Building Money Manager Ex from sources

Jump to Windows | Linux | macOS instructions.

Microsoft Windows

Prerequisites

Install free Microsoft Visual Studio Community 2022 (64-bit). Select following components during install:

Windows: Desktop development with C++
- Visual Studio Core Editor
- Desktop development with C++ options
  - MSVC v 143 - VS 2022 C++ x64/x86 build tools
  - Windows 10 SDK (10.0.x.x) for Desktop C++ x86 and x64
  - C++ CMake tools for Windows

Older versions of Visual Studio should work but some settings must be adjusted. Please remember different VS versions uses different toolsets.

Name	Version	Toolset
Visual Studio 2008	9.0	90
Visual Studio 2010	10.0	100
Visual Studio 2012	11.0	110
Visual Studio 2013	12.0	120
Visual Studio 2015	14.0	140
Visual Studio 2017	15.0	141
Visual Studio 2019	16.0	142
Visual Studio 2022	17.0	143

Download and install gettext pre-compiled binaries with default options.
Download wxWidgets 3.x binaries:
- wxWidgets-3.*.*_Headers.7z
- one of wxMSW-3.*.*-vc141_Dev.7z or wxMSW-3.*.*-vc141_x64_Dev.7z
- one of wxMSW-3.*.*-vc141_ReleaseDLL.7z or wxMSW-3.*.*-vc141_x64_ReleaseDLL.7z
Unpack archives to c:\wxWidgets\ or c:\Program Files\wxWidgets\.

You may select different directory but then wxwin environment variable must be set:
```
setx wxwin c:\path\to\unpacked\wxwidgets\files
```
Tools - Command Line - Developer Command Prompt

Start it from Main Menu

Or start the following command from start menu:
```
%comspec% /k "%ProgramFiles%\Microsoft Visual Studio\2022\Community\VC\Auxiliary\Build\vcvarsall.bat" amd64
```
Following command can be used with older VS versions (change 14.0 for correct version number):
```
%comspec% /k "%ProgramFiles(x86)%\Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0\VC\vcvarsall.bat" x86
```
Change x86 parameter to amd64 for native 64-bit build.

IMPORTANT
All following commands must be run from this command prompt!

Clone MMEX official Git repository with submodules using command-line:
```
git clone --recursive https://github.com/moneymanagerex/moneymanagerex c:\projects\mmex
```
If git command is not recognized and you want to use git installed with VS you should find git.exe file and add its directory to the PATH variable
```
dir /n/b/s c:\%ProgramFiles(x86)%\git.exe
set "PATH=%PATH%;c:\path\to\git\dir"
```
Or use build-in Visual Studio IDE Team Services to clone:
- Open Team Explorer using Team->Manage Connections...
- Select Clone under Local Git Repositories
- Put https://github.com/moneymanagerex/moneymanagerex.git into URL field
- Select c:\projects\mmex directory in field below URL
- Select Recursively Clone Submodule check-box
- Click Clone button below

Apply patches from util directory to CMake modules

cd "%DevEnvDir%CommonExtensions\Microsoft\CMake\CMake\share\cmake-3.8\Modules"
for %p in (c:\projects\mmex\util\*.cmake-*.patch) do git apply --ignore-space-change --ignore-whitespace --whitespace=nowarn %p

See previous step for instructions if git command is not recognized.

Download sources of curl, unpack them to c:\ and build libcurl library with following commands:

mkdir c:\curl-<version>\build
cd c:\curl-<version>\build
set "PATH=%PATH%;%DevEnvDir%CommonExtensions\Microsoft\CMake\CMake\bin"
cmake -G "Visual Studio 17 2022" -A x64 -DBUILD_CURL_EXE=OFF -DHTTP_ONLY=ON ^
  -DENABLE_MANUAL=OFF -DBUILD_TESTING=OFF -DCURL_STATICLIB=ON ^
  -DCURL_USE_SCHANNEL=ON -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=c:\libcurl ..
set "CL=/MP"
cmake --build . --target install --config Release --clean-first ^
  -- /maxcpucount /verbosity:minimal /nologo /p:PreferredToolArchitecture=x64

Replace -A x64 with -A Win32 to remove 64-bit support.

Then you should follow one of
Visual Studio project | Visual Studio CLI | Visual Studio CMake

Visual Studio GUI with project file

This should work with different versions of Visual Studio and uses native tools to manage projects in VS IDE.

Generate build environment using CMake

mkdir c:\projects\mmex\build
cd c:\projects\mmex\build
set "PATH=%PATH%;%DevEnvDir%CommonExtensions\Microsoft\CMake\CMake\bin"
cmake -G "Visual Studio 17 2022" -A x64 -DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH=c:\libcurl ..

This produce c:\projects\mmex\build\MMEX.sln file ready to be loaded into Visual Studio GUI.

Open above solution file with File->Open->Project/Solution... menu command (or Ctrl+Shift+O).
Run Build->Build Solution menu command (or Ctrl+Shift+B). This will compile MMEX and propagate support files into right directories.
Now you can run MMEX with Debug->Start Without Debugging menu command (Ctrl+F5) or start debugging session with Debug->Start Debugging (F5).
To create binary package (you need to have NSIS installed for this) build PACKAGE project.

