Qt6 development packages and a C++23 capable compiler are required. g++-13 or clang-17 are required at a minimum for c++23 support.
NOTE: In all of the below lists of packages, the Qt6 multimedia package is not needed if your Linux system supports PulseAudio.
On Debian/Ubuntu required packages include, but are not limited to:
sudo apt install build-essential cmake libgl1-mesa-dev ninja-build qt6-base-dev qt6-tools-dev-tools qt6-multimedia-dev ccache
For Ubuntu 20.04 and above, ensure that the Qt6 Wayland packages are available:
sudo apt install qt6-wayland
On Arch Linux/Manjaro:
sudo pacman -S --needed base-devel cmake libgl ninja qt6-base qt6-tools qt6-wayland qt6-multimedia ccache
On Fedora or derivatives:
sudo dnf install cmake libglvnd-devel ninja-build qt6-qtbase-devel qt6-qttools-devel qt6-qtwayland-devel qt6-qtmultimedia-devel ccache
On openSUSE:
sudo zypper install cmake libglvnd-devel ninja qt6-base-devel qt6-multimedia-devel qt6-tools-devel qt6-wayland-devel ccache
On NixOS or with Nix:
nix develop .#ladybird
# With a custom entrypoint, for example your favorite shell
nix develop .#ladybird --command bashOn NixOS or with Nix using your host nixpkgs and the legacy nix-shell tool:
nix-shell Ladybird
# With a custom entrypoint, for example your favorite shell
nix-shell --command bash LadybirdOn macOS:
Xcode 14 versions before 14.3 might crash while building ladybird. Xcode 14.3 or clang from homebrew may be required to successfully build ladybird.
xcode-select --install
brew install cmake ninja ccache
If you also plan to use the Qt chrome on macOS:
brew install qt
On OpenIndiana:
Note that OpenIndiana's latest GCC port (GCC 11) is too old to build Ladybird, so you need Clang, which is available in the repository.
pfexec pkg install cmake ninja clang-17 libglvnd qt6
On Haiku:
pkgman install cmake ninja cmd:python3 qt6_base_devel qt6_multimedia_devel qt6_tools_devel openal_devel
On Windows:
WSL2/WSLg are preferred, as they provide a linux environment that matches one of the above distributions. MinGW/MSYS2 are not supported, but may work with sufficient elbow grease. Native Windows builds are not supported with either clang-cl or MSVC.
For Android:
On a Unix-like platform, install the prerequisites for that platform and then see the Android Studio guide.
Or, download a version of Gradle >= 8.0.0, and run the gradlew program in Ladybird/Android
The simplest way to build and run ladybird is via the serenity.sh script:
# From /path/to/serenity
./Meta/serenity.sh run lagom ladybird
./Meta/serenity.sh gdb lagom ladybirdThe above commands will build Ladybird with one of the following browser chromes, depending on the platform:
- Android UI - The native chrome on Android.
- AppKit - The native chrome on macOS.
- Qt - The chrome used on all other platforms.
The Qt chrome is available on platforms where it is not the default as well (except on Android). To build the Qt chrome, install the Qt dependencies for your platform, and enable the Qt chrome via CMake:
# From /path/to/serenity
cmake -S Meta/Lagom -B Build/lagom -DENABLE_QT=ONTo re-disable the Qt chrome, run the above command with -DENABLE_QT=OFF.
Note that running ladybird from the script will change the CMake cache in your Build/lagom build directory to always build LibWeb and Ladybird for Lagom when rebuilding SerenityOS using the serenity.sh script to run a qemu instance.
To restore the previous behavior that only builds code generators and tools from Lagom when rebuilding serenity, you must modify the CMake cache back to the default.
cmake -S Meta/Lagom -B Build/lagom -DENABLE_LAGOM_LADYBIRD=OFF -DENABLE_LAGOM_LIBWEB=OFF -DBUILD_LAGOM=OFFLadybird requires resource files from the serenity/Base/res directory in order to properly load
icons, fonts, and other theming information. The serenity.sh script calls into custom CMake targets
that set these variables, and ensure that the $PWD is set properly to allow execution from the build
directory. To run the built binary without using the script, one can either directly invoke the
ninja rules or install ladybird using the provided CMake install rules. See the Custom CMake build directory
section below for details.
