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Prerequisites for building SWI-Prolog from source

This page contains a general description of the prerequisites for building SWI-Prolog. This is mainly using for building SWI-Prolog on Unix-based systems. The Unix build page contains links to OS specific pages. This page provides background and guides you through the process for other operating systems.

  • Tools:
    gcc or clang
    With some effort, other C compilers may work as well
    GNU-make
    Do not try with other implementations of make
    autoconf
    When building from GIT
    LaTeX
    Optional for documentation, see README.doc
    perl
    optional for documentation, see README.doc
  • Libraries (core system):
    gmp (http://gmplib.org/)
    Provides unbounded integers and rational numbers. Although the system compiles without it we strongly encourage you do use GMP. Libraries and other software written for SWI-Prolog may fail to work properly without GMP.
    GNU readline library
    Optional, provides commandline editing and completion. You really want this!
    libunwind (http://www.nongnu.org/libunwind)
    Not available on all platforms. If it is supported, it enhances crash reports generated by the system.
  • Libraries (packages):
    unixODBC (http://www.unixodbc.org/)
    Optional for building package odbc, providing database access.
    OpenSSL (www.openssl.org/)
    Optional for building package ssl (Secure Socket layer)
    zlib
    Optional for building package zlib (compressed streams)
    OSSP UUID library (http://www.ossp.org/pkg/lib/uuid/)
    Needed for library(uuid). Used by various packages.
    SUN Java SDK or OpenSDK
    Optional for building JPL (Java interface). Note that auto-detection of JPL prerequisites often fails. See DISABLE_PKGS in build.templ
    libXt, X11 core libraries, libjpeg and libxpm
    Required libraries for XPCE, the SWI-Prolog graphics layer that provides the built-in editor, graphical debugger and many other developers tools.
    libXft, libfontconfig and pkg-config
    Provide proper Unicode font support for XPCE. Without, XPCE may work or not, depending on locale and installed fonts.