Visual Studio command-line

Use this method if you don't want to use Visual Studio GUI at all. It's very similar to Unix compile methods and can be useful for batch builds, CI etc.

Look at .appveyor.yml file for more complicated command line builds scenarios examples (debug builds, using different toolset version, Windows XP/2003 compatible builds, compile wxWidgets from sources, shared DLL or static linking).

Execute step 1 from Visual Studio project above
Compile with
```
set "CL=/MP"
cmake --build . --target install --config Release -- /maxcpucount /verbosity:minimal /nologo /p:PreferredToolArchitecture=x64
```
Now you can run MMEX starting c:\projects\mmex\build\install\bin\mmex.exe file. c:\projects\mmex\build\install directory contains portable version.
Build binary package (you need to have NSIS installed for this)
```
cpack .
```
Windows installer and zip archive with portable package should be produced.

Visual Studio 2022 GUI with native CMake support

This will work in Visual Studio 2017 or newer with Visual C++ tools for CMake option installed.

Open c:\projects\mmex with File->Open->Folder... menu command (or Ctrl+Shift+Alt+O).
Select target like x64-Debug in project settings drop-down.
Set path to libcurl library using CMake->Change CMake Settings then adding following variables into CMakeSettings.json:
```
"variables": [
  {
    "name": "CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH",
    "value": "c:\libcurl"
  }
```
See detailed instructions for configuring CMake projects from Microsoft Visual C++ Team Blog.
Run CMake->Install->Project MMEX menu command before debugging session start with CMake->Debug->src\mmex.exe.
Select src\mmex.exe in Select Startup Item drop-down to unlock commands in Debug menu.

macOS with Homebrew

1. Install Prerequisites

First verify, if you have installed Xcode Command Line Tools. Open terminal and type git --version if it shows something like git version 2.11.0 (Apple Git-81) you are fine. If not, you will be prompted to Install them via your operating system. Alternatively, you can install those tools via command:
```
xcode-select --install
```

After that, for comfortable installing software we use Homebrew. Run the command:

/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"

Install required packages.

brew update && brew install ccache gettext cmake
brew link --force gettext

2. Build wxWidgets

Current stable version that has been tested with MMEX is v3.1.5

Download Sources

 /bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL -O https://github.com/wxWidgets/wxWidgets/releases/download/v3.1.5/wxWidgets-3.1.5.tar.bz2)"
 tar xzf wxWidgets-*.tar.bz2

Build from source
```
 cd wxWidgets-3.1.5
 mkdir build-cocoa
 cd build-cocoa
 export MAKEFLAGS=-j4
 ../configure --disable-shared --enable-cxx11 --with-cxx=11 \
 --with-macosx-version-min=10.14 \
 --without-libtiff \
 --enable-universal-binary=arm64,x86_64
 make
```
If you want to enable debug then include --enable-debug

If you want to just build for the current architecture and don't require a universal build then you can omit --enable-universal-binary=arm64,x86_64

You could tune -j4 option to a different number to use all processor cores during build phase.

3. Download latest MMEX sources

git clone --recursive https://github.com/moneymanagerex/moneymanagerex

4. Compile and Create Package

mkdir moneymanagerex/build
cd moneymanagerex/build
export MAKEFLAGS=-j4
cmake -DCMAKE_CXX_FLAGS="-w" \
-DwxWidgets_CONFIG_EXECUTABLE={PATH-TO-wxWidgets}/wxWidgets-3.1.5/build-cocoa/wx-config \
-DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release \
-DCMAKE_OSX_ARCHITECTURES="arm64;x86_64" \
-DCMAKE_OSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET=10.10 ..
cmake --build . --target package

Replace {PATH-TO-wxWidgets} with the path to the directory in which you extracted the wxWidgets source in step 2.

If you want build the project for debugging purposes replace CMake flag -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release with -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug.

If you want to just build for the current architecture and don't require a universal build then you can omit -DCMAKE_OSX_ARCHITECTURES="arm64;x86_64"

You could tune -j4 option to a different number to use all processor cores during build phase.

Linux

1. Install Prerequisites

All required packages should be installed from official distribution using native package manager:

Distribution	Update packages list	Install package
Debian, Ubuntu, Mint	`sudo apt update`	`sudo apt install <pkg>`
openSUSE	`sudo zypper refresh`	`sudo zypper install <pkg>`
Fedora	`sudo dnf --refresh repolist`	`sudo dnf install <pkg>`
CentOS	`sudo yum clean expire-cache`	`sudo yum install <pkg>`
Arch	`sudo pacman -Syy`	`sudo pacman -Syu <pkg>`
Slackware	`sudo slackpkg update`	`sudo slackpkg install <pkg>`

It is good practise to update packages list before installing new packages. This allows install or update required dependencies to the latest versions.

List of required packages for each distribution is available in dockerfiles in dockers subdirectory. Look for file dockers/<distribution>.<codename>/Dockerfile - i.e. Dockerfile for Ubuntu zesty.

