2.2.1 Building latest Marsyas on Debian/Ubuntu

These instructions are for building the latest development version of Marsyas. It is assumed that you have already obtained the source code. If not, please consult Get Marsyas sources for instructions.

2.2.1.1 Install prerequisits

These are the prerequisits and their corresponding Debian package names:

• (Required) GNU Compiler Collection and related tools: 'build-essential'
• (Required) CMake: 'cmake'
• (Recommended) JACK development files: 'libjack-jack2-dev' or 'libjack-dev' for older version
• (Recommended) ALSA development files: 'libasound2-dev'

If you want to use all Marsyas features, you will need a compiler with a decent C++11 support. Any recent Linux distribution will probably include a new enough GNU compiler.

JACK and ALSA are different interfaces between a program and the computer's real-time audio input/output capabilities. Preferrably, you would build with support for both, so that either one of them can be used.

As usual on Debian-based Linux distributions, let's use Apt to install required packages. You can install all of the above packages with a single command like this:

     sudo apt-get install build-essential cmake libjack-jack2-dev libasound2-dev

2.2.1.2 Configure Marsyas using CMake

1. Navigate to the top-level directory of Marsyas sources. For example:

             cd ~/marsyas
   

2. Create a build directory within, which will contain configuration options and compiled Marsyas libraries and programs. Navigate to the build directory:

             mkdir build
             cd build
   

3. Run CMake, passing it the Marsyas source directory as argument:

             cmake ..
   

CMake should now have generated a number of new files in the build directory, including a file named "Makefile" which allows you to compile Marsyas.

If you would like to use CMake options to enable and disable specific features, please see instructions in Configuring with CMake.

2.2.1.3 Compile Marsyas using 'make'

Still in the build directory, use the 'make' command to compile Marsyas.

     make

Geeky note: If your CPU has multiple cores (it is capable of running multiple threads in parallel), you can shorten the compilation time by running several instances of 'make' in parallel by using the '-j' option followed by the number of instances. The example below runs 3 parallel 'make' instances:

     make -j3

You could also compile Marsyas in Debug mode, which would help developers discover bugs in case you run into troubles when using Marsyas. However, Marsyas will run significantly slower when compiled in Debug mode.

To compile in Debug mode, you need to first use 'cmake' to change a CMake option named CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE, and then run 'make'. Please mind the "." at the end of the first command, to indicate the current directory:

     cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug .
     make -j3

2.2.1.4 Marsyas usage and system-wide installation

After compiling, you should have several Marsyas programs in the build/bin subdirectory and the Marsyas library in the build/lib subdirectory.

For example, assuming that you are in the build directory, you can run the sfplay program to play an uncompressed sound file like this:

     ./bin/sfplay my_sound_file.wav

If you want to make the programs and the library available outside of your build directory, you should use the following command to install all parts of Marsyas to appropriate system locations:

     make install

By default, the above command will install programs and libraries under the /usr/local prefix. You can change that by setting the CMake option CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX to the desired prefix before installation:

     cmake -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=~/marsyas-install .
     make install