This document describes how to configure, build and install curl and libcurl
from source code using the CMake build tool. To build with CMake, you of
course first have to install CMake. The minimum required version of CMake is
specified in the file CMakeLists.txt
found in the top of the curl source
tree. Once the correct version of CMake is installed you can follow the
instructions below for the platform you are building on.
CMake builds can be configured either from the command line, or from one of CMake's GUIs.
A CMake configuration of curl is similar to the autotools build of curl. It consists of the following steps after you have unpacked the source.
cmake
You can configure for in source tree builds or for a build tree that is apart from the source tree.
Build in the source tree.
$ cmake -B .
Build in a separate directory (parallel to the curl source tree in this example). The build directory is created for you.
$ cmake -B ../curl-build
CMake before version 3.13 does not support the -B
option. In that case,
you must create the build directory yourself, cd
to it and run cmake
from there:
$ mkdir ../curl-build
$ cd ../curl-build
$ cmake ../curl
If you want to build in the source tree, it is enough to do this:
$ cmake .
You can override CMake's default by using -G <generator-name>
. For example
on Windows with multiple build systems if you have MinGW-w64 then you could use
-G "MinGW Makefiles"
.
List of generator names.
ccmake
CMake comes with a curses based interface called ccmake
. To run ccmake
on a curl use the instructions for the command line cmake, but substitute
ccmake
for cmake
.
This brings up a curses interface with instructions on the bottom of the screen. You can press the "c" key to configure the project, and the "g" key to generate the project. After the project is generated, you can run make.
cmake-gui
CMake also comes with a Qt based GUI called cmake-gui
. To configure with
cmake-gui
, you run cmake-gui
and follow these steps:
Build (you have to specify the build directory).
$ cmake --build ../curl-build
The CMake build setup is primarily done to work with shared/dynamic third party dependencies. When linking with shared libraries, the dependency "chain" is handled automatically by the library loader - on all modern systems.
If you instead link with a static library, you need to provide all the dependency libraries already at the link command line.
Figuring out all the dependency libraries for a given library is hard, as it might involve figuring out the dependencies of the dependencies and they vary between platforms and can change between versions.
When using static dependencies, the build scripts mostly assume that you, the user, provide all the necessary additional dependency libraries as additional arguments in the build.
Building statically is not for the faint of heart.
CMake before version 3.13 does not support the --build
option. In that
case, you have to cd
to the build directory and use the building tool that
corresponds to the build files that CMake generated for you. This example
assumes that CMake generates Makefile
:
$ cd ../curl-build
$ make
(The test suite does not yet work with the cmake build)
Install to default location (you have to specify the build directory).
$ cmake --install ../curl-build
CMake before version 3.15 does not support the --install
option. In that
case, you have to cd
to the build directory and use the building tool that
corresponds to the build files that CMake generated for you. This example
assumes that CMake generates Makefile
:
$ cd ../curl-build
$ make install
BUILD_CURL_EXE
: Build curl executable. Default: ON
BUILD_EXAMPLES
: Build libcurl examples. Default: ON
BUILD_LIBCURL_DOCS
: Build libcurl man pages. Default: ON
BUILD_MISC_DOCS
: Build misc man pages (e.g. curl-config
and mk-ca-bundle
). Default: ON
BUILD_SHARED_LIBS
: Build shared libraries. Default: ON
BUILD_STATIC_CURL
: Build curl executable with static libcurl. Default: OFF
BUILD_STATIC_LIBS
: Build static libraries. Default: OFF
BUILD_TESTING
: Build tests. Default: ON
CURL_DEFAULT_SSL_BACKEND
: Override default TLS backend in MultiSSL builds.
