Prerequisites

Various tools are required to build MRP. In this section we describe them. Linux and OS/X users will find that rather than downloading tools they can use their package management tool (eg. apt-get, yum, YaST) to install it for them.

C Compiler

MRP requires a C compiler (and associated linking tools), that vary across the supported hosts. Read below for information.

Windows - Visual C++ 9

For the Windows development of MRP we use Visual C+. You may develop MRP using the entirely free Express Edition of Visual C+, however, if you wished to recompile some aspects of the Apache Harmony class libraries used by MRP then the full version of Visual C++ would be required.

To download Visual C++ 2008 express edition go here, by default this will install Visual Studio in the directory:

C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\

Note, not only is Visual C++ used to compile MRP but Visual Studio is also used as the default Windows debugger.

Linux and OS/X - GCC

Under Linux and OS/X GCC is used and installed via your package manager.

Java Development Kit

In order to build itself MRP and to run other build tools, MRP uses a Java Development Kit (JDK). Download the latest development kit here (note you don't need the optional JavaFX, JavaEE and Netbeans to build or work with MRP). The latest JDK release is 1.6 update 14. To test you have a working JDK installation run (in Linux or OS/X use a standard shell, in Windows use the Visual Studio Command Prompt):

javac

If this fails then make sure you installed the JDK and not the Java Runtime Environment that doesn't include the development tools and that the directory that contains the JDK bin directory is in your PATH (see below for how to set your environment variables).

Apache Ant

Apache Ant is an XML based build system written in Java and is required to build MRP. Download the Apache Ant zip file here. Extract the zip file so that you may run it from a shell. To test it is installed run:

ant -version

You may need to add the bin directory of Apache Ant to your PATH or give the full path, eg.:

C:\Documents and Settings\xxx\apache-ant-1.7.1\bin\ant -version

You may also need to set the JAVA_HOME environment variable to where you JDK is installed, so that the build can find extra jar files.

Other Dependencies

The rest of the build dependencies are described in the hosts properties file that is found in <mrp directory>/build/hosts/<host type>.properties . The required dependencies are bison, perl and bash. In Windows you should configure Cygwin to install these, in Linux and OS/X your package manager will install them for you.

Setting environment variables

Windows Vista

Right click on your Computer and choose Properties. Select advanced system settings to open the System Properties window and then look for the environment variable button under the Advanced tab.

Windows XP

Right click on My Computer and choose Properties to open the System Properties window. Look for the environment variable button under the advanced tab.

Linux and OS/X

Add the command to assign an environment variable (eg. export JAVA_HOME=...) to the script that's run when starting your shell (typically .bashrc or .bash_profile in your home directory).