Source development

Start with build from source. This page covers rebuilding individual components after that first build.

Rebuild

Use the private dependency environment when rebuilding a component:

python3 scripts/build-private-deps.py --run just dev-mutter
python3 scripts/build-private-deps.py --fix-runtime

Replace dev-mutter with dev-gnome-shell or dev-portal as needed. For the complete runtime, use ./build.sh --no-deps.

Native compositor changes need a fresh session. A config reload does not load rebuilt libraries.

Choose a prefix

Default: ./install, with libraries in lib64.

python3 scripts/build-private-deps.py --prefix /tmp/gnoblin/deps
python3 scripts/build-private-deps.py --prefix /tmp/gnoblin/deps --run \
    env GNOBLIN_PREFIX=/tmp/gnoblin GNOBLIN_LIBDIR=lib just build-source
python3 scripts/build-private-deps.py --prefix /tmp/gnoblin/deps \
    --fix-runtime --runtime-prefix /tmp/gnoblin

GNOBLIN_LIBDIR is relative to the prefix. Use the same prefix for subsequent build and devkit commands. System prefixes /usr and /usr/local are rejected.

Optional components

These are not part of ./build.sh. They need additional upstream development libraries. Build them only when those prerequisites are available:

python3 scripts/build-private-deps.py --run just dev-portal
python3 scripts/build-private-deps.py --fix-runtime

To test the patched portal backend in your test session:

./install/libexec/xdg-desktop-portal-gnome -r

See permission policy before testing remote access.

Verify

For a source build:

just test-session

For a Nix build, use nix flake check and nix build .#gnoblin. See testing for the full suite and hardware verification for login checks.