# Build Instructions (Linux)

Follow the guidelines below for building **Electron itself** on Linux, for the purposes of creating custom Electron binaries. For bundling and distributing your app code with the prebuilt Electron binaries, see the [application distribution][application-distribution] guide.

[application-distribution]: ../tutorial/application-distribution.md

## Prerequisites

* At least 25GB disk space and 8GB RAM.
* Python >= 3.7.
* Node.js. There are various ways to install Node. You can download
  source code from [nodejs.org](https://nodejs.org) and compile it.
  Doing so permits installing Node on your own home directory as a standard user.
  Or try repositories such as [NodeSource](https://nodesource.com/blog/nodejs-v012-iojs-and-the-nodesource-linux-repositories).
* [clang](https://clang.llvm.org/get_started.html) 3.4 or later.
* Development headers of GTK 3 and libnotify.

On Ubuntu >= 20.04, install the following libraries:

```sh
$ sudo apt-get install build-essential clang libdbus-1-dev libgtk-3-dev \
                       libnotify-dev libasound2-dev libcap-dev \
                       libcups2-dev libxtst-dev \
                       libxss1 libnss3-dev gcc-multilib g++-multilib curl \
                       gperf bison python3-dbusmock openjdk-8-jre
```

On Ubuntu < 20.04, install the following libraries:

```sh
$ sudo apt-get install build-essential clang libdbus-1-dev libgtk-3-dev \
                       libnotify-dev libgnome-keyring-dev \
                       libasound2-dev libcap-dev libcups2-dev libxtst-dev \
                       libxss1 libnss3-dev gcc-multilib g++-multilib curl \
                       gperf bison python-dbusmock openjdk-8-jre
```

On RHEL / CentOS, install the following libraries:

```sh
$ sudo yum install clang dbus-devel gtk3-devel libnotify-devel \
                   libgnome-keyring-devel xorg-x11-server-utils libcap-devel \
                   cups-devel libXtst-devel alsa-lib-devel libXrandr-devel \
                   nss-devel python-dbusmock openjdk-8-jre
```

On Fedora, install the following libraries:

```sh
$ sudo dnf install clang dbus-devel gtk3-devel libnotify-devel \
                   libgnome-keyring-devel xorg-x11-server-utils libcap-devel \
                   cups-devel libXtst-devel alsa-lib-devel libXrandr-devel \
                   nss-devel python-dbusmock openjdk-8-jre
```

On Arch Linux / Manjaro, install the following libraries:

```sh
$ sudo pacman -Syu base-devel clang libdbus gtk2 libnotify \
                   libgnome-keyring alsa-lib libcap libcups libxtst \
                   libxss nss gcc-multilib curl gperf bison \
                   python2 python-dbusmock jdk8-openjdk
```

Other distributions may offer similar packages for installation via package
managers such as pacman. Or one can compile from source code.

### Cross compilation

If you want to build for an `arm` target you should also install the following
dependencies:

```sh
$ sudo apt-get install libc6-dev-armhf-cross linux-libc-dev-armhf-cross \
                       g++-arm-linux-gnueabihf
```

Similarly for `arm64`, install the following:

```sh
$ sudo apt-get install libc6-dev-arm64-cross linux-libc-dev-arm64-cross \
                       g++-aarch64-linux-gnu
```

And to cross-compile for `arm` or targets, you should pass the
`target_cpu` parameter to `gn gen`:

```sh
$ gn gen out/Testing --args='import(...) target_cpu="arm"'
```

## Building

See [Build Instructions: GN](build-instructions-gn.md)

## Troubleshooting

### Error While Loading Shared Libraries: libtinfo.so.5

Prebuilt `clang` will try to link to `libtinfo.so.5`. Depending on the host
architecture, symlink to appropriate `libncurses`:

```sh
$ sudo ln -s /usr/lib/libncurses.so.5 /usr/lib/libtinfo.so.5
```

## Advanced topics

The default building configuration is targeted for major desktop Linux
distributions. To build for a specific distribution or device, the following
information may help you.

### Using system `clang` instead of downloaded `clang` binaries

By default Electron is built with prebuilt
[`clang`](https://clang.llvm.org/get_started.html) binaries provided by the
Chromium project. If for some reason you want to build with the `clang`
installed in your system, you can specify the `clang_base_path` argument in the
GN args.

For example if you installed `clang` under `/usr/local/bin/clang`:

```sh
$ gn gen out/Testing --args='import("//electron/build/args/testing.gn") clang_base_path = "/usr/local/bin"'
```

### Using compilers other than `clang`

Building Electron with compilers other than `clang` is not supported.
