Description

Cerbero is a cross-platform build aggregator for Open Source projects that builds and creates native packages for different platforms, architectures and distributions. It supports both native compilation and cross compilation and can run on macOS, Linux, and Windows.

Projects are defined using recipe files (.recipe), which provide a description of the project being built such as name, version, licenses, sources and the way it's built. It also provide listing of files, which is later used for the packaging.

Packages are defined using package files (.package), describing the package name, version, license, maintainer and other fields used to create the packages. A package wraps a list of recipes, from which the list of files belonging to the package will be extracted.

Minimum Requirements

Cerbero provides bootstrapping facilities for all platforms, but it still needs a minimum base to bootstrap on top of.

Linux Setup

On Linux, you will only need a distribution with python >= 3.5. Cerbero will use your package manager to install all other required packages during bootstrap.

macOS Setup

On macOS you will need to have install the following software:

• XCode
• Python 3.5+ https://www.python.org/downloads/

Cerbero will build all other required packages during bootstrap.

Windows Setup

The initial setup on Windows is somewhat longer since the required packages must be installed manually. Detailed steps on what you need to install are at the bottom of the page.

Running Cerbero

Despite the presence of setup.py this tool does not need installation. It is invoked via the cerbero-uninstalled script, which should be invoked as ./cerbero-uninstalled, or you can add the cerbero directory in your path and invoke it as cerbero-uninstalled.

Bootstrap

Before using cerbero for the first time, you will need to run the bootstrap command. This command installs the missing parts of the build system using the packages manager when available, and also downloads the necessary toolchains when building for Windows or Android.

Note that this will take a while (a couple hours or even more on Windows).

$ ./cerbero-uninstalled bootstrap

Command Reference

# Help
$ ./cerbero-uninstalled --help

# Command-specific help
$ ./cerbero-uninstalled <command> --help

# List available recipes
$ ./cerbero-uninstalled list

# Build a recipe
$ ./cerbero-uninstalled build glib

# Force-rebuild a single recipe
$ ./cerbero-uninstalled buildone glib

# Create a package (this automatically builds all recipes in the package)
$ ./cerbero-uninstalled package gstreamer-1.0

Cross Compilation

If you're using Cerbero to cross-compile to iOS, Android, or Cross-MinGW, you must select the appropriate config file and pass it to all steps: bootstrap, build, package, etc.

For example if you're on Linux and you want to build for Android Universal, you must run:

# Bootstrap for Android Universal on Linux
$ ./cerbero-uninstalled -c config/cross-android-universal.cbc bootstrap

# Build everything and package for Android Universal
$ ./cerbero-uninstalled -c config/cross-android-universal.cbc package gstreamer-1.0

Here's a list of config files for each target machine:

Linux Targets

Target	Config file
MinGW 32-bit	cross-win32.cbc
MinGW 64-bit	cross-win64.cbc
Android Universal	cross-android-universal.cbc
Android ARM64	cross-android-arm64.cbc
Android ARMv7	cross-android-armv7.cbc
Android x86	cross-android-x86.cbc
Android x86_64	cross-android-x86-64.cbc

macOS Targets

Target	Config file
macOS System Framework	osx-x86-64.cbc
iOS Universal	cross-ios-universal.cbc
iOS ARM64	cross-ios-arm64.cbc
iOS ARMv7	cross-ios-armv7.cbc
iOS x86	cross-ios-x86.cbc
iOS x86_64	cross-ios-x86-64.cbc

Windows Targets

On Windows, config files are used to select the architecture and variants are used to select the toolchain (MinGW, MSVC, UWP):

Target	Config file	Variant
MinGW x86	win32.cbc
MinGW x86_64	win64.cbc
MSVC x86	win32.cbc	visualstudio
MSVC x86_64	win64.cbc	visualstudio
UWP x86	win32.cbc	uwp
UWP x86_64	win64.cbc	uwp
UWP ARM64	cross-win-arm64.cbc	uwp
UWP Universal	`cross-uwp-universal.cbc	(implicitly uwp)

Example usage:

