tinc/INSTALL.md

Dependencies

Required

Before you can start compiling tinc from a fresh git clone, you have to install the very latest versions of the following packages:

• meson or muon (read below)
• ninja or samurai
• pkgconf or pkg-config
• GCC or Clang (any version with C11 support, although older versions might work)
• OpenSSL* (1.1.0+) or LibreSSL or libgcrypt (not needed if legacy protocol is disabled)

No Python?

If you're on a constrained system that doesn't have (or cannot run) Python, you can try building tinc with muon, which is a pure C reimplementation of the same idea. Please note that meson is considered to be the main way of building tinc, and muon is supported on a best-effort basis.

Optional

Plus a few optional dependencies. Support for them will be enabled if they're present:

• ncurses or PDCurses
• readline
• zlib*
• LZO*
• LZ4*

If packages marked by * are not available, tinc will fall back to its own vendored copies. This behavior can be disabled by setting the appropriate meson option to disabled.

To build info documentation you'll also need these packages:

• texinfo or makeinfo

You might also need some additional command-line utilities to be able to run the integration test suite:

• diffutils
• procps
• socat
• netcat

Linux

Depending on the distribution, one of the following commands can be used to install all dependencies:

• Arch Linux: sudo pacman --needed --sync base-devel meson ninja pkg-config openssl ncurses readline zlib lzo lz4 texinfo diffutils procps socat openbsd-netcat
• Debian: sudo apt install meson ninja-build pkg-config build-essential libssl-dev libncurses-dev libreadline-dev zlib1g-dev liblzo2-dev liblz4-dev texinfo diffutils procps socat netcat-openbsd
• Alpine Linux: doas apk add meson ninja pkgconf build-base linux-headers openssl-dev ncurses-dev readline-dev zlib-dev lzo-dev lz4-dev texinfo diffutils procps-ng socat netcat-openbsd
• Fedora: sudo dnf install meson ninja-build pkgconf-pkg-config @development-tools openssl-devel ncurses-devel readline-devel zlib-devel lzo-devel lz4-devel texinfo diffutils procps-ng socat netcat

Windows

You can build tinc using either the native Windows SDK (which comes with Visual Studio), or with the Unix-like msys2 environment. Install either one of them, plus the latest version of meson.

If you prefer the native SDK, you might want to work on tinc (or build it) under Visual Studio. To do so, follow these instructions.

By default, tinc produces a static Windows build, so you don't need to install anything in order to run the compiled binaries.

Building from source

Native

Setup

Tinc's functionality can vary greatly depending on how you configure it. Have a look at the available options in meson_options.txt, or run:

meson configure

First you need to create a build directory. If you want the default experience, run:

meson setup builddir

or with configuration options (your shell can probably autocomplete them on Tab, try it):

meson setup builddir -Dprefix=/usr/local -Dbuildtype=release

(For autotools users: this is a rough equivalent of autoreconf -fsi && ./configure --prefix=/usr/local --with-foobar).

This creates a build directory (named builddir) with build type set to release (which enables compiler optimizations) and path prefix set to /usr/local.

Pass any additional options in the same way. Typically, this is not needed: tinc will autodetect available libraries and adjust its functionality accordingly.

If you'd like to reconfigure the project after running setup, you can either remove the build directory and start anew, or use:

meson configure builddir -Dlzo=disabled -Dlz4=enabled

Compile

You then need to build the project:

meson compile -C builddir

(For autotools users: this is an equivalent of make -j$(nproc)).

Test

You might want to run the test suite to ensure tinc is working correctly:

meson test -C builddir

(For autotools users: this is an equivalent of make -j$(nproc) test).

Install

To install tinc to your system, run:

meson install -C builddir

(For autotools users: this is an equivalent of make install).

Please be aware that this is not the best method of installing software because it will not be tracked by your operating system's package manager. You should use packages provided by your operating system, or build your own (this is a large and complicated topic which is out of the scope of this document).

Uninstall

To uninstall tinc, run:

ninja -C builddir uninstall

(For autotools users: this is an equivalent of make uninstall).

Cross-compilation

Linux to Linux

Cross-compilation is easy to do on Debian or its derivatives. Set $HOST to your target architecture and install the cross-compilation toolchain and -dev versions of all libraries you'd like to link:

HOST=armhf
dpkg --add-architecture $HOST
apt update
apt install -y crossbuild-essential-$HOST zlib1g-dev:$HOST …

If you'd like to run tests on emulated hardware, install qemu-user:

apt install -y qemu-user
update-binfmts --enable

Set two environment variables: the C compiler, and pkg-config, and then proceed as usual:

export CC=arm-linux-gnueabihf-gcc
export PKG_CONFIG=arm-linux-gnueabihf-pkg-config
meson setup build --cross-file /dev/null

Or put the names into a cross file and pass it to meson:

cat >cross-armhf <<EOF
[binaries]
c = 'arm-linux-gnueabihf-gcc'
pkgconfig = 'arm-linux-gnueabihf-pkg-config'
EOF

meson setup build --cross-file cross-armhf

Linux to Windows

Install cross-compilation toolchain:

apt install -y mingw-w64 mingw-w64-tools

tinc will use its own vendored libraries, so you don't need to install or build anything manually.

Prepare the cross file to let meson know you're building binaries for a different operating system. Take a look at the file used by CI for an example, or refer to examples provided by the meson project: x86,x86_64.

Then build as usual. Because Windows binaries are built with static linkage by default, you might want to enable link-time optimization. It is much slower than building without LTO, but produces binaries that are 80%+ smaller:

meson setup build -Dbuildtype=release -Db_lto=true --cross-file cross-windows
ninja -C build

Linux to Android

First you need to install Android NDK.

Prepare a cross file. Here's a working example for reference:

[host_machine]
system     = 'android'
cpu_family = 'arm'
cpu        = 'aarch64'
endian     = 'little'

[binaries]
c = 'aarch64-linux-android24-clang'

Then build as usual:

export ANDROID_NDK_ROOT=/tmp/ndk/android-ndk-r24
export PATH=$ANDROID_NDK_ROOT/toolchains/llvm/prebuilt/linux-x86_64/bin:$PATH
meson setup android-aarch64 -Dcrypto=nolegacy --cross-file android
ninja -C android-aarch64

macOS to iOS

The same instructions should work for iOS. Refer to this cross file for an example.