Building the Library

Build Requirements

The library currently supports Linux hosts only; macOS and Windows support is still under development. When the library builds correctly and passes testing with VXSDR devices on a new host OS, we will update the build settings below and remove the “experimental” notation.

A C++ compiler and standard library supporting C++20, and the CMake cross-platform build system version 3.16 or higher, are required to build the VXSDR host library. (The C++20 requirement can currently be satisfied by gcc 11 or later, or by clang 14 or later; we do not yet require most of the features introduced in C++20.)

The library has several dependencies, which may be satisfied either by installing them separately, or by downloading and building the dependencies as part of the build process. Downloading and building is enabled by the CMake option -D VXSDR_BUILD_DEPENDENCIES=ON.

The library requires an implementation of the Asio networking interface; the most common way to satisfy this is by using the boost::asio networking interface. Use of the standalone Asio distribution is also possible, and is the default when downloading and building dependencies.

A single-producer-single-consumer queue is also required; the default is Meta’s folly::ProducerConsumerQueue, which is included with the library distribution. It is also possible to use boost::spsc_queue, using the option -D VXSDR_USE_BOOST_QUEUE=ON.

When logging from within the library is enabled (the default) the library also depends on spdlog version 1.5 or higher. Logging from within the library may be disabled by running the initial CMake configure step (that is, cmake -B build) with the option -D VXSDR_ENABLE_LOGGING=OFF, which removes the dependency on spdlog.

To build the Python interface, a Python 3 installation, including the Python include files, and PyBind11 are required. If these are not present, the Python interface will not be built. The Python interface is built by default; to disable it, run the initial CMake configure step (cmake -B build) with the option -D VXSDR_PYTHON_BINDINGS=OFF, which removes the dependencies on Python and its development files.

Installing dependencies on Ubuntu 22.04 or later

sudo apt install g++ make git cmake libboost-all-dev libspdlog-dev
sudo apt install python3-dev pybind11-dev

Installing dependencies on Fedora 35 or later

sudo dnf install gcc-c++ make git cmake boost-devel spdlog-devel
sudo dnf install python3-devel pybind11-devel

Using CMake to build dependencies

It is also possible to use CMake to download and build Boost, ASIO, PyBind11, and spdlog, removing the need to install these dependencies as packages. This is enabled by running the initial CMake configure step (cmake -B build) with the option -D VXSDR_BUILD_DEPENDENCIES=ON.

Note

A C++ compiler, git, and CMake must still be installed, and the Python development package must be installed if you wish to build the Python interface.

Fetching dependencies allows the build to use newer versions than are provided by the distribution, and ensures that known versions are used in the build. However, the build takes longer and all the dependencies are downloaded as source, which takes up more space than a binary package.

We recommend downloading and building dependencies for distributions other than Debian-based (which should use the method shown for Ubuntu) and Red Hat-based (which should use the method shown for Fedora).

Downloading, building, and installing the library

git clone https://github.com/vesperix/libvxsdr.git
cd libvxsdr
cmake -B build <add any options here>
cmake --build build
sudo cmake --install build

Linking your program to the host library

The host library will be installed in the default location for your system by CMake. It is named libvxsdr.(suffix), where (suffix) depends on the operating system and the file type.

For example, on a Linux system, the dynamic library libvxsdr.so is installed by default. You can use the normal command to add a link library (for example, -lvxsdr for gcc and clang) to link with the VXSDR host library.

Unsupported Operating Systems

The “experimental” sections below for macOS and Windows document our development build settings, but they are not supported, and neither macOS nor Windows hosts are currently usable.

Building on macOS (experimental)

Install development tools

xcode-select --install

Install Brew from https://brew.sh

brew install cmake boost spdlog
brew install pybind11

Build using Cmake from the command line.

Building on Windows (experimental)

Install Visual Studio from https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/downloads

Run the Visual Studio installer, selecting “Desktop development with C++” as the option (you do not need any .NET or Azure components to build the VXSDR library).

Install Git for Windows from https://git-scm.com/download/win

Install CMake for Windows from https://cmake.org/download

Build using CMake from the command line, using the option -D VXSDR_BUILD_DEPENDENCIES=ON as described above.