# Linux-specific notes

## Requirements

These instructions are written for Debian/Ubuntu; adjust for your distribution.
Some extra notes have been provided by a forum member, though some of the things
mentioned there no longer apply:
https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/guide-how-to-build-and-run-anki-from-source-with-xubuntu-20-04/12865

You can see a full list of buildtime and runtime requirements by looking at the
[Dockerfiles](../.buildkite/linux/docker/Dockerfile.amd64) used to build the
official releases.

**Ensure some basic tools are installed**:

```
$ sudo apt install bash grep findutils curl gcc g++ make git rsync
```

- The 'find' utility is 'findutils' on Debian.

## Missing Libraries

If you get errors during build or startup, try starting with

QT_DEBUG_PLUGINS=1 ./run

It will likely complain about missing libraries, which you can install with
your package manager. Some of the libraries that might be required on Debian
for example:

```
sudo apt install libxcb-icccm4 libxcb-image0 libxcb-keysyms1 \
  libxcb-randr0 libxcb-render-util0
```

On some distros such as Arch Linux and Fedora, you may need to install the
`libxcrypt-compat` package if you get an error like this:

```
error while loading shared libraries: libcrypt.so.1: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
```

## Audio

To play and record audio during development, install mpv and lame.

## Glibc and Qt

Anki requires a recent glibc.

If you are using a distro that uses musl, Anki will not work.

If your glibc version is 2.35+ on AMD64 or 2.39+ on ARM64, you can skip the rest of this section.

If your system has an older glibc, you won't be able to use the PyQt wheels that are
available in pip/PyPy, and will need to use your system-installed PyQt instead.
Your distro will also need to have Python 3.9 or later.

After installing the system libraries (eg:
'sudo apt install python3-pyqt6.qt{quick,webengine} python3-venv pyqt6-dev-tools'),
find the place they are installed (eg '/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages'). On modern Ubuntu, you'll
also need 'sudo apt remove python3-protobuf'. Then before running any commands like './run', tell Anki where
the packages can be found:

```
export PYTHONPATH=/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages
export PYTHON_BINARY=/usr/bin/python3
```

There are a few things to be aware of:

- You should use ./run and not tools/run-qt5\*, even if your system libraries are Qt5.
- If your system libraries are Qt5, when creating an aqt wheel, the wheel will not work
  on Qt6 environments.
- Some of the './ninja check' tests are broken on ARM Linux.

## Packaging considerations

Python, node and protoc are downloaded as part of the build. You can optionally define
PYTHON_BINARY, NODE_BINARY, YARN_BINARY and/or PROTOC_BINARY to use locally-installed versions instead.

If rust-toolchain.toml is removed, newer Rust versions can be used. Older versions
may or may not compile the code.

To build Anki fully offline, set the following environment variables:

- OFFLINE_BUILD: If set, the build does not run tools that may access
  the network.

- NODE_BINARY, YARN_BINARY and PROTOC_BINARY must also be set.

With OFFLINE_BUILD defined, manual intervention is required for the
offline build to succeed. The following conditions must be met:

1. All required dependencies (node, Python, rust, yarn, etc.) must be
   present in the build environment.

2. The offline repositories for the translation files must be
   copied/linked to ftl/qt-repo and ftl/core-repo.

3. The Python pseudo venv must be set up:

   ```
   mkdir out/pyenv/bin
   ln -s /path/to/python out/pyenv/bin/python
   ln -s /path/to/protoc-gen-mypy out/pyenv/bin/protoc-gen-mypy
   ```

   Optionally, set up your environment to generate Sphinx documentation:

   ```
   ln -s /path/to/sphinx-apidoc out/pyenv/bin/sphinx-apidoc
   ln -s /path/to/sphinx-build out/pyenv/bin/sphinx-build
   ```

   Note that the PYTHON_BINARY environment variable need not be set,
   since it is only used when OFFLINE_BUILD is unset to automatically
   create a network-dependent Python venv.

4. Create the offline cache for yarn and use its own environment
   variable YARN_CACHE_FOLDER to it:

   ```
   YARN_CACHE_FOLDER=/path/to/the/yarn/cache
   /path/to/yarn install --ignore-scripts
   ```

You are now ready to build wheels and Sphinx documentation fully
offline.

## More

For info on running tests, building wheels and so on, please see [Development](./development.md).