If you want to build ladybird on its own, or are interested in packaging ladybird for distribution, then a separate CMake build directory may be desired. Note that ladybird can be build via the Lagom CMakeLists.txt, or via the CMakeLists.txt found in the Ladybird directory. For distributions, using Ladybird as the source directory will give the desired results.
The install rules in Ladybird/cmake/InstallRules.cmake define which binaries and libraries will be
installed into the configured CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH or path passed to cmake --install.
Note that when using a custom build directory rather than Meta/serenity.sh, the user may need to provide a suitable C++ compiler (g++ >= 13, clang >= 14, Apple Clang >= 14.3) via the CMAKE_CXX_COMPILER and CMAKE_C_COMPILER cmake options.
cmake -GNinja -S Ladybird -B Build/ladybird
# optionally, add -DCMAKE_CXX_COMPILER=<suitable compiler> -DCMAKE_C_COMPILER=<matching c compiler>
cmake --build Build/ladybird
ninja -C Build/ladybird run
To automatically run in gdb:
ninja -C Build/ladybird debug
To run without ninja rule on non-macOS systems:
./Build/ladybird/bin/Ladybird
To run without ninja rule on macOS:
open -W --stdout $(tty) --stderr $(tty) ./Build/ladybird/bin/Ladybird.app
# Or to launch with arguments:
open -W --stdout $(tty) --stderr $(tty) ./Build/ladybird/bin/Ladybird.app --args https://ladybird.dev
There is an experimental GN build for Ladybird. It is not officially supported, but it is kept up to date on a best-effort basis by interested contributors. See the GN build instructions for more information.
In general, the GN build organizes ninja rules in a more compact way than the CMake build, and it may be faster on some systems. GN also allows building host and cross-targets in the same build directory, which is useful for managing dependencies on host tools when cross-compiling to other platforms.
Ladybird should be built with debug symbols first. In Meta/CMake/lagom_compile_options.cmake remove the optimizations by changing -O2 to -O0. For macOS also change the debug option from -g1 to -g so that lldb is happy with the emitted symbols. In linux -g1 can be changed to -ggdb3 for maximum debug info.
After running Ladybird as suggested above with ./Meta/serenity.sh run lagom ladybird, you can now in CLion use Run -> Attach to Process to connect. If debugging layouting and rendering issues, filter the listing that opens for WebContent and attach to that.
Now breakpoints, stepping and variable inspection will work.
The serenity.sh build script does not know how to generate Xcode projects, so creating the project must be done manually.
To be compatible with the serenity.sh script, a few extra options are required. If there is a previous Lagom build directory, CMake will likely complain that the generator has changed.
cmake -GXcode -S Meta/Lagom -B Build/lagom -DBUILD_LAGOM=ON -DENABLE_LAGOM_LADYBIRD=ON
Alternatively, if you don't need your ladybird build to be compatible with serenity.sh, you can use Ladybird as the source directory like so:
cmake -GXcode -S Ladybird -B Build/ladybird
After generating an Xcode project into the specified build directory, you can open ladybird.xcodeproj in Xcode. The project has a ton of targets, many of which are generated code.
The only target that needs a scheme is the ladybird app bundle.
OpenIndiana needs some extra environment variables set to make sure it finds all the executables and directories it needs for the build to work. The cmake files are in a non-standard path that contains the Qt version (replace 6.2 with the Qt version you have installed) and you need to tell it to use clang and clang++, or it will use gcc and g++ from GCC 10 which is currently the default to build packages on OpenIndiana.
When running Ladybird, make sure that XDG_RUNTIME_DIR is set, or it will immediately crash as it doesn't find a writable directory for its sockets.
CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH=/usr/lib/qt/6.2/lib/amd64/cmake cmake -GNinja -S Ladybird -B Build/ladybird -DCMAKE_C_COMPILER=/usr/bin/clang -DCMAKE_CXX_COMPILER=/usr/bin/clang++
cmake --build Build/ladybird
XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=/var/tmp ninja -C Build/ladybird run
Haiku is supported by Ladybird out of the box. The steps are the same as on OpenIndiana, but no additional environment variables are required.
cmake -GNinja -S Ladybird -B Build/ladybird
cmake --build Build/ladybird
ninja -C Build/ladybird run