This document is intended for developers who want to get started with developing with Elektra.

Skill requirements

Operating system

We recommend a Unix-based operating system to run Elektra (Linux, BSD, macOS) but it's also possible to use Windows which is supported but not yet fully tested.
Using command-line interface and commands

The easiest way to compile, install and use Elektra is by using the terminal. We will introduce the basic commands which you will need to run Elektra for the very first time.
Basic knowledge about git

Don't panic! GIT is a distributed version control system to track changes of the source code in a project. We will use a single GIT command to get the source code of Elektra.
Basic knowledge about make/cmake

make or cmake are used to generate an executable program from the code. If you are not used to these tools, it's not a problem, we will introduce them to you in later sections.
We also need your skill set to improve Elektra

You can contribute to Elektra to improve the source code, website, documentation, translation etc.

Software requirements

We need to install some basic tools to run Elektra: cmake, git and essential build tools (make, gcc, and some standard Unix tools; alternatively ninja and clang are also supported but not described here). Depending on your Linux distribution use the following commands to install these tools:

sudo apt-get install cmake git build-essential

Or on RPM (Red Hat Package Manager) based systems (like Fedora, openSUSE, CentOS etc.):

sudo yum install -y cmake git gcc-c++

Or on macOS, most of the build tools can be obtained by installing Xcode. Other required tools may be installed using brew. First, install brew as described on their website. Then issue the following command to get cmake to complete the basic requirements:

brew install cmake git

Installation

If you meet all the software requirements you can get the source code of Elektra by using this command:

git clone https://github.com/ElektraInitiative/libelektra.git

Run the following commands to compile Elektra with non-experimental plugins where your system happens to fulfill the dependencies:

cd libelektra  #navigate to libelektra
mkdir build  && cd build  #create and navigate to the build directory
cmake ..  # watch output to see if everything needed is included
#  optionally run "ccmake .." to get an overview of the available build settings (needs cmake-curses-gui)
cmake --build . -- -j5

Optionally you can also run tests, see here for more information:

cmake --build . --target run_nokdbtests

With these commands you will be able to run the "Hello World!" example, but usually you will need to use some of the plugins, tools and bindings of Elektra. Please take a look at the more detailed compiling documentation. After you completed building Elektra on your own, you can execute these commands to install Elektra (please check the installation documentation for the many available packages):

sudo make install

sudo ldconfig #optional: check installation documentation for more information

Installation documentation contains further information about available packages.

Optionally you can also run tests to verify the installed Elektra, see here for more information:

kdb run_nokdbtests

Hello World!

Start with your very first Elektra application in C and follow these steps: Hello World!