GimpFromSource

Building the GIMP from source code

Note that the definitive guide to building the GIMP from a source tarball is the INSTALL file included with the sources. Most of the information here is merely a replication of information which is already available in that file.

If you are looking for help building the GIMP using MinGW on Win32, you should look at WindowsInstall and HowToCompileGimp/MicrosoftWindows.

Platforms supported

The same Gimp source base is known to compile on a variety of systems. This list is not neccesarily complete, please add references to other enviroments where gimp is available.

• Debian GNU/Linux gimp archs

• netbsd, arch list: http://wuarchive.wustl.edu/mirrors/NetBSD/NetBSD-current/pkgsrc/graphics/gimp/README.html gimp]

• win32 using mingw32 HowToCompileGimp/MicrosoftWindows

• MacOSX macgimp.org

Getting the tarball

You can also build GimpFromCvs. That page isn't written let. In any case, there are only about 10 extra things you have to do

But normally, we'll assume that you have a .tar.gz of a recent GIMP distribution.

gimp tarballs

Once you get the tarball, you can uncompress it using the command

• tar xvfz gimp-1.3.20.tar.gz

or

• gzip -cd gimp-1.3.20.tar.gz | tar xvf -

or

• zcat gimp-1.3.20.tar.gz | tar -x

on systems without gtar.

The equivalent commands with bzip2, if you choose that archive, are

• tar xvfj gimp-1.3.20.tar.bz2

or

• bzip2 -cd gimp-1.3.20.tar.bz2 | tar xvf -

or

• `bzcat gimp-1.3.20.tar.bz2 | tar xv

Making sure you have the prerequisites

The list of prerequisites, and the locations where you can get them if you don't already have them installed, is in the table below.

Please add more

• Package	Version	Location	Description	Reqd/Opt
  atk	>=1.2.0	ftp://ftp.gtk.org/pub/gtk/v2.2/	Accessibility Toolkit	Required
  fontconfig	2.2.0	http://x2.freedesktop.org/software/fontconfig	Fontconfig	Required
  glib	>=2.2.0	ftp://ftp.gtk.org/pub/gtk/v2.2/	Glib Convenience Library	Required
  gtk+	>=2.2.0	ftp://ftp.gnome.org	The GIMP toolkit	Required
  libart_lgpl	>2	ftp://ftp.gnome.org	Vector rendering	Required
  freetype	>=2.0.9	ftp://ftp.freetype.org/	Font rendering	Required
  pango	>=1.2.0	ftp://ftp.gtk.org/pub/gtk/v2.2/	Text layout engine	Required
  pkgconfig	0.15.0	http://www.freedesktop.org/software/pkgconfig/	Source package management tool	Required
  libexif	0.5.12	http://sourceforge.net/projects/libexif	EXIF tag support for JPEGs	Optional
  gimp-print	4.2.0	http://gimp-print.sourceforge.net	Gimp-print	Optional (requires explicit disable)
  libjpeg	v6b	ftp://ftp.uu.net/graphics/jpeg/	JPEG support	Optional (requires explicit disable)
  libpng	1.2.5	http://www.libpng.org/	PNG support	Optional (requires explicit disable)
  libtiff	3.5.7	http://www.remotesensing.org/libtiff/	TIFF support	Optional (requires explicit disable)
  lcms	...	http://www.littlecms.com/	Little Color Management System	Optional (color proof display filter won't be built)
  libaa	...	...	Ascii Art library	Optional (plugin won't be built)
  libmng	...	http://www.libmng.com/	MNG support	Optional (plugin won't be built)
  librsvg	...	http://librsvg.sourceforge.net/	Scalable Vector Graphics	Optional (plugin won't be built)
  libwmf	...	http://wvware.sourceforge.net/libwmf.htm	library to convert wmf files	Optional (plugin won't be built)
  libxpm	...	...	X pixmaps	Optional (plugin won't be built)
  zlib	1.1.4	http://www.gzip.org/zlib/	Compression routines - prerequisite for TIFF and PSP	Optional
  ...	...	...	...	...

Running configure

As a normal user, run ./configure in the directory you untarred the sources.

Some arguments you might find useful:

• --prefix= : Put stuff somewhere other than in /usr/local

• --disable-gtk-doc: Avoid dependency on gtk-docs, which are more a developer type thing anyway.

• --enable-debug: Include debugging symbols to give us useful bug report stack traces.

• --disable-print: disables Print Dialog of the Gimp, which depends on gimp-print.

Compiling

Usually, make is enough to get it built. Go away, make a cup of coffee, come back and see if anything's gone wrong early, report it here if it has. If not, go do your shopping, this takes a while.

Installing

As root (if you're installing systemwide), run make install

Common build issues

These errors are from memory. They should get replaced by real configure/compiler output.

• glib not installed correctly

  • Check PKG_CONFIG_PATH environment variable.

• Test program built, but did not run

  • Have a look in config.log to see if there are any extra hints.

  • Try to compile the test program yourself.

• GIMP Print not found

  • If you have a printer, follow the instructions for downloading gimp-print from sourceforge and installing it separately.

  • Otherwise, it is safe to run configure with the --disable-print argument.

If you get a configure failure here, you should add it so that we can add the fixes.

Common post-install issues

Please fill out these common issues and add more