Linux build instructions

Requirements

These instructions assume you have already downloaded depot_tools and that it is in your PATH environment variable. See the prerequisites page for further information.

Additionally, you are expected to be using a 64-bit Linux installation.

Configure gyp

Older (< 23) Crosswalk versions are based on Chromium releases that use gyp as their meta-build system.

If you want to build one of those versions, make sure you follow the gyp setup in the section Crosswalk 22 and earlier: gyp setup at the end of this page if you would like to build for a different CPU architecture or adjust any build parameters.

Fetching the source code

Choose where you want to download and build Crosswalk. If you are using gyp and opted for having a chromium.gyp_env file, this directory must contain that file.
```
cd /path/to/crosswalk-checkout
```
Generate a .gclient file. This tells gclient where to fetch Crosswalk from. It assumes depot_tools is in your PATH variable.
```
 gclient config --name src/xwalk https://github.com/crosswalk-project/crosswalk.git
```
Run gclient sync to fetch Crosswalk, all other git repositories it depends on as well as any additional helper files. If you are using Crosswalk 22 or earlier, this will also automatically run the gyp_xwalk script in the end.
```
 gclient sync
```
Do not worry if gyp_xwalk fails due to missing dependencies; installing them is covered in a later section, after which you can run gyp_xwalk manually again.

Dependency installation

The Crosswalk for Linux build requires several packages to be present on your Linux installation. All dependencies are checked for at configuration time -- either when gyp_xwalk or gn gen (or gn args) is run, so if something is missing on your system you will get an error before you are able to start building.

If you are using Ubuntu or another Debian-based distribution, you can use Chromium's install-build-deps-android.sh script to install all dependencies:

cd /path/to/crosswalk-checkout/src
./build/install-build-deps-android.sh

Users of other distros can take a look at src/build/install-build-deps.sh and src/build/install-build-deps-android.sh to see which packages are listed and install the analogous versions shipped by their distributions.

If you are using gyp, make sure you call gyp_xwalk again once everything has been installed.

Crosswalk 23 and later: GN setup

Starting with Crosswalk 23, GN has replaced gyp as the meta-build system for both Chromium and Crosswalk. Its setup is a bit different compared to gyp, as chromium.gyp_env (and the GYP_DEFINES environment variable) does not have any effect, and the gyp_xwalk is not used.

Instead, you use the gn binary to both edit a file with your settings as well as generate the files required by Ninja to build.

In order to build Crosswalk, you need to have at least one line in your settings to pull some default variables we set:

cd /path/to/crosswalk-checkout
gn args out/Default

A text editor will be shown, where you must add the following line:

import("//xwalk/build/linux.gni")

You can add other settings after this statement, such as is_debug = false for a release build or target_cpu = "arm" to create a 32-bit ARM build.

Once you have done this once, you can later call gn gen out/Default to just regenerate the ninja files based on your existing settings if you need to (most of the time, this will be done automatically for you when building).

See Chromium's page about GN for more information, including other common settings.

Crosswalk 22 and earlier: gyp setup

Up to Crosswalk 22, both Chromium and Crosswalk used gyp as a meta-build system that generated the actual build system files used by ninja.

gyp accepts flags to change its behavior. They can be used to tell it you want to create a 32-bit build, for example.

There are two ways to define those flags:

Create a file called chromium.gyp_env on the directory where you will later call gclient config and gclient sync (so the one above src/). It needs to look like this:
```
 {
   'GYP_DEFINES': 'key1=value1 key2=value2',
 }
```
Use export in your shell to set the GYP_DEFINES environment variable.

These values are read every time you run the src/xwalk/gyp_xwalk script, so whenever you want to change them remember to run the script afterwards.

To generate a 32-bit build instead of a 64-bit one, you can set target_arch to x86. For example, if you are using chromium.gyp_env, its contents should look like this:

{
  'GYP_DEFINES': 'target_arch=x86,
}

Do not forget to run src/xwalk/gyp_xwalk (it is run automatically with gclient sync) whenever you modify your gyp flags, otherwise your changes will have no effect.

Building Crosswalk

Once either gyp or GN has been properly configured, it is time to build Crosswalk.

cd C:\path\to\crosswalk-checkout\src
ninja -C YOUR-BUILD-DIR xwalk

You should replace YOUR-BUILD-DIR above with the appropriate directory created with gyp or GN: With gyp and a 32-bit build, it's out/Release. With gyp and a 64-bit build, it's out/Release_x64. * With GN, it's whatever directory you chose, such as out/Default.

Chromium information

Most of the instructions described in this page are similar to Chromium's own instructions. We suggest you take a look at its instructions as well; it might help solve any questions you have after reading our documentation.

Chromium Linux build instructions