GNU Radio 3.7.2 C++ API
Build Instructions and Information

Dependencies

The list of GNU Radio dependencies and the minimum required versions, if any, to build the various GNU Radio components.

Most of these components do not need to be individually compiled or installed. Instead, rely on your operating system's package manager or binary installation process (the apt-get system in Debian and Ubuntu, yum in RedHat and Fedora, etc.). GNU Radio tries to keep an up-to-date build guide for the majority of the supported operating systems on gnuradio.org (http://gnuradio.org/redmine/projects/gnuradio/wiki/BuildGuide).

Not all dependencies are required for all components, and not all components are required for a given installation. The list of required components is determined by what the user requires from GNU Radio. If, for example, you do not use any Comedi-based hardware, do not worry about building gr-comedi.

Before trying to build these from source, please try your system's installation tool (apt-get, pkg_install, YaST, yum, urpmi, etc.) first. Most recent systems have these packages available.

Global Dependencies

Python Wrappers

docs: Building the documentation

grc: The GNU Radio Companion

gr-wavelet: Collection of wavelet blocks

gr-qtgui: The QT-based Graphical User Interface

gr-wxgui: The WX-based Graphical User Interface

gr-audio: Audio Subsystems (system/OS dependent)

It is not necessary to satisfy all of these dependencies; just the one(s) that are right for your system. On Linux, don't expect audio-osx and audio-windows to be either satisfied or built.

uhd: The Ettus USRP Hardware Driver Interface

gr-video-sdl: PAL and NTSC display

gr-comedi: Comedi hardware interface

gr-log: Logging Tools (Optional)

Building GNU Radio

GNU Radio is built using the Cmake build system (http://www.cmake.org/). The standard build method is as follows:

$ mkdir $(builddir)
$ cd $(builddir)
$ cmake [OPTIONS] $(srcdir)
$ make
$ make test
$ sudo make install

The $(builddir) is the directory in which the code is built. This cannot be the same path as where the source code resides. Often, $(builddir) is $(srcdir)/build.

Options

Options can be used to specify where to find various library or include file dependencies that are not automatically being found (-DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH) or set the prefix (-DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=(dir)).

Components can also be enabled and disabled through the options. For a component named gr-comp, the option to disable would look like: -DENABLE_GR_COMP=off. The "off" could also be "false" or "no", and cmake is not case sensitive about these options. Similarly, "true", "on", or "yes" will turn this component on. All components are enabled by default.

An example is -DENABLE_PYTHON=False turns off building any Python or Swigging components. The result will be the GNU Radio libraries and C++ programs/applications/examples. No Python or GRC files will be built or installed.

The -DENABLE_DEFAULT=False can be used to disable all components. Individual components can then be selectively turned back on. For example, just buidling the Volk library can be done with this:

cmake -DENABLE_DEFAULT=Off -DENABLE_VOLK=True <srcdir>

The build type allows you to specify the build as a debug or release version. Each type sets different flags for different purposes. To set the build type, use:

-DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE="Release"|"Debug"

If not specified, the "Release" mode is the defaulted to.

"Release" mode sets the '-O3' optimization flag.

"Debug" mode sets '-g -O2' flags to export debug symbols and reduce the optimization to make the libraries easier to debug and step through.

Building for the E100

To build GNU Radio on the Ettus Research E100 embedded platforms, Cmake has to know that the processors uses the NEON extensions. Use the

cmake -DCMAKE_CXX_FLAGS:STRING="-mcpu=cortex-a8 -mfpu=neon -mfloat-abi=softfp -g" \
-DCMAKE_C_FLAGS:STRING="-mcpu=cortex-a8 -mfpu=neon -mfloat-abi=softfp -g" \
<gr_source_dir>