Sometimes additional steps / workarounds are needed for specific distribution or version - they are included in above mentioned dockerfiles. Please run them before next steps.

To use wxWidget 3.1.5 see: https://docs.codelite.org/wxWidgets/repo315/#ubuntu-and-debian or to build it from sources: https://docs.codelite.org/build/build_wx_widgets/

2. Select C++ Compiler

You can choose which compiler you want to use: GCC (default in most Linux distributions) or CLang (optional). If you want use CLang you should install additional package and select it as default compiler:

Distribution	CLang pkg	Change compiler to CLang
Debian, Ubuntu, Mint	clang	`sudo update-alternatives --set cc /usr/bin/clang` `sudo update-alternatives --set c++ /usr/bin/clang++`
openSUSE	llvm-clang	`sudo ln -sf /usr/bin/clang /usr/bin/cc` `sudo ln -sf /usr/bin/clang++ /usr/bin/c++`
Fedora, CentOS	clang	`sudo ln -sf /usr/bin/clang /usr/bin/cc` `sudo ln -sf /usr/bin/clang++ /usr/bin/c++`
Arch	clang	`export CC=clang CXX=clang++`
Slackware	llvm	`export CC=clang CXX=clang++`

3. Download Sources

You need git to download the sources, see prerequisites above.

If you want the stable 1.7.0 version of mmex:

git clone --recursive https://github.com/moneymanagerex/moneymanagerex  --branch v1.7.0

If you want the latest (possibly unstable) version of the trunk:

git clone --recursive https://github.com/moneymanagerex/moneymanagerex

4. Compile and Create Package

Got to the directory, where you downloaded the sources from github.

cd moneymanagerex/
mkdir build
cd build/
cmake ..

E.g. for the trunk version the output should be something like:

-- MMEX configuration summary
-- ==========================
-- Version        : 1.7.1-Beta.1
-- Commit         : 1edc0dfe2 (2024-01-16)
-- Branch         : master
-- Host system    : Linux x86_64
-- Target system  : Linux x86_64
-- Build types    : 
-- Generator      : Unix Makefiles
-- Install prefix : /usr/local
-- DB encryption  : ON
-- 
-- Versions
-- --========--
-- Linux 6.1.38
-- Debian.12.bookworm
-- Debian.GNU/Linux.12.(bookworm)
-- CMake 3.25.1
-- GNU Make 4.3
-- ccache 4.7.5
-- GNU 12.2.0
-- wxWidgets 3.2.4
-- wxSQLite3 4.9.1
-- Lua 5.3.6
-- curl 7.88.1
-- gettext 0.21
-- ------------------ 8< -----------------
-- Configuring done
-- Generating done
-- Build files have been written to: <your $HOME >/<directory where you downloaded mmex>/moneymanagerex/build

Now build

export MAKEFLAGS=-j4  (to speed up the build)
cmake --build . --target package

If the build was ok the last message should be something like:

[...]
[100%] Built target mmex
Run CPack packaging tool...
CPack: Create package using DEB
CPack: Install projects
CPack: - Run preinstall target for: MMEX
CPack: - Install project: MMEX
CPack: Create package
CPackDeb: - Generating dependency list
CPack: - package: <directory where you saved the download from git>/moneymanagerex/mmex_1.7.1-Beta.1-Debian.12.bookworm_amd64.deb generated.

For testing without installing you can run
../_CPack_Packages/Linux/DEB/mmex-1.7.1-Beta.1-Linux/usr/bin/mmex

5. Install MMEX Package

Distribution	Install package from local file
Debian, Ubuntu, Mint	`sudo apt install ./mmex-<version>.deb`
openSUSE	`sudo zypper install ./mmex-<version>.rpm`
Fedora	`sudo dnf install ./mmex-<version>.rpm`
CentOS	`sudo yum install ./mmex-<version>.rpm`
Arch	`sudo pacman -U ./mmex-<version>.pkg.tar.xz`
Slackware	`sudo installpkg ./mmex-<version>.txz`

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BUILD.md

BUILD.md

Building Money Manager Ex from sources

Microsoft Windows

Prerequisites

Visual Studio GUI with project file

Visual Studio command-line

Visual Studio 2022 GUI with native CMake support

macOS with Homebrew

1. Install Prerequisites

2. Build wxWidgets

3. Download latest MMEX sources

4. Compile and Create Package

Linux

1. Install Prerequisites

2. Select C++ Compiler

3. Download Sources

4. Compile and Create Package

5. Install MMEX Package

Files

BUILD.md

Latest commit

History

BUILD.md

File metadata and controls

Building Money Manager Ex from sources

Microsoft Windows

Prerequisites

Visual Studio GUI with project file

Visual Studio command-line

Visual Studio 2022 GUI with native CMake support

macOS with Homebrew

1. Install Prerequisites

2. Build wxWidgets

3. Download latest MMEX sources

4. Compile and Create Package

Linux

1. Install Prerequisites

2. Select C++ Compiler

3. Download Sources

4. Compile and Create Package

5. Install MMEX Package