Accepted values in order of default priority:
wolfssl
, gnutls
, mbedtls
, openssl
, secure-transport
, schannel
, bearssl
, rustls
CURL_ENABLE_EXPORT_TARGET
: Enable CMake export target. Default: ON
CURL_HIDDEN_SYMBOLS
: Hide libcurl internal symbols (=hide all symbols that are not officially external). Default: ON
CURL_LIBCURL_SOVERSION
: Enable libcurl SOVERSION. Default: ON
for supported platformsCURL_LIBCURL_VERSIONED_SYMBOLS
: Enable libcurl versioned symbols. Default: OFF
CURL_LIBCURL_VERSIONED_SYMBOLS_PREFIX
: Override default versioned symbol prefix. Default: <TLS-BACKEND>_
or MULTISSL_
CURL_LTO
: Enable compiler Link Time Optimizations. Default: OFF
CURL_STATIC_CRT
: Build libcurl with static CRT with MSVC (/MT
). Default: OFF
CURL_TARGET_WINDOWS_VERSION
: Minimum target Windows version as hex string.CURL_TEST_BUNDLES
: Bundle libtest
and unittest
tests into single binaries. Default: OFF
CURL_WERROR
: Turn compiler warnings into errors. Default: OFF
ENABLE_CURLDEBUG
: Enable TrackMemory debug feature: Default: =ENABLE_DEBUG
ENABLE_CURL_MANUAL
: Build the man page for curl and enable its -M
/--manual
option. Default: ON
ENABLE_DEBUG
: Enable curl debug features (for developing curl itself). Default: OFF
IMPORT_LIB_SUFFIX
: Import library suffix. Default: _imp
LIBCURL_OUTPUT_NAME
: Basename of the curl library. Default: libcurl
PICKY_COMPILER
: Enable picky compiler options. Default: ON
STATIC_LIB_SUFFIX
: Static library suffix. Default: (empty)CURL_CA_BUNDLE
: Path to the CA bundle. Set none
to disable or auto
for auto-detection. Default: auto
CURL_CA_EMBED
: Path to the CA bundle to embed in the curl tool. Default: (disabled)CURL_CA_FALLBACK
: Use built-in CA store of TLS backend. Default: OFF
CURL_CA_PATH
: Location of default CA path. Set none
to disable or auto
for auto-detection. Default: auto
CURL_CA_SEARCH_SAFE
: Enable safe CA bundle search (within the curl tool directory) on Windows. Default: OFF
CURL_ENABLE_SSL
: Enable SSL support. Default: ON
CURL_WINDOWS_SSPI
: Enable SSPI on Windows. Default: =CURL_USE_SCHANNEL
ENABLE_IPV6
: Enable IPv6 support. Default: ON
ENABLE_THREADED_RESOLVER
: Enable threaded DNS lookup. Default: ON
if c-ares is not enabledENABLE_UNICODE
: Use the Unicode version of the Windows API functions. Default: OFF
ENABLE_UNIX_SOCKETS
: Enable Unix domain sockets support. Default: ON
USE_ECH
: Enable ECH support. Default: OFF
USE_HTTPSRR
: Enable HTTPS RR support for ECH (experimental). Default: OFF
USE_OPENSSL_QUIC
: Use OpenSSL and nghttp3 libraries for HTTP/3 support. Default: OFF
CURL_DISABLE_ALTSVC
: Disable alt-svc support. Default: OFF
CURL_DISABLE_AWS
: Disable aws-sigv4. Default: OFF
CURL_DISABLE_BASIC_AUTH
: Disable Basic authentication. Default: OFF
CURL_DISABLE_BEARER_AUTH
: Disable Bearer authentication. Default: OFF
CURL_DISABLE_BINDLOCAL
: Disable local binding support. Default: OFF
CURL_DISABLE_CA_SEARCH
: Disable unsafe CA bundle search in PATH on Windows. Default: OFF
CURL_DISABLE_COOKIES
: Disable cookies support. Default: OFF
CURL_DISABLE_DICT
: Disable DICT. Default: OFF
CURL_DISABLE_DIGEST_AUTH
: Disable Digest authentication. Default: OFF
CURL_DISABLE_DOH
: Disable DNS-over-HTTPS. Default: OFF
CURL_DISABLE_FILE
: Disable FILE. Default: OFF
CURL_DISABLE_FORM_API
: Disable form-api: Default: =CURL_DISABLE_MIME
CURL_DISABLE_FTP
: Disable FTP. Default: OFF
CURL_DISABLE_GETOPTIONS
: Disable curl_easy_options
API for existing options to curl_easy_setopt
. Default: OFF
CURL_DISABLE_GOPHER
: Disable Gopher. Default: OFF
