To build the latest release of OpenEXR, begin by downloading the source from the GitHub Releases page: https://github.com/AcademySoftwareFoundation/openexr/releases.
To build from the latest development version, which may not be stable,
clone the GitHub repo and build from the main
branch:
% git clone https://github.com/AcademySoftwareFoundation/openexr
You can alternatively download the repository tarball file either via
a browser, or on the Linux/macOS via the command line using wget
or curl
:
% curl -L https://github.com/AcademySoftwareFoundation/openexr/tarball/main | tar xv
In the instructions that follow, we will refer to the top-level
directory of the source code tree as $openexr_source_directory
.
Make sure these are installed on your system before building OpenEXR:
- OpenEXR requires CMake version 3.12 or newer
- C++ compiler that supports C++11
- zlib
- Imath (auto fetched by CMake if not found)
The instructions that follow describe building OpenEXR with CMake.
Note that as of OpenEXR 3, the Gnu autoconf bootstrap/configure build system is no longer supported.
To build via CMake, first choose a location for the build directory,
which we will refer to as $build_directory
.
% mkdir $build_directory
% cd $build_directory
% cmake $openexr_source_directory
% make
% make install
Note that the CMake configuration prefers to apply an out-of-tree
build process, since there may be multiple build configurations
(i.e. debug and release), one per folder, all pointing at once source
tree, hence the $build_directory
noted above, referred to in CMake
parlance as the build directory. You can place this directory
wherever you like.
See the CMake Configuration Options section below for the most common
configuration options especially the install directory. Note that with
no arguments, as above, make install
installs the header files in
/usr/local/include
, the object libraries in /usr/local/lib
, and the
executable programs in /usr/local/bin
.
Under Windows, if you are using a command line-based setup, such as
cygwin, you can of course follow the above. For Visual Studio, cmake
generators are "multiple configuration", so you don't even have to set
the build type, although you will most likely need to specify the
install location. Install Directory By default, make install
installs the headers, libraries, and programs into /usr/local
, but you
can specify a local install directory to cmake via the
CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX
variable:
% cmake .. -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=$openexr_install_directory
See the porting guide for details about differences from previous releases and how to address them. Also refer to the porting guide for details about changes to Imath.
The OpenEXR technical documentation at openexr.readthedocs.io is generated via Sphinx with the Breathe extension using information extracted from header comments by Doxygen.
To build the documentation locally from the source headers and
.rst
files, set the CMake option DOCS=ON
. This adds
Doxygen
and Sphinx
CMake targets. Local documentation
generation is off by default.
Building the documentation requires that sphinx, breathe, and doxygen are installed.
Note that the openexr.readthedocs.io
documentation takes the place of the formerly distributed .pdf
documents in the docs
folder, although readthedocs supports
downloading of documentation in pdf format, for those who prefer it
that way.
By default the installed libraries follow a pattern for how they are named. This is done to enable multiple versions of the library to be installed and targeted by different builds depending on the needs of the project. A simple example of this would be to have different versions of the library installed to allow for applications targeting different VFX Platform years to co-exist.
If you are building dynamic libraries, once you have configured, built, and installed the libraries, you should see the following pattern of symlinks and files in the install lib folder:
libOpenEXR.so -> libOpenEXR-3_1.so
libOpenEXR-3_1.so -> libOpenEXR-3_1.so.30
libOpenEXR-3_1.so.30 -> libOpenEXR-3_1.so.30.3.0
libOpenEXR-3_1.so.30.3.0 (the shared object file)
The -3_1
suffix encodes the major and minor version, which can be
configured via the OPENEXR_LIB_SUFFIX
CMake setting. The "30"
corresponds to the so version, or in libtool
terminology the
current shared object version; the "3" denotes the libtool
revision, and the "0" denotes the libtool
age. See the
libtool
documentation for more details.
OpenEXR depends on
Imath. If a
suitable installation of Imath cannot be found, CMake will
automatically download it at configuration time. To link against an
existing installation of Imath, add the Imath directory to the
CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH
setting:
% mkdir $build_directory
% cd $build_directory
% cmake -DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH=$imath_install_directory \
-DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=$openexr_install_destination \
$openexr_source_directory
% cmake --build . --target install --config Release
Alternatively, you can specify the Imath_DIR
variable:
% mkdir $build_directory
% cd $build_directory
% cmake -DImath_DIR=$imath_config_directory \
-DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=$openexr_install_destination \
$openexr_source_directory
% cmake --build . --target install --config Release
Note that Imath_DIR
should point to the directory that includes
the ImathConfig.cmake
file, which is typically the
lib/cmake/Imath
folder of the root install directory where Imath
is installed.
Please see cmake/OpenEXRSetup.cmake
for other customization options.
If you are interested in controlling custom namespace declarations or
similar options, you are encouraged to look at the CMakeLists.txt
infrastructure. The settings can be found in
cmake/OpenEXRSetup.cmake
. As per usual, these settings can also be
seen and/or edited using any of the various gui editors for working
with cmake such as ccmake
, cmake-gui
, as well as some of the
IDEs in common use.