# Target MinGW 32-bit
$ ./cerbero-uninstalled -c config/win32.cbc package gstreamer-1.0

# Target MSVC 64-bit
$ ./cerbero-uninstalled -c config/win64.cbc -v visualstudio package gstreamer-1.0

# Target UWP, x86_64
$ ./cerbero-uninstalled -c config/win64.cbc -v uwp package gstreamer-1.0

# Target UWP, Cross ARM64
$ ./cerbero-uninstalled -c config/cross-win-arm64.cbc -v uwp package gstreamer-1.0

# Target UWP, All Supported Arches
$ ./cerbero-uninstalled -c config/cross-uwp-universal.cbc package gstreamer-1.0

Enabling Optional Features with Variants

Cerbero controls optional and platform-specific features with variants. You can see a full list of available variants by running:

$ ./cerbero-uninstalled --list-variants

Some variants are enabled by default while others are not. You can enable a particular variant by doing one of the following:

• Either invoke cerbero-uninstalled with the -v argument, for example:

$ ./cerbero-uninstalled -v variantname [-c ...] package gstreamer-1.0

• Or, edit ~/.cerbero/cerbero.cbc and add variants = ['variantname'] at the bottom. Create the file if it doesn't exist.

Multiple variants can either be separated by a comma or with multiple -v arguments, for example the following are equivalent:

$ ./cerbero-uninstalled -v variantname1,variantname2 [-c ...] package gstreamer-1.0
$ ./cerbero-uninstalled -v variantname1 -v variantname2 [-c ...] package gstreamer-1.0

To explicitly disable a variant, use novariantname instead.

In the case of multiple enabling/disable of the same variant, then the last condition on the command line will take effect. e.g. if novariantname is last then variantname is disabled.

Enabling Qt5 Support

Starting with version 1.15.2, Cerbero has built-in support for building the Qt5 QML GStreamer plugin. You can toggle that on by enabling the qt5 variant.

You must also tell Cerbero where your Qt5 installation prefix is. You can do it by setting the QMAKE environment variable to point to the qmake that you want to use, f.ex. /path/to/Qt5.12.0/5.12.0/ios/bin/qmake

When building for Android Universal with Qt < 5.14, instead of QMAKE, you must set the QT5_PREFIX environment variable pointed to the directory inside your prefix which contains all the android targets, f.ex. /path/to/Qt5.12.0/5.12.0.

Next, run package:

$ export QMAKE='/path/to/Qt5.12.0/5.12.0/<target>/bin/qmake'
$ ./cerbero-uninstalled -v qt5 [-c ...] package gstreamer-1.0

This will try to build the Qt5 QML plugin and error out if Qt5 could not be found or if the plugin could not be built. The plugin will be automatically added to the package outputted.

NOTE: The package outputted will not contain a copy of the Qt5 libraries in it. You must link to them while building your app yourself.

Enabling Hardware Codec Support

Starting with version 1.15.2, Cerbero has built-in support for building and packaging hardware codecs for Intel and Nvidia. If the appropriate variant is enabled, the plugin will either be built or Cerbero will error out if that's not possible.

Intel Hardware Codecs

For Intel, the variant to enable is intelmsdk which will build the msdk plugin.

You must set the INTELMEDIASDKROOT env var to point to your Intel Media SDK prefix, or you must have the SDK's pkgconfig prefix in PKG_CONFIG_PATH

On Windows, INTELMEDIASDKROOT automatically set by the installer. On Linux, if you need to set this, you must set it to point to the directory that contains the mediasdk include and lib64 dirs.

For VA-API, the variant to enable is vaapi which will build the gstreamer-vaapi plugins with all options enabled if possible.

Nvidia Hardware Codecs

Since 1.17.1, the nvcodec plugin does not need access to the Nvidia Video SDK or the CUDA SDK. It now loads everything at runtime. Hence, it is now enabled by default on all platforms.

