE_INSTALLER - this var is checked regardless of release or debug status. It will turn ON building of the installer for your platform.
• SB_DISABLE_JARS - this var is only checked in release builds. It will turn OFF jarring of chrome files, which is by default enabled in release builds.
• SB_DISABLE_COMPILER_ENVIRONMENT_CHECKS - this var disables compiler version checking. This is necessary when using MSVC9, for example.
• SB_DISABLE_PKG_AUTODEPS - prevent the build system from managing various cross-repository software package dependencies. Required for building offline.
  
• MOZBROWSER_DEP_CHECKOUT - the command used to checkout dependencies/mozbrowser; override if you need a non-standard approach
• MOZBROWSER_DEP_UPDATE - the command used to update dependencies/mozbrowser; override if you need a non-standard approach