When trying to either cross-compile for a different platform, or for tasks such as specifying a compiler set to match the VFX reference platform, cmake provides the idea of a toolchain which may be useful instead of having to remember a chain of configuration options. It also means that platform-specific compiler names and options are out of the main cmake file, providing better isolation.
A toolchain file is simply just a cmake script that sets all the compiler and related flags and is run very early in the configuration step to be able to set all the compiler options and such for the discovery that cmake performs automatically. These options can be set on the command line still if that is clearer, but a theoretical toolchain file for compiling for VFX Platform 2015 is provided in the source tree at cmake/Toolchain-Linux-VFX_Platform15.cmake which will hopefully provide a guide how this might work.
For cross-compiling for additional platforms, there is also an included sample script in cmake/Toolchain-mingw.cmake which shows how cross compiling from Linux for Windows may work. The compiler names and paths may need to be changed for your environment.
More documentation:
- Toolchains: https://cmake.org/cmake/help/v3.12/manual/cmake-toolchains.7.html
- Cross compiling: https://gitlab.kitware.com/cmake/community/wikis/doc/cmake/
The default CMake configuration options are stored in
cmake/OpenEXRSetup.cmake
. To see a complete set of option
variables, run:
% cmake -LAH $openexr_source_directory
You can customize these options three ways:
- Modify the
.cmake
files in place. - Use the UI
cmake-gui
orccmake
. - Specify them as command-line arguments when you invoke cmake.
-
OPENEXR_LIB_SUFFIX
Append the given string to the end of all the OpenEXR libraries. Default is
-<major>_<minor>
version string. Please see the section on library names
-
CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH
The standard CMake path in which to search for dependencies, Imath in particular. A comma-separated path. Add the root directory where Imath is installed.
-
Imath_DIR
The config directory where Imath is installed. An alternative to using
CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH
. Note thatImath_DIR
should be set to the directory that includes theImathConfig.cmake
file, which is typically thelib/cmake/Imath
folder of the root install directory.
-
OPENEXR_IMF_NAMESPACE
Public namespace alias for OpenEXR. Default is
Imf
. -
OPENEXR_INTERNAL_IMF_NAMESPACE
Real namespace for OpenEXR that will end up in compiled symbols. Default is
Imf_<major>_<minor>
. -
OPENEXR_NAMESPACE_CUSTOM
Whether the namespace has been customized (so external users know)
-
IEX_NAMESPACE
Public namespace alias for Iex. Default is
Iex
. -
IEX_INTERNAL_NAMESPACE
Real namespace for Iex that will end up in compiled symbols. Default is
Iex_<major>_<minor>
. -
IEX_NAMESPACE_CUSTOM
Whether the namespace has been customized (so external users know)
-
ILMTHREAD_NAMESPACE
Public namespace alias for IlmThread. Default is
IlmThread
. -
ILMTHREAD_INTERNAL_NAMESPACE
Real namespace for IlmThread that will end up in compiled symbols. Default is
IlmThread_<major>_<minor>
. -
ILMTHREAD_NAMESPACE_CUSTOM
Whether the namespace has been customized (so external users know)
-
BUILD_TESTING
Build the testing tree. Default is
ON
. Note that this causes the test suite to be compiled, but it is not executed. To execute the suite, run "make test". -
OPENEXR_RUN_FUZZ_TESTS
Controls whether to include the fuzz tests (very slow). Default is
OFF
. -
OPENEXR_BUILD_TOOLS
Build and install the binary programs (exrheader, exrinfo, exrmakepreview, etc). Default is
ON
. -
OPENEXR_INSTALL_EXAMPLES
Build and install the example code. Default is
ON
.
See the cmake documentation for more information (https://cmake.org/cmake/help/v3.12/)
-
CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE
For builds when not using a multi-configuration generator. Available values:
Debug
,Release
,RelWithDebInfo
,MinSizeRel
-
BUILD_SHARED_LIBS
This is the primary control whether to build static libraries or shared libraries / dlls (side note: technically a convention, hence not an official
CMAKE_
variable, it is defined within cmake and used everywhere to control this static / shared behavior) -
OPENEXR_CXX_STANDARD
C++ standard to compile against. This obeys the global
CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD
but doesn’t force the global setting to enable sub-project inclusion. Default is14
. -
CMAKE_CXX_COMPILER
The C++ compiler.
-
CMAKE_C_COMPILER
The C compiler.
-
CMAKE_INSTALL_RPATH
For non-standard install locations where you don’t want to have to set
LD_LIBRARY_PATH
to use them -
CMAKE_EXPORT_COMPILE_COMMANDS
Enable/Disable output of compile commands during generation. Default is
OFF
. -
CMAKE_VERBOSE_MAKEFILE
Echo all compile commands during make. Default is
OFF
.
If you have ninja (https://ninja-build.org/) installed, it is faster than make. You can generate ninja files using cmake when doing the initial generation:
% cmake -G “Ninja” ..
If you would like to confirm compile flags, you don’t have to specify the verbose configuration up front, you can instead run
% make VERBOSE=1