CURL_DISABLE_HEADERS_API
: Disable headers-api support. Default: OFF
CURL_DISABLE_HSTS
: Disable HSTS support. Default: OFF
CURL_DISABLE_HTTP
: Disable HTTP. Default: OFF
CURL_DISABLE_HTTP_AUTH
: Disable all HTTP authentication methods. Default: OFF
CURL_DISABLE_IMAP
: Disable IMAP. Default: OFF
CURL_DISABLE_INSTALL
: Disable installation targets. Default: OFF
CURL_DISABLE_IPFS
: Disable IPFS. Default: OFF
CURL_DISABLE_KERBEROS_AUTH
: Disable Kerberos authentication. Default: OFF
CURL_DISABLE_LDAP
: Disable LDAP. Default: OFF
CURL_DISABLE_LDAPS
: Disable LDAPS. Default: =CURL_DISABLE_LDAP
CURL_DISABLE_LIBCURL_OPTION
: Disable --libcurl
option from the curl tool. Default: OFF
CURL_DISABLE_MIME
: Disable MIME support. Default: OFF
CURL_DISABLE_MQTT
: Disable MQTT. Default: OFF
CURL_DISABLE_NEGOTIATE_AUTH
: Disable negotiate authentication. Default: OFF
CURL_DISABLE_NETRC
: Disable netrc parser. Default: OFF
CURL_DISABLE_NTLM
: Disable NTLM support. Default: OFF
CURL_DISABLE_OPENSSL_AUTO_LOAD_CONFIG
: Disable automatic loading of OpenSSL configuration. Default: OFF
CURL_DISABLE_PARSEDATE
: Disable date parsing. Default: OFF
CURL_DISABLE_POP3
: Disable POP3. Default: OFF
CURL_DISABLE_PROGRESS_METER
: Disable built-in progress meter. Default: OFF
CURL_DISABLE_PROXY
: Disable proxy support. Default: OFF
CURL_DISABLE_RTSP
: Disable RTSP. Default: OFF
CURL_DISABLE_SHA512_256
: Disable SHA-512/256 hash algorithm. Default: OFF
CURL_DISABLE_SHUFFLE_DNS
: Disable shuffle DNS feature. Default: OFF
CURL_DISABLE_SMB
: Disable SMB. Default: OFF
CURL_DISABLE_SMTP
: Disable SMTP. Default: OFF
CURL_DISABLE_SOCKETPAIR
: Disable use of socketpair for curl_multi_poll. Default: OFF
CURL_DISABLE_SRP
: Disable TLS-SRP support. Default: OFF
CURL_DISABLE_TELNET
: Disable Telnet. Default: OFF
CURL_DISABLE_TFTP
: Disable TFTP. Default: OFF
CURL_DISABLE_VERBOSE_STRINGS
: Disable verbose strings. Default: OFF
CURL_DISABLE_WEBSOCKETS
: Disable WebSocket. Default: OFF
HTTP_ONLY
: Disable all protocols except HTTP (This overrides all CURL_DISABLE_*
options). Default: OFF
CI
: Assume running under CI if set.CURL_BUILDINFO
: Print buildinfo.txt
if set.CURL_CI
: Assume running under CI if set.CMAKE_DEBUG_POSTFIX
: Default: -d
CMAKE_IMPORT_LIBRARY_SUFFIX
(see CMake)CMAKE_INSTALL_BINDIR
(see CMake)CMAKE_INSTALL_INCLUDEDIR
(see CMake)CMAKE_INSTALL_LIBDIR
(see CMake)CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX
(see CMake)CMAKE_STATIC_LIBRARY_SUFFIX
(see CMake)CMAKE_UNITY_BUILD_BATCH_SIZE
: Set the number of sources in a "unity" unit. Default: 0
(all)CMAKE_UNITY_BUILD
: Enable "unity" (aka jumbo) builds. Default: OFF
Details via CMake variables and install directories.
CURL_BROTLI
: Use brotli. Default: OFF
CURL_USE_BEARSSL
: Enable BearSSL for SSL/TLS. Default: OFF
CURL_USE_GNUTLS
: Enable GnuTLS for SSL/TLS. Default: OFF
CURL_USE_GSASL
: Use libgsasl. Default: OFF
CURL_USE_GSSAPI
: Use GSSAPI implementation. Default: OFF
CURL_USE_LIBPSL
: Use libpsl. Default: ON
CURL_USE_LIBSSH2
: Use libssh2. Default: ON
CURL_USE_LIBSSH
: Use libssh. Default: OFF
CURL_USE_LIBUV
: Use libuv for event-based tests. Default: OFF
CURL_USE_MBEDTLS
: Enable mbedTLS for SSL/TLS. Default: OFF
CURL_USE_OPENSSL
: Enable OpenSSL for SSL/TLS. Default: ON
if no other TLS backend was enabled.CURL_USE_PKGCONFIG
: Enable pkg-config
to detect dependencies. Default: ON
for Unix, vcpkg, MinGW if not cross-compiling.CURL_USE_RUSTLS
: Enable Rustls for SSL/TLS. Default: OFF
CURL_USE_SCHANNEL
: Enable Windows native SSL/TLS (Schannel). Default: OFF
