Building

VIZ Ledger node uses CMake 3.16+ and requires Boost 1.71+ with the coroutine component. Supported platforms: Ubuntu 24.04+, macOS (Homebrew), Windows (MSVC or MinGW).

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Linux (Ubuntu/Debian)

Step 1: Install dependencies (requires root)

chmod +x install-deps-linux.sh
sudo ./install-deps-linux.sh

This installs: CMake, GCC/G++, Git, Make, ccache, OpenSSL, Boost 1.71 (all required components including coroutine/context), readline, and compression libraries.

Step 2: Build (run as regular user, not root)

chmod +x build-linux.sh
./build-linux.sh

Common options:

./build-linux.sh              # Release build (default)
./build-linux.sh -n           # Testnet build
./build-linux.sh -t Debug -j4 # Debug build with 4 parallel jobs
./build-linux.sh --install    # Install to system after build

# Custom dependency paths
./build-linux.sh --boost-root /opt/boost_1_74_0 --openssl-root /opt/openssl

Fedora/RHEL

The same scripts detect dnf automatically. Packages installed: cmake, gcc-c++, git, ccache, boost-devel, openssl-devel, bzip2-devel, zstd-devel.

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macOS

chmod +x build-mac.sh
./build-mac.sh

Requires Xcode Command Line Tools and Homebrew. The script installs: boost, cmake, git, autoconf, automake, libtool, openssl, readline.

Options:

./build-mac.sh -n              # Testnet
./build-mac.sh --skip-deps     # Skip Homebrew installs
./build-mac.sh --boost-root /opt/boost_1_74_0

Apple Silicon builds natively: the tree contains no x86-only code (the SSE-only equihash that fc once vendored was unused and has been removed), and CMake adds the Homebrew library directories to the link path so the static Boost.Iostreams dependencies (zstd, lzma, icu*) resolve. A cold vizd build takes about 10 minutes on an 8-core M-series laptop, against roughly an hour for the same build under amd64 emulation in Docker.

Where compile time goes

Measured with clang -ftime-trace on a Release build. Five translation units account for a third of the project's compile time: libraries/chain/database.cpp (~250 s), libraries/wallet/wallet.cpp, libraries/network/dlt_p2p_node.cpp, libraries/protocol/operations.cpp and plugins/snapshot/plugin.cpp (100–160 s each). In a typical unit about two thirds of the time is the optimizer, not the parser: every file that serializes a signed_block instantiates the fc::raw pack/unpack visitors for every field of every operation (about 1,500 functions), and -O3 then optimizes each of them again. Precompiled headers (-DENABLE_PCH=ON) therefore shave only the parsing third; ccache is what makes rebuilds fast.

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Windows (MinGW)

Set required environment variables, then run the batch script:

set BOOST_ROOT=C:\Boost
set OPENSSL_ROOT_DIR=C:\OpenSSL-Win64
build-mingw.bat

Optional variables:

Variable	Default	Description
VIZ_BUILD_TYPE	Release	Release or Debug
VIZ_BUILD_TESTNET	OFF	Testnet build
VIZ_FULL_STATIC	OFF	Fully static binary
VIZ_CMAKE_EXTRA	—	Additional CMake flags

Requirements: MinGW-w64 with C++11 and SSE4.2, CMake 3.16+, Boost 1.71+ (static, link=static threading=multi runtime-link=shared), OpenSSL for Windows.

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Windows (MSVC)

set BOOST_ROOT=C:\Boost
set OPENSSL_ROOT_DIR=C:\OpenSSL-Win64
build-msvc.bat

Optional variables:

Variable	Default	Description
VIZ_VS_VERSION	"Visual Studio 17 2022"	Visual Studio generator
VIZ_BUILD_TYPE	Release	Build type
VIZ_BUILD_TESTNET	OFF	Testnet build

Requirements: Visual Studio 2019+ with "Desktop development with C++" workload, CMake 3.16+.

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Docker

The repository ships Dockerfiles for multiple configurations:

Dockerfile	Description
Dockerfile-production	Full mainnet node (Release)
Dockerfile-testnet	Testnet (BUILD_TESTNET=ON)

All Dockerfiles use a two-stage build to minimize image size and use Boost 1.71 packages (libboost-coroutine-dev, libboost-context-dev).

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CMake Options

Option	Default	Description
BUILD_TESTNET	OFF	Build for testnet
CHAINBASE_CHECK_LOCKING	OFF	Enable lock checking (development only)
BUILD_SHARED_LIBRARIES	OFF	Build shared libraries
USE_PCH	OFF	Enable precompiled headers (faster rebuilds)

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Advanced: configure_build.py

Wraps CMake with sensible defaults and cross-compilation support:

# Release build
python3 programs/build_helpers/configure_build.py --release --src ../..

# Cross-compile for Windows with MinGW
python3 programs/build_helpers/configure_build.py --win --release

# Custom dependency paths
python3 programs/build_helpers/configure_build.py \
  --boost-dir /opt/boost_1_74_0 \
  --openssl-dir /opt/openssl \
  --release

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New Plugin Scaffolding

python3 programs/util/newplugin.py graphene myplugin

Generates: CMakeLists.txt, plugin header/implementation, API header/implementation under libraries/plugins/myplugin/.

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Build Targets

Binary	Description
vizd	Main node daemon
cli_wallet	Command-line wallet
js_operation_serializer	JavaScript operation serializer
size_checker	Size analysis utility

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Troubleshooting

Boost version below 1.71: Install Boost 1.71+ from your package manager (Ubuntu 24.04 ships 1.74). On macOS, brew install boost provides a recent version. On Windows, build from source with the coroutine component.

Do not run this script as root error: Use sudo ./install-deps-linux.sh for dependencies, then run ./build-linux.sh as a regular user.

Coroutine component missing: Ensure libboost-coroutine-dev and libboost-context-dev are installed on Ubuntu/Debian.

macOS OpenSSL not found: Set OPENSSL_ROOT_DIR manually: export OPENSSL_ROOT_DIR=$(brew --prefix openssl).

Windows MinGW missing variables: Both BOOST_ROOT and OPENSSL_ROOT_DIR must be set before running build-mingw.bat.

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See also: Plugin Development, Testing, Plugins Overview.