Building KDE using the kdesvn-build tool
Introduction to kdesvn-build
kdesvn-build is a tool to allow users and developers to easily download and build the latest versions of KDE (3.5 and 4) from the KDE source code repository. It automates the following tasks and more:
- Performing the initial checkout.
- Handling updates for modules that are already checked out.
- Setting up the build system for the module.
- For KDE 3 modules, setting up for the unsermake build tool.
- Performing the build and install.
Why use kdesvn-build?
So why use kdesvn-build? There are several reasons you may like to use it:
- Less manual editing of commands. Instead of having to remember to add the correct options to the cmake command line or configure command, you can setup the options once and then kdesvn-build will use your settings from then on, saving you from wasting time because you forgot to enable a setting.
- Command logging to help debug build failures. kdesvn-build logs all command outputs to a file. This has several advantages:
- When a module fails to build, you already have the error output saved to disk, ready to be viewed and compared with other error messages to aid debugging.
- Quieter output. Even with the unsermake and cmake tools, the output of a KDE module build can be extensive. kdesvn-build does not show the details of a module build (but will show the progress), instead an overview of the build process is displayed.
- It's just easier. Instead of having to learn how to use the Subversion command and how to setup a KDE build system, you can specify what modules you want build, where to install them to, and any other options you want and then have kdesvn-build actually do it, even while you're away from the computer or busy doing other things.
- It's easy to step in yourself. kdesvn-build uses a standard source and build directory layout, and calls the same commands you would. So kdesvn-build will not interfere with you performing the build or editing the source yourself if you so choose.