CURL_USE_SECTRANSP
: Enable Apple OS native SSL/TLS (Secure Transport). Default: OFF
CURL_USE_WOLFSSH
: Use wolfSSH. Default: OFF
CURL_USE_WOLFSSL
: Enable wolfSSL for SSL/TLS. Default: OFF
CURL_ZLIB
: Use zlib (ON
, OFF
or AUTO
). Default: AUTO
CURL_ZSTD
: Use zstd. Default: OFF
ENABLE_ARES
: Enable c-ares support. Default: OFF
USE_APPLE_IDN
: Use Apple built-in IDN support. Default: OFF
USE_LIBIDN2
: Use libidn2 for IDN support. Default: ON
USE_LIBRTMP
: Enable librtmp from rtmpdump. Default: OFF
USE_MSH3
: Use msh3/msquic library for HTTP/3 support. Default: OFF
USE_NGHTTP2
: Use nghttp2 library. Default: ON
USE_NGTCP2
: Use ngtcp2 and nghttp3 libraries for HTTP/3 support. Default: OFF
USE_QUICHE
: Use quiche library for HTTP/3 support. Default: OFF
USE_WIN32_IDN
: Use WinIDN for IDN support. Default: OFF
USE_WIN32_LDAP
: Use Windows LDAP implementation. Default: ON
OPENSSL_ROOT_DIR
: Set this variable to the root installation of OpenSSL (and forks).ZLIB_INCLUDE_DIR
: The zlib include directory.ZLIB_LIBRARY
: Path to zlib
library.PERL_EXECUTABLE
Perl binary used throughout the build and tests.BEARSSL_INCLUDE_DIR
: The BearSSL include directory.BEARSSL_LIBRARY
: Path to bearssl
library.BROTLI_INCLUDE_DIR
: The brotli include directory.BROTLICOMMON_LIBRARY
: Path to brotlicommon
library.BROTLIDEC_LIBRARY
: Path to brotlidec
library.CARES_INCLUDE_DIR
: The c-ares include directory.CARES_LIBRARY
: Path to cares
library.GSS_ROOT_DIR
: Set this variable to the root installation of GSS. (also supported as environment)LDAP_LIBRARY
: Name or full path to ldap
library. Default: ldap
LDAP_LBER_LIBRARY
: Name or full path to lber
library. Default: lber
LDAP_INCLUDE_DIR
: Path to LDAP include directory.LIBGSASL_INCLUDE_DIR
: The libgsasl include directory.LIBGSASL_LIBRARY
: Path to libgsasl
library.LIBIDN2_INCLUDE_DIR
: The libidn2 include directory.LIBIDN2_LIBRARY
: Path to libidn2
library.LIBPSL_INCLUDE_DIR
: The libpsl include directory.LIBPSL_LIBRARY
: Path to libpsl
library.LIBSSH_INCLUDE_DIR
: The libssh include directory.LIBSSH_LIBRARY
: Path to libssh
library.LIBSSH2_INCLUDE_DIR
: The libssh2 include directory.LIBSSH2_LIBRARY
: Path to libssh2
library.LIBUV_INCLUDE_DIR
: The libuv include directory.LIBUV_LIBRARY
: Path to libuv
library.MSH3_INCLUDE_DIR
: The msh3 include directory.MSH3_LIBRARY
: Path to msh3
library.MBEDTLS_INCLUDE_DIR
: The mbedTLS include directory.MBEDTLS_LIBRARY
: Path to mbedtls
library.MBEDX509_LIBRARY
: Path to mbedx509
library.MBEDCRYPTO_LIBRARY
: Path to mbedcrypto
library.NGHTTP2_INCLUDE_DIR
: The nghttp2 include directory.NGHTTP2_LIBRARY
: Path to nghttp2
library.NGHTTP3_INCLUDE_DIR
: The nghttp3 include directory.NGHTTP3_LIBRARY
: Path to nghttp3
library.NGTCP2_INCLUDE_DIR
: The ngtcp2 include directory.NGTCP2_LIBRARY
: Path to ngtcp2
library.NETTLE_INCLUDE_DIR
: The nettle include directory.NETTLE_LIBRARY
: Path to nettle
library.QUICHE_INCLUDE_DIR
: The quiche include directory.QUICHE_LIBRARY
: Path to quiche
library.RUSTLS_INCLUDE_DIR
: The Rustls include directory.RUSTLS_LIBRARY
: Path to rustls
library.WOLFSSH_INCLUDE_DIR
: The wolfSSH include directory.WOLFSSH_LIBRARY
: Path to wolfssh
library.WOLFSSL_INCLUDE_DIR
: The wolfSSL include directory.WOLFSSL_LIBRARY
: Path to wolfssl
library.ZSTD_INCLUDE_DIR
: The zstd include directory.ZSTD_LIBRARY
: Path to zstd
library.APACHECTL
: Default: apache2ctl
APXS
: Default: apxs
CADDY
: Default: caddy
HTTPD_NGHTTPX
: Default: nghttpx
HTTPD
: Default: apache2
TEST_NGHTTPX
: Default: nghttpx
VSFTPD
: Default: vsftps