oak-editor/docs/build.md

Build Guide

This document describes how to build the Oak Video Editor from source on macOS, Linux, and Windows. For the Chinese version see zh/build.md.

2026 note: Oak is a pure Rust workspace. cargo build at the repository root produces the app (oak-editor), the CLI (oak-cli) and the render worker (oak-worker). The old C++/CMake tree lives on the cpp-legacy branch; nothing in this guide uses it.

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Prerequisites (all platforms)

• git — clone with submodules (gpui/ is a submodule):

  git clone --recursive https://github.com/OakVideoEditorCommunity/oak.git
  cd oak
  # or, on an existing clone: git submodule update --init --recursive
  

• Rust stable (via rustup; on Windows use the MSYS2 toolchain instead — see the Windows section).
• C toolchain + cmake + pkg-config + nasm — cmake and a C++ compiler are needed by the vendored OpenColorIO build (Linux/macOS), nasm by the FFmpeg assembly.
• FFmpeg 8.1, built by the project script. Distro packages are too old for ffmpeg-next 9 and are deliberately not used:

  tooling/install-deps.sh        # codec/filter libraries + build tools
  tooling/ffmpeg/build-ffmpeg.sh # clones release/8.1, installs into .cache/ffmpeg
  

  FFMPEG_DIR does not need exporting: the committed .cargo/config.toml sets it relative to the workspace root (ffmpeg-sys-next cannot read .env at build-script time — the config entry is the only machine-agnostic way). The oak-ffmpeg-link build script panics without it; run build-ffmpeg.sh once before the first cargo build.

Quick start (macOS / Linux)

tooling/install-deps.sh         # Homebrew / apt / dnf / pacman
tooling/ffmpeg/build-ffmpeg.sh  # ~10–20 min, once
cargo build --workspace
cargo test  --workspace         # Linux: see "headless tests" below

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macOS

• macOS 12+, Xcode Command Line Tools (xcode-select --install), Homebrew.

• brew install cmake pkg-config
  tooling/install-deps.sh
  tooling/ffmpeg/build-ffmpeg.sh
  cargo build --workspace
  cargo test  --workspace
  

• OpenColorIO is compiled from the vendored 2.5.2 sources and linked statically — no brew install opencolorio needed (cmake is required).
• The GPU-gated tests (OFX GL overlay, hardware decode) run only with OAK_GPU_TESTS=1.

Linux

• Debian/Ubuntu, Fedora and Arch are supported by tooling/install-deps.sh. Additionally install:

  # Debian/Ubuntu
  sudo apt-get install -y cmake \
    libpipewire-0.3-dev libspa-0.2-dev libjack-jackd2-dev \
    libasound2-dev libpulse-dev libsndfile1-dev \
    libgl1-mesa-dev libvulkan-dev libxkbcommon-dev libxkbcommon-x11-dev
  

  (the PipeWire/JACK/ALSA/PulseAudio/sndfile dev packages are cpal's audio backends; GL/Vulkan/XKB are the wgpu windowing stack).
• Headless tests: several gpui/UI tests open real windows through wgpu on Mesa's software Vulkan. Under a display-less session run:

  sudo apt-get install -y xvfb mesa-vulkan-drivers
  xvfb-run -a -s "-screen 0 1920x1080x24" cargo test --workspace
  

• OpenColorIO is the vendored static build, as on macOS.

Windows (MSYS2 UCRT64)

The Windows build targets x86_64-pc-windows-gnu with MSYS2's own Rust; the MSVC toolchain is not supported (the build scripts emit Unix-style link args the MSVC linker rejects).

1. Install MSYS2 and open the UCRT64 shell.

2. pacman -Syu
   pacman -S --needed mingw-w64-ucrt-x86_64-rust \
     mingw-w64-ucrt-x86_64-cmake mingw-w64-ucrt-x86_64-opencolorio
   tooling/install-deps.sh        # must run inside the UCRT64 shell
   tooling/ffmpeg/build-ffmpeg.sh
   

3. Environment (put in your shell rc or export per session):

   # The vendored OCIO sources contain MSVC-only constructs, so Windows
   # links MSYS2's OpenColorIO 2.5.2 dynamically instead:
   export OCIO_RS_ENABLE_REAL=1 OCIO_INSTALL_DIR=/ucrt64 OCIO_RS_LINK=dynamic
   # mingw-w64 (Nov 2025+) forwards _assert to __msvcrt_assert inside
   # libmingwex.a while rustc's link order leaves -lmingwex last; the
   # trailing -lmsvcrt re-scans the CRT import library afterwards
   # (otherwise: undefined _fileno/_setmode/__imp___msvcrt_assert).
   export RUSTFLAGS="-C link-args=-lmsvcrt"
   # If your shell inherits the MSVC INCLUDE/LIB (some CI runners inject
   # them into every step), clear them — they poison the MinGW compiles:
   unset INCLUDE LIB
   

4. cargo build --workspace
   cargo test  --workspace
   

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OpenColorIO summary

Platform	Source	Linkage	Notes
Linux / macOS	vendored 2.5.2 (ocio-sys bundled feature, on by default)	static	needs cmake + C++ compiler
Windows	MSYS2 mingw-w64-ucrt-x86_64-opencolorio	dynamic	set OCIO_INSTALL_DIR=/ucrt64, OCIO_RS_LINK=dynamic

Without the bundled feature and without OCIO_RS_ENABLE_REAL=1, ocio-sys builds a stub and every colour test early-returns. The bundled feature is enabled unconditionally by oak-render, so a plain cargo build always gets the real thing on Linux/macOS.

Packaging

Distribution packages are built in containers (no host dependencies beyond Docker/Podman):

tooling/package/build-deb.sh  # Debian 12  → .deb
tooling/package/build-rpm.sh  # Fedora 41  → .rpm
tooling/package/build-pkg.sh  # Arch Linux → .pkg.tar.zst

All runtime dependencies are declared in the respective package metadata (packaging/, tooling/package/oak.spec, tooling/package/PKGBUILD) — the packages are self-contained except for the documented system libraries; see docs/project-storage.md for what lands where.

Troubleshooting

• oak-ffmpeg-link panics about FFMPEG_DIR — run tooling/ffmpeg/build-ffmpeg.sh once; it installs into .cache/ffmpeg, which .cargo/config.toml points at.
• IDE builds fail (RustRover etc.) — IDEs that cannot inject environment variables into cargo can read a git-ignored .env at the workspace root with FFMPEG_DIR=... (and PKG_CONFIG_PATH=... if your codec libraries live in a custom prefix).
• pacman stalls with "Operation too slow" — MSYS2 mirrors hiccup; install-deps.sh retries three times, re-running it resumes via --needed.
• Windows: undefined reference to _fileno/_setmode/__imp___msvcrt_assert — set RUSTFLAGS="-C link-args=-lmsvcrt" (see the Windows section).
• Windows: AddInstanceForFactory: No factory registered / MSVC-flavoured errors — you are on the MSVC Rust toolchain; switch to MSYS2's Rust (x86_64-pc-windows-gnu).
• Empty gpui/ directory — git submodule update --init --recursive.
• Linux tests open windows and hang/fail — use the xvfb-run line from the Linux section.