How to: Build a debug version of Thunar from XFCE GitHub

Pheeble · Post by **Pheeble** » Fri Jun 26, 2015 5:22 am

As a complete newbie to git and to XFCE development, I had to work out how to build a debug version of Thunar. I couldn't find any step-by-step guide explaining how to achieve this, so I put together my own set of instructions for future reference. I decided to post it here in case anyone else is interested in XFCE development.

Code: Select all

#############################################################################
#                                                                           #
#     Building a debug version of XFCE Thunar from the Git repository       #
#                                                                           #
#                  in Linux Mint 17.1 XFCE x64                              #
#                                                                           #
#                  Tested on 2015-06-26 using                               #
#                  default Mint installation +                              #
#                   sudo apt-get update +                                   #
#                  sudo apt-get dist-upgrade                                #
#                                                                           #
#                                                                           #
#############################################################################


####### Update XFCE via PPA ###############

 # Note: Compilation error occurs unless XFCE is updated

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:xubuntu-dev/xfce-4.12
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade


####### Set up Git ###########

# Sign up for a free account at GitHub: https://github.com

# install git
sudo apt-get install git

# Set your user name in git
git config --global user.name 'Whoever'

# Set your email address from your GitHub account
git config --global user.email 'whoever@nowhere.com'

# Set the editor to use, eg. Geany
git config --global core.editor "geany -imnst"

# Set the diff tool to use, eg. meld
git config --global merge.tool meld

# Enable coloured output in git
git config --global color.ui 'auto'

# Create a general git directory to contain repositories
mkdir $HOME/git_repos

# Go to the git directory
cd $HOME/git_repos

# Grab the thunar git repository
git clone http://git.xfce.org/xfce/thunar

# Go to the local copy of the Thunar repository
cd thunar

# Make up a new git branch name for development purposes
export BRANCH="Whoever_"$(date +"%Y%m%d_%H%M%S")

# Create a new Thunar git branch using the branch name
git branch $BRANCH

# Set the new git branch as the active one
git checkout $BRANCH

# Check that the active git branch is the correct one
git status


######## Install Thunar build dependencies ###############

sudo apt-get install build-essential xfce4-dev-tools automake libtool autoconf intltool libglib2.0-dev libgtk2.0-dev libexo-1-dev libxfce4ui-1-dev xsltproc docbook.xsl


######## Set the build environment variables #########

# Set the installation directory for Thunar, eg. "$HOME/thunar-test"
export PREFIX="$HOME/thunar-test"

# Set the path to the pkgconfig .pc files
export PKG_CONFIG_PATH="/usr/lib/pkgconfig:$PKG_CONFIG_PATH"

# Unset CFLAGS for a debug build
export CFLAGS=""

mkdir $PREFIX


######### Generate a make script ##########################

# Still in the cloned Thunar repository directory, generate a configured 'make' script with debugging enabled
./autogen.sh --prefix=${PREFIX} --enable-debug=full

    # Note: autogen.sh produced this warning:
    #
    #   Please add the files codeset.m4 gettext.m4 glibc21.m4 iconv.m4 isc-posix.m4 lcmessage.m4 progtest.m4
    #   from the /usr/share/aclocal directory to your autoconf macro directory or directly to your aclocal.m4 file.
    #   You will also need config.guess and config.sub, which you can get from ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/config/.
    #
    # A post at http://askubuntu.com/questions/58337/failed-to-generate-a-configuration-file-for-xfce4-xkb-plugin-from-source
    # states: 'You can safely ignore the "Please add..." message. It is benign.'


######## Edit Thunar source files and build Thunar - repeat as required #############

    # Edit the source files as required ... 

# Build the files
make

    # Note: Possible 'make' errors:
    #
    # "/bin/bash: xsltproc: command not found" 
    # This error is caused by an undocumented dependency on package 'xsltproc'. 
    #   Solution: install the package 'xsltproc': 'sudo apt-get install xsltproc'
    #
    # xsltproc -nonet http://docbook.sourceforge.net/release/xsl/current/manpages/docbook.xsl Thunar.xml
    # I/O error : Attempt to load network entity http://docbook.sourceforge.net/release/xsl/current/manpages/docbook.xsl
    # warning: failed to load external entity "http://docbook.sourceforge.net/release/xsl/current/manpages/docbook.xsl"
    # cannot parse http://docbook.sourceforge.net/release/xsl/current/manpages/docbook.xsl
    # This error is caused by xsltproc being run without network access and then failing to download 'docbook.xsl'. (Duh!)
    #   Solution: install the package 'docbook.xsl' so it is available locally: 'sudo apt-get install docbook.xsl'


# Check that make worked
make check

# Install the newly built Thunar
make install

# Go to the directory of the newly installed executable
cd $PREFIX/bin

# Stop any running Thunar process
thunar -q

# Run the newly built executable
./thunar