Enabling Visual Studio Support

Starting with version 1.15.2, Cerbero supports building all GStreamer recipes, all mandatory dependencies (such as glib, libffi, zlib, etc), and some external dependencies with Visual Studio. You must explicitly opt-in to this by enabling the visualstudio variant:

$ python ./cerbero-uninstalled -v visualstudio package gstreamer-1.0

If you already have a Cerbero build, it is highly recommended to run the wipe command before switching to building with Visual Studio.

Some plugins that require external dependencies will be automatically disabled when running in this mode.

Currently, most recipes that use Meson (btype = BuildType.MESON) and those that have the can_msvc recipe property set to True are built with Visual Studio.

Installing Minimum Requirements on Windows

IMPORTANT: Using cerbero on Windows with the GCC/MinGW toolchain requires a 64-bit operating system. The toolchain is only available for 64-bit and it can produce 32-bit or 64-bit binaries.

These steps are necessary for using Cerbero on Windows.

Install Python 3.5 or newer (either 32-bit or 64-bit)

Download the Windows executable installer and run it.

• On the first page of the installer, select the following:

• On the second page, the defaults are fine

• Third page, you must select the following options:

• Enabled or Install .NET 3.5.1 Framework

• On Windows 10, remove the Windows Store path entry from the PATH variable in the system settings. Otherwise, Cerbero will try to use the dummy Windows Store version of Python

Install Git for Windows

Download the Git for Windows installer and run it.

• First page is the license

• Next page is Select Components, the defaults are fine, enable whatever else you prefer

• Next Choosing the default editor used by Git, select whatever you prefer

• Next Adjusting your PATH environment, you must select as shown in the screenshot

• Next Choosing HTTPS transport backend, default is fine

• Next Configuring the line ending conversions, you must select as shown in the screenshot

• Next Configuring the terminal emulator, default is fine

• Next Configuring extra options, defaults are fine

Git will be installed at C:\Program Files\Git.

Install MSYS/MinGW

Download the mingw-get-setup executable installer and run it.

• First page, keep all the options as-is

• Second page will download the latest package catalogue and base packages

• Once done, the MinGW Installation Manager will open, select the following packages under Basic Setup:

Then, click on the Installation menu and select Apply Changes. MSYS will be installed at C:\MinGW.

IMPORTANT: After installation, you must create a shortcut on the desktop to C:\MinGW\msys\1.0\msys.bat which will run the MinGW shell. You must run Cerbero from inside that.

NOTE: Cerbero does not use the MinGW compiler toolchain shipped with MSYS. We download our own custom GCC toolchain during bootstrap.

NOTE: MSYS is not the same as MSYS2, and the GStreamer project does not support running Cerbero inside the MSYS2 environment. Things may work or they may break, and you get to keep the pieces.

Install Visual Studio 2015 or newer

This is needed for correctly generating import libraries for recipes built with MinGW. Both the Community build and the Professional build are supported.

You must install the latest Windows 10 SDK when installing Visual Studio as shown below. You do not need any older Windows SDKs.

If you want to build for UWP (aka Universal Windows Platform), you have to use VS 2017 or newer, and you must also select the Universal Windows Platform workload:

You can find all versions of Visual Studio at: https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/vs/older-downloads/

Install other tools

• CMake: http://www.cmake.org/cmake/resources/software.html

• WiX 3.11.1 installer: https://github.com/wixtoolset/wix3/releases/tag/wix3111rtm

Important Windows-specific Notes

You should add the cerbero git directory to the list of excluded folders in your anti-virus, or you will get random build failures when Autotools does file operations such as renames and deletions. It will also slow your build by about 3-4x.

Cerbero must be run in the MingGW shell, which is accessible from the main menu or desktop. If it is not, create a shortcut on the desktop to C:\MinGW\msys\1.0\msys.bat

The path to your $HOME must not contain spaces. If your Windows username contains spaces, you can create a new directory in /home and execute:

If you are using Windows 10, it is also highly recommended to enable "Developer Mode" in Windows Settings as shown below.

$ echo 'export HOME=/home/newdir' > ~/.profile

Then restart your shell and type cd to go to the new home directory.

Note that inside the shell, / is mapped to C:\Mingw\msys\1.0\